Bam Adebayo on motivation vs. South Sudan in Olympic rematch: 'We're everybody's home run'

Team USA men’s basketball team came out on a mission on Wednesday against South Sudan. Fueled by their near disaster in the exhibition rounds, the Americans were locked in on defense from the start. USA took care of business this time around with a relatively easy 103-86 win. Bam Adebayo had one of his best performances of the 2024 Olympics so far.

He stuffed the stat sheet with 18 points and seven rebounds, leading the team in points. Following the game, Adebayo spoke with NBC’s Mike Tirico.

How was he able to deliver such a special performance on Wednesday?

“Man, crashing the glass hard. Getting open shots. My teammates just making it easy for me. Just being able to make shots. Like I said, I’m not here to get 20 shots up. But when I’m open, shoot it,” Adebayo explained.

USA had an extremely close call with South Sudan in their exhibition match, trailing by one with 20 seconds left. They were saved by LeBron James, who made a game-winning layup with eight seconds left.

How much of that was a motivating factor in terms of how good the Americans looked in the first and second quarters on Wednesday?

“I mean, just coming out here with a lot of energy. We knew they were gonna play hard. We played them before. They played us tough. And, you know, we expected that. I feel like we’re everybody’s home run. So, for us man, it’s just going out there, playing to the best of our ability. We’ve got some of the greatest talents in the world. So, just for us to go out there and compete and execute,” Adebayo finished.

Team USA was dialed in on defense early on and they played some of the best defense we’ve seen from this roster in the 2024 Olympics. In particular, they made sure to make life extremely difficult for Carlik Jones, who carved them up for a triple double in the exhibition match. While Jones still had 18 points and seven assists, he also had four turnovers. South Sudan turned the ball over 19 times, and that was thanks in large part, to some stifling defense in the first half from the Americans. USA had a very balanced scoring effort, which involved six players scoring in double digits on Wednesday.

The win pretty much seals USA’s spot in the knockout stage of the Olympic men’s basketball tournament. Next up, the Americans will face Puerto Rico. That one will be played on Saturday, August 3rd. It will be televised on 11:15 AM EST.