In their second scrimmage in preparation for the Olympic Games, Team USA lost again, this time to Australia, 91-83.
Team USA had been 54-2 in exhibition games since pros started playing in 1992 and they’ve now lost as many games in the span of three days.
They were just stunned by Nigeria, 90-87, on July 10, their first ever loss to an African nation.
Mills scored 22 points and Joe Ingles chipped in 15 points for the Boomers, while Damian Lillard led Team USA with 22 points.
Team USA has struggled on defense in their scrimmages, but they still have time to sure things up before Tokyo.
Australia, meanwhile, has a talented squad with seven NBA players (Mills, Ingles, Matisse Thybulle, Aron Baynes, Dante Exum, Josh Green and Matthew Dellavedova) that has aspirations of winning their first ever Olympic medal.
“Defense. All defense,” Mills said about what attributed to the Australians’ victory. “We understand for us to be really competitive and achieve our goals, we have to hang our hat on defense. “Especially [against] a team like the U.S. [that can get] out in transition and [make] easy layups and dunks, for us to take away that was pretty impressive for our second game.”
Team USA plays their next scrimmage against Argentina on July 13, while Australia plays Nigeria on the same day.
In the Olympics, Team USA will compete in Group A against Iran, France and Czech Republic.
They begin group play on July 25 against France.
Australia will compete in Group B against Germany, Italy and Nigeria and begin group play on July 25 against Nigeria.
