VILLENEUVE-D’ASCQ, France — Halfway to its goal of gold, the U.S. has the No. 1 seed going into the medal round at the Paris Olympics.
And now the real games start.
Anthony Edwards scored 26 points, six players reached double figures for the U.S. and the Americans wrapped up the top spot coming out of group play by rolling past Puerto Rico 104-83 on Saturday.
The Americans — 3-0 in these Olympics, 8-0 so far this summer — will see Brazil in the win-or-go-home quarterfinals in Paris on Tuesday.
Joel Embiid scored 15 points for the U.S. Kevin Durant scored 11 points for the U.S. to get within five of matching Lisa Leslie for the all-time Olympic scoring record for the U.S.; he’s at 483, and Leslie finished her career with 488 in Olympic play.
LeBron James finished with 10 points, eight assists and six rebounds in 18 minutes. Jayson Tatum and Anthony Davis each added 10 for the U.S., which played without Jrue Holiday because of an ankle that he rolled in the Americans’ win over South Sudan on Wednesday.
Jose Alvarado led Puerto Rico (0-3) with 18 points.
It was the first Olympic matchup between the nations since the Athens Games in 2004, when Puerto Rico ran away in the second quarter and went on to embarrass the U.S. 92-73 in what was James’ debut in the tournament.
Little different story this time.
That day in Athens, Puerto Rico won the second quarter 28-7. This time, the U.S. won the second quarter 39-16. Give Puerto Rico credit; a team that came into Saturday knowing it was eliminated from contention took an eight-point lead late in the first quarter and still led 37-36 with 5:45 left in the half.
The rest of the half: U.S. 28, Puerto Rico 8. The run was quick and decisive.
James had all six of his first-half assists during that burst and the Americans took a 64-45 lead into the break. He finished the flurry with a dunk in the final seconds, ran by his 2004 Athens teammate Dwyane Wade — now commentating for NBC, sitting courtside — while yelling something with a big smile and from there the countdown to wrapping up the No. 1 seed was officially on.
As would be expected, really.
It’s been three games, three easy wins for the Americans so far in France: a 26-point opening victory over Serbia, a 17-point win over South Sudan to clinch the top spot in Group C, and then Saturday’s game against Puerto Rico that once it got one-sided it stayed that way.
