PARIS — Look, perspective might be necessary here. Far worse things have happened to people at the Place de la Concorde than losing a basketball game.
Nonetheless, both the U.S. men’s and women’s 3×3 basketball teams have put themselves in a big hole 48 hours into Olympic competition, each falling for the second time in two days.
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Wednesday, the American women, the defending gold medalists from 2021, fell 20-17 to Azerbaijan, a nation playing 3×3 for the first time in the Summer Games. The Azerbaijanis were not your typical first-time squad, though; their star is Tiffany Hayes, the Las Vegas Aces guard and two-time national champion at UConn, who became a naturalized Azerbaijan citizen in 2015. Hayes scored the game-winning basket with six seconds left, as a miscommunication on defense by the U.S. team gave her an uncontested layup to put Azerbaijan up by a point.
U.S. guard Hailey Van Lith tried a 2-point shot on the Americans’ next possession, but it was an air ball, and the Azerbaijanis put the game away at the foul line.
An hour later, the U.S. men fell 19-17 to Poland, which didn’t have any ringers on its team but made several key 2-pointers. In the half-court 3×3 game, shots outside the line count for two points, not three, and shots inside the line count for one point, not two. Meanwhile, the U.S. men were 2 of 15 on 2s. The Poles also used their size advantage inside to good effect.
So, in their respective eight-team fields, both the U.S. men and women are on the bottom looking up. The top two teams in each bracket automatically qualify for the semifinals, with the next four teams taking part in play-in rounds to qualify for the final two spots.
“We’ve gotta play tomorrow; there’s no time to dwell on this,” U.S. men’s veteran Kareem Maddox said. “If I had to guess, 5-2 gets you to the medal round; 4-3 might. But we don’t want to worry about that. We want to worry about how to get to 5-2 and get to the next round. That’s what we’re worried about, not two games which we’re going to call adjustment games. You don’t have much time to adjust in this game.”
In addition, guard Jimmer Fredette endured what appeared to be an injury to his left leg or thigh during the game, though he played through it down the stretch. There was no update on his status for Thursday’s game against Lithuania.
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The crowd at La Concorde definitely rooted for the Azerbaijan women, in the raucous atmosphere of 3×3, with music playing throughout (a decidedly 1980s-’90s feel, with “Last Night a DJ Saved My Life” and “Still D.R.E.” on the playlist), and the in-crowd announcers switching nonstop between English and French.
“That’s what you call a French revolution!” one of them said as France’s Laetitia Guapo spun to the basket in France’s game with Spain. And the French fans were loud and singing, as ever, about Les Bleus. The French women lost 17-12 to Spain; the French men beat Lithuania in a 21-20 thriller.
The muggy weather Wednesday night didn’t take as much out of the American women as the 95-plus-degree temperatures Tuesday afternoon did, leaving the U.S. squad wilted in a loss to Germany. Wednesday, the Americans got a lot of good looks but missed at key moments. And Hayes, with 11 points and seven rebounds, was always there for her team when needed.
BIG DUB!!@tiphayes3 and Azerbaijan 3×3 secure the 20-17 W over USA!
11 PTS / 7 REB / 8-12 FG pic.twitter.com/LXpRvWTnRm
— Las Vegas Aces (@LVAces) July 31, 2024
“It’s the biggest stage that you can play on, and you don’t want to disappoint your fans. We have to be better,” said U.S. forward Rhyne Howard, the Atlanta Dream star and first pick in the 2022 WNBA draft.
The U.S. team was set back badly when L.A. Sparks rookie Cameron Brink tore her ACL and had to withdraw. Veteran Dearica Hamby came back to 3×3, after helping Team USA win the AmeriCup gold medal last year. And Hamby played well Wednesday, teaming with Cierra Burdick on a breathtaking one-tap layup. But the team’s chemistry has been lacking at key moments, like when Hayes got loose at the worst possible time for the blow-by basket.
“I knew there might be some bumps at the beginning, but I definitely didn’t think we’d be 0-2,” Van Lith said. “But it’s all about how we respond now. It’s still a long tournament. If we have to go the hard way, that’s what we have to do. … When it comes to making or missing shots, if we lose a game by missing shots, I guess we’ll take that. But we’re missing shots and we’re not playing hard at times. So that’s what we have to fix.”
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The 3×3 teams will always be compared unfairly with the more glamorous and well-known 5×5 teams that are playing in Lille. But the U.S.’s 3×3 players actually got to experience some of the Olympic ethos before the competition began. They worked out and stayed at the U.S. High Performance Center in Eaubonne, about 45 minutes northwest of Paris, before the Games began. They were able to watch Sha’Carri Richardson and Noah Lyles getting in their last-minute workouts. And they were convinced they’d be back on top in this discipline, as the men were in 2019 when they won the World Cup, and the women were at the 2020 Summer Games in Tokyo.
“I think we think we’re the best team in the world, and like I said, it just comes down to making shots,” said guard Canyon Barry, who was on that ’19 World Cup men’s team with Maddox. “And we’re going to make them. Soon, I hope.”
(Photo of Tiffany Hayes and Hailey Van Lith: Ezra Shaw / Getty Images)
David Aldridge is a senior columnist for The Athletic. He has worked for nearly 30 years covering the NBA and other sports for Turner, ESPN, and the Washington Post. In 2016, he received the Curt Gowdy Media Award from the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame and the Legacy Award from the National Association of Black Journalists. He lives in Washington, D.C. Follow David on Twitter @davidaldridgedc
