FIBA World Cup: USA Basketball Sticks To Scripts!
By Ronald Agers
Aug 20, 2014; New York, NY, USA; The United States bench reacts during the second half of a game against the Dominican Republic at Madison Square Garden. Mandatory Credit: Brad Penner-USA TODAY Sports
If France didn’t pull of a quarterfinal shocker upsetting FIBA favorites and host team Spain on Wednesday, I would think the USA basketball team might be in trouble.
The only thing is France beat Spain.
You would think that the Americans would look at the Spain upset as a cautionary tale and come out aggressive and sharp.
This is the USA Basketball team. Have you watched these guys throughout the tournament?
Team USA used defense, fast break points and talent to dismiss Lithuania in the second half of the way to a 96-68 victory to punch their ticket to the FIBA World Cup final.
Team USA will wait the winner of the other semifinal game between Serbia and France and face off on Sunday with a chance to repeat as World Champions.
Team USA came out yet again with another sloppy first half that kept a lesser opponent in the game. In the first half, USA suffered with foul trouble to key players Stephen Curry, James Harden and Kenneth Faried. They all had three fouls by the halfway point of the second quarter and Lithuania basically set up camp at the free throw line for most of the first half. However, Lithuania turned the ball over 12 times and shot an anemic 31 percent from the field.
The defense was bad, but the offense was worse. Team USA shot only 33 percent from the field while bricking 12 of 16 shots from the land of three. James Harden scored the same amount of points as I did writing this recap…zero. Klay Thompson had 14 points in the first half to keep things afloat. If you missed the first half of this game, consider yourselves lucky. Team USA led 43-35 at the half.
Then the second half happened.
The Americans came out, flipped the switch and proceeded to put the “Finland” on Lithuania. The United States started the third quarter with an 18-2 run which led to a 33-14 beatdown in the third quarter. Lithuania basically poured fuel on the fire by continuing to turn the ball over and shooting poorly from the field. The United States turned that lack of offensive efficiency on Lithuania’s end into a flying act on their end.
If any player was a symbol of the Team USA turnaround, it was James Harden. After going scoreless in the first half, Harden lit the gym up for 16 points in the third quarter.
Kyrie Irving led Team USA with 18 points. After having a strong first half, Klay Thompson finished with 16 points on an efficient 7-12 shooting off the bench. Stephen Curry overcame foul trouble to finish with 13 points.
This was not a game that showed many positive highlights for Team USA’s big men.
After destroying everyone basically in the FIBA World Cup tournament, Anthony Davis and Kenneth Faried were held in check. Davis finished with eight points, six rebounds and two blocks before fouling out. Faried had nine points and six rebounds, far below what he had been doing all tournament long.
Looking ahead Sunday going into the Gold Medal game, the frontline for Team USA will have to learn to do a better job of controlling their tempers, Anthony Davis and DeMarcus Cousins both fouled out after receiving technical fouls. Pippen Ain’t Easy did a piece on Cousins after he was quoted saying he was a role model. I got a little backlash from that article. Well for the most part, Cousins has kept his anger in check. After catching a chicken wing from Jonas Valanciunas, Cousins looked like he wanted to put him on the late news tonight. After the game he was also seen exchanging pleasantries with players during handshakes. This cannot happen going for the gold medal. The referees have been inconsistent with their calls. They will swallow their whistles trust me. But the American bigs are going to have to adjust.
Ah the Derrick Rose report.
After playing well against Slovenia, Rose’s shot was off in this game. Rose finished with four points on 1-8 shooting with three turnovers in the first half. However, he did make an impact on the defensive end. This is an important step in Derrick Rose’s comeback. There are going to be more nights that Rose does not shoot well. This is basketball, players miss shots. But the fact he got after it on the defensive end shows the growth and understanding that Rose needs going into this NBA season. He has made adjustments on his jumper in practice and it’s only going to be a matter of time before the jumper starts falling.
With Spain getting bounced early, it looks like USA Basketball will get another gold medal for the collection plate. But they need to play better on the frontline in the finals. Plus they need to come out in the first half and dominate and stop waiting for the second half to turn on the switch. As Spain has shown us, sometimes the bill is not paid. Anything can happen.