Deng's Olympic run comes to an end

Luol Deng and the Great Britain basketball squad wrapped up Olympic competition on Monday with a 90-58 victory over China, the country's first Olympic hoops win since 1948. The Brits finished 1-4 and won’t be moving on to the quarterfinals. Through four games, Deng led the Olympics in minutes played at 37.5 per contest. Thanks to the lopsided score against China, Deng logged a relatively meager 24 minutes, finishing with 6 points, 4 assists and 3 rebounds. Overall, Deng no doubt found it tough to be a marked man. As the lone NBA player on the British squad, he also received most of the defensive attention. Deng’s final Olympic stat line is 15.8 points, 6.6 rebounds and 4.6 assists. He shot just 31.4 percent from the field overall (27 for 86) and 20 percent from 3-point range. "Hopefully we showed everyone that we have potential," Deng said Monday, according to The Telegraph UK. “I think the game will be more popular and there will be more attention paid to it. We've come a long way.” Great Britain lost to Spain 79-78 last Thursday. Had the Brits won that game, they could have qualified for the quarterfinals and sent home Group B favorite Spain. No word yet on whether he’ll have left wrist surgery, but Deng is hoping the Olympic team will create more basketball interest in England. “There's a lot of kids out there spending a lot of time not doing anything,” he added. “You never know if by having more facilities and attention to the sport what kids you might interest.”