SAITAMA, Japan (AP) — The U.S. women’s basketball team has not looked sharp in its first two wins at the Tokyo Games.
Five-time Olympian Sue Bird attributes the pedestrian performances to the lack of practice time with so many new faces on the squad, and just that the rest of the world is catching up to the Americans.
“This tournament more than ever feels like a combination of things,” Bird said. “I’m never not going to give credit to other countries for putting out a great product. There’s so much talent. I think this tournament for us is unique that we have six newcomers and you can’t rush chemistry. … We’re still trying to figure it out.”
The U.S. beat Japan 86-69 on Friday, three days beating Nigeria by nine in the opener. That was the first time a team had come within single digits of the Americans in the Olympics since 2004. While the U.S. has now won 51 consecutive games dating back to the bronze medal game in the 1992 Olympics, the 13-point average margin of victory in the first two games in Japan is far below that of the previous six Olympics when they would run through teams.
“I feel like we’ve been telling you guys for years that we’re making it look easy, something that’s really hard,” Bird said Friday. “Now what you’re seeing is, we told you so, it is hard. That’s not to say we’re not headed in the right direction.”
A’ja Wilson scored 20 points and Breanna Stewart added 15 to lead the…
