With around seven minutes left in the first quarter, China Team led 22-15.
Both sides made substitutions, and Yi Jianlian also came off for China Team to rest.
This was when USA Team's greatest advantage became apparent.
Cousins, Klay Thompson, and George, who came off the bench, were all All-Stars.
It did not matter if their starters could not beat you; their bench would come in and keep coming at you.
Other national teams were fortunate to have three or four NBA players. USA Team had twelve, and every player in their rotation was NBA All-Star caliber.
That was what made them truly terrifying.
Relying on their overall bench advantage, along with China Team cooling off offensively, USA Team tied the score at 30 a little over three minutes into the second quarter.
The situation suddenly turned unfavorable for China Team.
This was the typical USA Team style—wave after wave of offense, relentless attacks that left opponents unable to cope.
Facing Keyramut, Durant hit another one of his trademark turnaround jumpers and scored his fifteenth point of the game.
With him and Anthony, their offense was simply unstoppable on the international stage.
Tang Tian raised a hand at Keyramut, signaling for a defensive switch.
To conserve energy, he had not been heavily involved on the defensive end earlier, but he could not afford to hold back now.
As long as they could survive this half, they would have plenty of time to rest during halftime.
On China Team's possession, Tang Tian hit a Fadeaway Jumper while double-teamed, answering Durant right back.
The score was tied once again.
When Durant turned around and saw that Tang Tian had become his defender, he did not even call for the ball.
Being bitten by a snake once and fearing ropes for ten years