Melo burnishes Team USA legacy with epic performance vs. Australia

To subscribe to breaking news alerts and scoring updates for Rio Basketball, click the star in the top-right corner of theScore app.

Given the talent disparity between themselves and the rest of the field, the U.S. men's national team could be forgiven for feeling it wouldn't face much resistance on its way to a third straight gold medal in Rio. A scrappy, physical, and inspired Australian team disabused them of that notion Wednesday night.

The Boomers gave Team USA its first test of the 2016 Olympics, and for much of the game, the U.S. didn't seem at all prepared for it. Australia moved the ball beautifully and engineered great looks, shredded the Americans on the low block, and choked off the middle of the floor at the defensive end. The U.S. found themselves trailing by five at the half, having allowed their opponents to shoot 68 percent. They retook the lead in the third quarter, but Australia snatched it right back early in the fourth.

That's when Team USA's all-time leading Olympic scorer bailed them out. Carmelo Anthony had surpassed both David Robinson and LeBron James in the first quarter to earn that distinction, but the game would become memorable for far more than just that milestone. The game, fittingly, would become another sparkly jewel in Anthony's national-team crown.

On a night in which Kevin Durant couldn't get anything going, in which the starters couldn't get stops and the bench couldn't score, Anthony dragged his team across the finish line with an incredible shooting performance that extended Team USA's winning streak to 71 games. Each time they appeared to be in trouble, he came through with another clutch bucket.

After the Boomers took a two-point lead in the final frame, Anthony promptly hit an and-1 layup, followed by back-to-back threes, and the Americans never trailed again. All told, he shot 9-of-15 from 3-point range on his way to a game-high 31 points, with 14 coming in the fourth quarter. He chipped in eight rebounds and two steals for good measure, all without turning the ball over once.

It's tough to stand out in a sea of superstars, but in his 12 years with the national team, Anthony has left an indelible mark on USA Basketball. He was there for the bad times (the bitter bronze medal in 2004), he was part of the Redeem Team that washed out that bad taste with a gold in 2008, and he returned to do it again in 2012. In between, he's competed in just about every FIBA competition in which he's been physically able.

This time around, his longtime national teammates aren't there with him. No LeBron, no Kobe, no Wade, no Chris Paul. Anthony is the last one standing, and the first player in the history of the men's program to compete in four Olympics. He's become the consummate Team USAer.

Wednesday night was another example of how much he relishes that role. Anthony's NBA legacy is complicated. Unlike some of his 2003 draft cohorts, he doesn't have the hardware to help stake his claim as one of the game's all-time greats. His numbers paint him unquestionably as one of his generation's best, but he's been on plenty of lousy teams, has never made The Finals, never cracked an All-NBA first team or an All-Defensive team, and only twice finished top 10 in MVP voting.

But he has this. This incredible body of work in international competition.

It's generally understood in the basketball world that Olympic achievement isn't worth as much as NBA achievement, at least for American players. Which, given Team USA's advantage over the rest of the world, is understandable. But taken as a whole, Anthony's storied national-team career should and will make up a big portion of his legacy as a basketball player.

Maybe the U.S. still would've won those gold medals without him. They wouldn't have won Wednesday's game, though.