You probably know by now that Kevin Durant isn’t playing for Team USA.
They could have used him Sunday, when his absence exposed virtually all of the warts of this American squad.
On the same day ESPN reported that Nike will match Under Armour’s offer of nearly $300 million to Durant, Team USA showed how much it really missed its true alpha dog in an unconvincing 98-77 win over Turkey, which gave every medal contender a blueprint for beating the Americans.
In a rematch of the gold medal game of the 2010 World Cup, Team USA looked its worst since training camp opened in July, when Durant was still part of the team. They trailed 40-35 at halftime and for nearly nine minutes overall as they were completely befuddled by Turkey’s basic 2-3 matchup zone and showed remarkable impatience unbecoming of a supposed prohibitive favorite.
The primary culprits were Stephen Curry and Derrick Rose, who repeatedly hoisted – and missed – the shorter international 3-pointer early in the shot clock, and Kyrie Irving, who overdribbled trying to break down the zone. What had to make Team USA’s play even more infuriating to coach Mike Krzyzewski and his staff was that on the few occasions when they did move the ball from side to side or enter it into the high post, they got a great look.
From there, it was a snowball effect. Turkey wasn’t taking the ball out from under the basket, which meant the U.S. couldn’t set its defense and pressure the ballhandler above the arc. The Americans were lulled to sleep as Turkey remained deliberate on offense, shooting 8-of-12 from the field and repeatedly getting to the line in the second quarter. Team USA started gambling on defense, drawing whistles and complaining to officials.
Here’s all you need to know about Team USA’s showing. On Saturday, they outscored Finland 29-2 in the second quarter. On Sunday, they were outscored by Turkey, 24-19.
“We were buying into what they want us to do,” Team USA forward Kenneth Faried admitted in a halftime interview. Faried was perhaps the only American whose play was entirely above reproach with a team-best 22 points and eight rebounds.
Durant would have fixed a lot of these problems. At 6-10, his perimeter shot cannot be contested. Used as a power forward, he could have been stationed at the elbow to initiate the offense with jumpers, dribble drives and dishes to the bigs in the short corner, which would have shredded Turkey’s zone.
A problem Durant would not have been able to fix was the non-existent defense of Curry, who repeatedly was beaten off the dribble, allowed himself to be screened way too easily and rotates too much in help situations, leaving open shooters. His lack of commitment on that end also created scramble rotations that contributed to the foul trouble encountered by Irving and James Harden.
Anthony Davis was scoreless in the first half, not exactly the sort of performance you want to withstand from your newly anointed alpha dog. He did come alive in the second half, as did Harden. The defense picked up a bit but was nowhere near the level that overwhelmed Finland. Team USA entered the final period with just a 66-60 advantage before running off 10 straight points to finally take control.
The Turks have one NBA player – Pelicans center Omer Asik – and simply don’t have the talent level to sustain their play over 40 minutes against Team USA. They committed 28 turnovers and ultimately caved in to Team USA’s desire to press the tempo. But they did provide a legitimate game plan for the four or five teams that do have the talent to hang with the Americans.
Monday is an off day for the Americans, who have plenty to work on — though they are not practicing.
Here’s a look at the rest of Sunday’s action, starting with Team USA’s group. And if you missed Day 1, you can catch up here.
Group C
Recent Rockets re-signee Cisco Garcia scored nine of his 29 points in the fourth quarter, helping the Dominican Republic (1-1) break open a close game 
and defeat New Zealand, 76-63, in Group C. The coach of the DR is All-Geography Team member Orlando Antigua, whose nickname as a New York prep star was “Bullet Head.” As a teenager, he caught a stray near the left eye that miraculously caused no serious damage but could not be removed. The Tall Blacks are 0-2.
What a difference a day made for Finland, which shook off its 59-point loss to Team USA and got past Ukraine, 81-76, leaving both teams at 1-1. The Finns got 23 points from Shawn Huff, who played college ball at Valparaiso. Former NBA guard Pooh Jeter scored 24 for war-torn Ukraine, which is coached by Mike Fratello.
Group A
Spain crushed overmatched Egypt, 91-54, and looks like the class of the tournament thus far. The hosts got 18 points from Serge Ibaka, 14 from Rudy Fernandez (remember him?) and 12 from Pau Gasol. No one played more than 21 minutes for Spain, which has won its first two games by a combined 67 points, albeit against two of the tournament’s worst teams.
It’s going to be hard to match Team USA’s defensive second quarter against Finland, but Brazil gave it a shot in a 79-50 trampling of Iran. Trailing 18-17 after one period, Brazil held Iran to 2-of-13 shooting while forcing eight turnovers in the second period, opening a 40-24 halftime lead. On Monday, Brazil plays Spain in what should be the juiciest group matchup thus far. Hamed Haddadi, the only player on Iran anyone in America knows, had four points and six turnovers.
France averted a potential sticky situation by edging Serbia, 74-73, in Group A. Spurs forward Boris Diaw tied it with a bucket with 18 seconds left, Suns draft pick Bogdan Bogdanovic committed a turnover, and Joffrey Lauvergne (19 points) drew a highly questionable foul with 1.1 seconds to play, making the first free throw and missing the second. Miroslav Raduljica, recently waived by the Clippers, led the Serbs (1-1) with 21 points.
France lost its opener to Brazil and still must play Spain, so a loss to Serbia would have thrown it into the mix with bottom feeders Iran and Egypt for the group’s final berth in the knockout stage. Now the French can finish 3-2 and possibly avert fourth place – and the ensuing matchup with the Group B winner.
