MELBOURNE, Australia — With his team playing on a raised basketball court in a stadium normally used for soccer and cricket, U.S. coach Gregg Popovich said he felt like he was on a movie set.
“I kept looking behind me because I knew I was going to fall off the stage,” he said.
But once the game started, Popovich thought it all seemed normal. And if it had been a movie, Popovich surely would have liked the ending.
Kemba Walker scored 23 points, Myles Turner added 15 points and 14 rebounds, and the U.S. topped Australia 102-86 on Thursday before a crowd of 51,218—billed as the largest crowd ever to watch a basketball game in Australia.