SAITAMA, Japan — When the United States men’s basketball team gets its cranked up — defense, rebounding, ball movement, three point shooting — there isn’t a team here at the Olympics that can defeat them.
The Americans are so good when they are good, they don’t even have to be good for all 40 minutes. At least not yet.
The US rode a 28-4 run across 8:20 of play that bookended halftime to take control of the semifinals en route to a 97-78 victory over a talented Australian team.
On Saturday morning here, but Friday night in the United States (10:30 p.