Steve Kerr: Team USA must raise intensity for Paris Olympics

Team USA’s head coach Steve Kerr has urged his players to raise intensity for the Paris Olympics. The potent American team won all of their five practice matches but they were ran close by South Sudan and Germany. 

USA was on the verge of losing against South Sudan but LeBron James scored the winning three-pointer to help his team escape an upset as they won by 101-100 and then bested Germany by 92-88. Earlier, USA won against Serbia, Australia and Canada.

USA will begin their Olympics campaign against Serbia on Sunday and will want to make a winning start.

“That’s what today is about. It’s the reminder. It’s time. We’re here,” Kerr said. “So it’s got to be 40 minutes of force and attention and focus, and we can’t let teams outplay us effort- and energy-wise like we did the other night against Germany, like we did against South Sudan.”

USA played their practice matches in London but Kerr reckons they lacked energy and they will need to pull up their socks.

“It’s literally six games and, watching the tape, we’re jogging through some possessions,” Kerr said. “We’re not hitting bodies on boxouts. And so it’s time. It’s time to lock in on that.”

Kerr, who has won four NBA titles with Golden State Warriors, said the support staff is helping the players in raising their level.

“We have another level. I think we have another two levels that we can get to, but it’s a collaboration always,” Kerr said. “So we can show the strategic stuff on the tape walk-through. We can show them, ‘Let’s do this, let’s do that. Let’s learn personnel.’ We got to know the shooters, know the non-shooters, all that stuff. So that’s where we can help them. Where they can help themselves is just effort and energy play after play, after play. This is different.”