Group B
One day after clobbering Puerto Rico, Argentina appeared to be caught off guard in a 90-85 loss to Croatia, which moved atop the group alongside 
Greece. Pacers forward Luis Scola, who lives for this international stuff, had 30 points, nine rebounds and very little help from his Argentine teammates. The Croats (2-0) got a nice lift from Eurostash Dario Saric of the Sixers (16 and 9) and Paul Pierce replacement Bojan Bogdanovic of the Nets (16 and 7).
Saric also reportedly took a shot to the mouth that cost him six teeth. No word as to whether Sixers GM Sam Hinkie will have him sit out the season.
Greece handled the Philippines, 82-70, as Georgios Printezis scored 25 points. You gotta love FIBA, which allows Nick Calathes to play for the Greens even though he is in the midst of a 20-game NBA suspension for performance-enhancing drugs (Ok, it was Rogaine. But it is a banned substance nonetheless). Andray Blatche, still available as a free agent, is a one-man team for the Philippines (0-2), averaging 24.5 points and 13.0 boards.
In a game that certainly had the attention of Timberwolves coach and GM Flip Saunders, Senegal knocked off Puerto Rico, 82-75. Center Gorgui Dieng, one of six Minnesota players on a rookie contract, had 18 points and 13 boards for Senegal (1-1). Guard J.J. Barea, one of six Minnesota players with potential expiring contracts, had 15 points and four assists for Los Boricuas (0-2).
Group D
The Dragic brothers put on a show in unbeaten Slovenia’s 89-68 dismantling of Mexico, shooting a combined 14-of-16 from the field. Suns star Goran Dragic – perhaps the best player in the tournament not playing for Team USA – had 18 points on 6-of-8 shooting and added six assists. Younger sibling Zoran was even better, going 4-of-4 from 2-point range, 3-point range and the line for 22 points. Gustavo Ayon, still looking for a team either stateside or abroad for next season, scored 23 on 9-of-9 shooting for Mexico (0-2).
Lithuania had seven players score between nine and 12 points in its 75-62 win over Angola (1-1). One of them was Rockets forward Donatas Motiejunas, 
who scored 12 points. Another was Raptors center Jonas Valanciunas, who had 11 and 13 boards. Lithuania plays Slovenia on Thursday in what should be another intriguing group match.
Australia (1-1) evened its record with an 89-55 thumping of Korea (0-2). Spurs center Aron Baynes, still looking for a contract for next season, helped his cause with 13 points and 10 boards. Jazz rookie teenager Dante Exum again was a bit better than his scoreless opener with four points and three assists. Right now, it doesn’t look like Quin Snyder can expect much from the kid this season. The best thing that can be said about Korea is that no one has a boxscore name longer than four letters.
Chris Bernucca is the managing editor of SheridanHoops.com. His column appears every Monday during the season. You can follow him on Twitter.
They should have taken Rose out of the game early. He looks awful. Should have had 3 true Bigs in the game early on, as Team USA has to dominate inside first, and get a nice lead. They should have released the Drummond, when nothing else was working. Let Faried play SF and Cousins at PF. Curry and Irving (have him use up more of the clock). They would have taken control in the 1st half with that lineup.
Not sure it is in France’s interest to finish 3rd in Group A, as Spain, the favourite for first place in their group, likely awaits them in the quarterfinal in that scenario. Much better to finish second (highly unlikely) or fourth, in which case they could avoid Spain till the semi final.
Believe it or not, the lopsided final score-line (21 points) could have and should have been higher. Whenever a team sticks with the United States for a half or so, that becomes the focus, but the reality is this team is built to play 40 minutes of pressure basketball with a 10 player deep roster, and in this 40 minute game, Turkey got blown-out. Case in point: after dominating the second half of the 3rd quarter and the entire 4th, Derrick Rose and the Americans were serenaded with whistles from the fans as, ahead by 26 points, they began running the clock with four minutes remaining. If the United States hadn’t done that, they would have, almost certainly, pushed the lead above 30 by the end of the game.
Also, the notion that the zone defense “exposed” Team USA is ludicrous. If Curry, one of the top shooters in the game, has even a normal performance, the game is totally different in the first half. Those were open threes, and i think that a big part of Turkey’s “big” first half was the luck of catching Team USA on an off-day. Furthermore, your story glosses over the fact that, in the second half of this game, Team USA DID figure out the zone and DID do everything that you describe as necessary to break the zone. Anthony Davis, for example, had 19 second half points.
In conclusion, if this was a one half game, your column would be dead on. But if FIBA basketball were a one half game, than the Slovenia, Brazil and Puerto Rico games would have been different stories as well (not to mention the Spain-Iran game yesterday). As it stands though, the game is 40 minutes long, half-time adjustments happened, and the 2014 version of Team USA figured out the zone on its way to a 6th consecutive blow-out. This is not a game summary, it is a first half summary.
@DedmanLaw Great points all around. Did the USA really show that much of a “weakness” after beating the stuffing out of a team in the second half of a basketball game? To me, this simply showed that the U.S team has the ability to stomp on an opponent at basically any time.
@DedmanLaw agree with all your points. Also, I think USA took some good shots in the first half, they simply were off. Not sure why the article states that Rose “repeatedly” shot three pointers. He shot one in the first half and was wide open. I can’t see how he was the primary culprit. And as for Curry, he was off for a game and a half, and as a shooter he needs to continue shooting to get going, as he did in the second half.