So USA basketball fans woke up Saturday morning looking to enjoy another dominating victory over a lesser international team, but what viewers got instead was a surprisingly competitive game that turned out to be a nail-biter in the final minutes of the game.
Kobe Bryant, LeBron James, Carmelo Anthony and company got more than they wanted—and probably expected—from Lithuania Saturday, going shot-for-shot for most of the game until James decided to take over late in the fourth quarter and help seal another victory for Team USA, who overcame the gritty Lithuanians with a 99-94 victory.
The five-point win came just two days after the USA men’s basketball team rained down threes in London, and won by 83 points.
On Saturday, Lithuania never gave them a chance to run away with the game.
James came to the rescue, scoring nine of his 20 points in the final four minutes of the game.
“You want to get tested,” James said, according to The Associated Press. “The best teams want to be tested. We love the competition. We’ve got some of the greatest competitors in our league, in this world, so you want to have a game where you feel like you were tested, and we had that today.”
No team is invincible, though the Americans sure looked like it when they trounced Nigeria just two days ago.
Team USA was actually trailing by two points with under two minutes left in the game. They went on a 15-4 run to seal the victory and improve their Olympic record to 4-0.
Carmelo Anthony tied James for the team lead with 20 points and Kevin Durant contributed with 16.
