In Final Game Before Olympics, Team USA Has Hugs for Craig Sager and an Apology for Vanessa Carlton

Team USA finished their pre-Olympics exhibition schedule Monday night with a nice, tidy 110-66 win over Nigeria in Houston. If you want to be a Gloomy Gus, you can point out that they only beat Nigeria by 44 points, whereas the 2012 squad won by 83 points. Still, the current squad, who rested Paul George and only played Kyrie Irving for three minutes, looks ready to run roughshod through the field in Rio after winning five games by an average of 43 points.

If anything, the star of Monday's game was sitting in the stands. Legendary sideline reporter Craig Sager, who will be forced to sit out the Olympics due to his ongoing battle with leukemia, visited the players after the game in an emotional moment for everyone involved.

Sager had been hoping to cover his fifth straight Olympics, but was forced to step down in order to receive a third bone marrow transplant. He has been receiving treatment only a few miles from Houston's Toyota Center, and decided to stop by and wish everybody good luck. That's one tough hombre.

In lighter news, Carmelo Anthony went out of his way to finally bury the hatchet with singer-songwriter Vanessa Carlton after his grumpy reaction to the team's "A Thousand Miles" singalong went viral.

Carmelo Anthony talking about the Jimmy Butler's playlist/Vanessa Carlton angry look he gave. pic.twitter.com/uxatyqWMLe
— ⓂarcusD (@_MarcusD_) August 2, 2016

"I actually like that song, though…I love the movie White Chicks." Seriously, Melo…White Chicks? Still, he did apologize.

Anthony did lead the Americans with 19 points before burying the hatchet with Vanessa Carlton, but he missed all six of his three-point attempts. This comes four years after he torched Nigeria for an Olympic-record 10 threes in only 14 minutes of action. Perhaps Melo was worried that carrying a Carlton beef into the Olympics could affect his three-point stroke. You do not want to piss off Vanessa Carlton leading up to a major tournament; it's one of the oldest rules in sports.

A now-properly inspired Team USA heads off to Rio. They open the tournament Saturday against China, the same team they beat twice last week. Good luck, rest of the world.