Joel Embiid has been a fixture in the starting lineup for Team USA all summer but did not play in their group-stage game against South Sudan. The US still won, 103-86, and advanced to the knockout rounds, but head coach Steve Kerr’s decision to bench Embiid left fans and analysts puzzled.
Kerr explained his reasoning afterward: “This is the fastest team in the tournament we’re going to play. We wanted to match up. They made 14 threes against us in London. The whole game today was about switching and staying in front of people,” he said.
His tactical shift came as a response to South Sudan’s previous dynamic challenges, which had troubled the USA team in a nail-biting 101-100 victory in London that nearly resulted in a loss until LeBron James led a fourth-quarter rally.
Embiid Mixed London Performance
Interestingly enough, one of Embiid’s better performances of the tournament came during that London game, where he scored 14 points on 5-6 shooting while grabbing seven rebounds. But defensively, he looked vulnerable as South Sudan exploited their speed, something Bam Adebayo and Anthony Davis did better than him during that contest.
In Saturday night’s game against South Sudan, Davis replaced Embiid as a starter (8 points/7 rebounds), while Adebayo came off the bench and led all scorers with 18 points. Kevin Durant praised this sort of commitment to team success over individual playtime after scoring just three points himself on 1-4 shooting against South Sudan: “Last game we had an all-NBA guy not play any minutes tonight we had an MVP not play any minutes,” Durant said, “They didn’t complain we had guys who stepped up and filled those roles perfectly”.
While some may criticize Kerr’s rotations given that they haven’t worked out perfectly every time around it sure seems like they’ve been worth it so far through these first two games alone, including one blowout win over Puerto Rico followed by another close call against Australia there hasn’t been too much drop off no matter who is on court at any given moment.
