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Team USA vs. Team Brazil final score: Nene has a good game, but the Americans prevail

The result isn't unexpected. But it is nice to see Nene play well when he was on the floor.

By Albert Lee
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Nene scored 11 points for Team Brazil, but it was not enough as Team USA's talent came through in the end to win the game 95-78 in Chicago.

The deciding run for this game happened in the fourth quarter as the USA turned a slim 68-63 lead into an 80-65 game that made this friendly a blowout in the first few minutes of the period. First, Anthony Davis made a really gallant dive to save a loose ball. He then made a nice alley oop dunk and then a jump shot  which made it clear that the Americans weren't losing this game. Davis ended up with 20 points, 7 rebounds and 4 blocks.

In addition, Derrick Rose received the most applause among all the players. Not a surprise since he plays for the Chicago Bulls obviously. However, Rose had his share of highlights as he continues to shake off the rust of his last two two injury-plagued NBA season. One of Rose's highlight plays was a buzzer beating layup to close out the second quarter where Team USA led, 45-37. He also made a nice crossover and layup with just over three minutes left in the third quarter.

Finally, what were some of Nene's highlights?

First, he was emphatically booed upon entering the arena, because, he beasted Joakim Noah in the playoffs:

In the first half, Nene scored 8 points on 3-of-4 shooting. He had some really nice buckets, including this shot after a nice pass:

Here's a classic and-one where he looks like he's about to dunk it, but he lays it up while getting fouled. Then of course, he misses the foul shot:

I don't know why Nene doesn't dunk it more often, but when he does, it looks really emphatic:

Overall, Team USA is still a work in progress. It showed because Team Brazil showed more solid ball movement all-around despite the fact that they had less overall talent. Hopefully, they continue to improve in that area over the next couple weeks before facing Finland on August 30 when the games start counting.

Update at 12:45 a.m.: Nene has a postgame video interview with Monumental Network. Embed is above, or click here.