Group USA hits historic low at FIBA World Cup

DONGGUAN, China — Generally the worst insult may be apathy.

Wednesday night time, when France beat Group USA, some French gamers had tears of their eyes and star Rudy Gobert mentioned he’d fulfilled a lifelong dream. Thursday night time, when Serbia jumped out to a 25-point lead within the first quarter and went on to beat the Individuals 94-89 for the primary time, avenging a 30-point loss within the Olympic gold-medal sport in 2016, there was … nothing.

No emotion. The Serbian gamers simply walked off the ground.

2 Associated

It is true the sport had no materials stakes. Group USA had already certified for the Olympics and Serbia could not qualify and was simply taking part in for delight. However when Australia beat Group USA in a pleasant final month in Melbourne, the victors celebrated it as one of many nice achievements within the nation’s basketball historical past.

Nikola Jokic, the primary workforce All-NBA heart the USA was fretting about dealing with for weeks, form of went via the sport at medium velocity. He scored 9 factors and had seven assists, however Serbia did not want him to be nice.

“It goes within the books,” mentioned Sacramento Kings guard Bogdan Bogdanovic, who crushed Group USA with 28 factors. “But it surely’s simply one other sport.”

Man.

The total report is after falling behind by 25, the U.S. battled again with spirit. Gregg Popovich saved teaching, deploying completely different lineups and making an attempt various things. Khris Middleton and Myles Turner led a significant comeback. Harrison Barnes had his finest sport of the World Cup with 22 factors. Kemba Walker had 18 factors regardless of a bothersome neck damage.

However …

“We’re not right here to get ethical victories, we’re right here to win,” Donovan Mitchell mentioned. “To lose two in a row stings.”

Serbia’s Bogdan Bogdanovic made seven 3s towards Group USA on the FIBA World Cup. Jesse D. Garrabrant/NBAE by way of Getty Photos

Group USA will play for seventh place Saturday in Beijing. It is going to be the worst end in a World Cup for the nation — and that positioning might be about proper. That is proper the place the Individuals belong on this occasion. Had they pulled off the win over France, they doubtless did not have the horsepower to win two extra.

FIBA’s promotion of Friday’s World Cup semifinals got here with the tagline: “The throne is empty.” Let’s translate that: The king is lifeless. Since leaving for Australia to play a three-game exhibition tour, this group is 7-Three. Had Turkey not botched a number of probabilities to beat them final week, Group USA could be 6-Four.

It is onerous to guage this workforce. They’ve certainly confirmed character, they have not taken shortcuts. Their depth to start out video games may’ve been higher. And it was curious that Popovich did not maintain a full follow for almost two weeks regardless of numerous gamers combating capturing; the additional work would possibly’ve paid off. They by no means purchased into the ball-movement offense Popovich tried to put in in coaching camp and it made them simpler to protect. However truthfully, these are nitpicks.

This workforce did not underachieve, and that’s sobering. Whether or not it is a name to motion to extra proficient American gamers stays to be seen. However that is clearly step one. Perhaps Popovich should do some extra recruiting over the following 10 months. Perhaps Jerry Colangelo, who put the workforce along with different USA Basketball executives, wants to judge course of. However they’d do this anyway, even when they’d received a medal. It isn’t an indictment.

Taking a look at this pretty, it is a true accomplishment they received the Olympic berth and did not power taking part in in a sequence of qualifying video games subsequent summer season. At this level, who is aware of what would occur there.

They have been all the way down to 10 gamers Thursday as a result of Jayson Tatum (ankle) and Marcus Good (leg accidents) have been out. Shedding Tatum was a killer. At his dimension and the way in which Popovich wished to play, with wings shifting down and guarding opposing bigs, Tatum was an important participant. There simply wasn’t spare expertise.

Watch Group USA tackle Poland on the FIBA World Cup in China.
ESPN+ on Saturday at Four a.m. ET

Brook Lopez, a high quality participant for the Milwaukee Bucks, hasn’t made a shot all event and was rendered subsequent to unuseable. Mason Plumlee has a gold medal and is a superb man to have across the workforce, however he is an NBA backup taking part in towards the man forward of him, Jokic, on the Denver Nuggets’ roster. It was only a powerful ask.

Within the locker room after the sport, the Individuals checked out one another and realized there may be loads of work to do with the nationwide workforce going ahead. And lots of of them may not be requested again to do it.

Say no matter you need about this group, they’ve had their eyes extensive open this whole time.Their understanding of the state of affairs, just like the Serbs’ collective indifference, simply mentioned all of it.

“For a few of us, probably all of us, Saturday would be the final probability for us to put on a Group USA jersey,” Barnes mentioned. “We’ve got to savor that chance.”