A’ja Wilson, Breanna Stewart and Brittney Griner dominated the paint and helped the U.S. win its Olympic opener as the Americans chase an unprecedented eighth straight gold medal.
Wilson had 24 points, 13 rebounds and 4 blocked shots to help the U.S. beat Japan 102-76 on Monday night.
“Points in the paint and controlling the boards are going to be huge for us moving forward,” Wilson said. “So if we can continue that, I feel like we’re in good shape.”
Stewart scored 22 points and the Americans now have a 56-game Olympic winning streak that dates to the 1992 Barcelona Games.
The U.S. also beat Japan in the final at the Tokyo Olympics three years ago for its seventh straight gold medal.
Now Monday’s victory tipped off the run to keep that streak going.
“We played this team for a gold medal, you know, not too long ago. And the way they play is unorthodox. They shoot a lot of threes. They’re fast. They make you play in a different style,” said Diana Taurasi, who is trying to win an unprecedented sixth gold medal. “And I think you saw those different moments where we struggled a little bit, and then we got used to it.”
Stewart, who is playing in her third Olympics, said there were some nerves before the game.
“It was great to get this first win under our belt. A team like Japan is a dangerous team if you really let them get going and us to just kind of build that trust on the fly I think is really important,” Stewart said. “And now we kind of know the tone and the standard of, you know, what we’re going to do game in and game out.”
Japan, which was severely undersized against the U.S., used its frenetic style of shooting 3s off drives to the basket to try and keep the game close.
It worked for about 17 minutes as Japan only trailed 37-32 with 3:01 left before the half.
The U.S. then scored 13 of the final 19 points before break, including a three-point play by Wilson with 8.2 seconds left to open up a double-digit lead.
The Americans, who next play on Thursday against Belgium, put the game away in the third quarter. Chelsea Gray had nifty passes to Wilson for easy scores and the U.S. was off and running. Japan never threatened.
