BARCELONA — If the gold medal match was being played Sunday, Team USA would not beat Spain. It wouldn’t even be close. But the gold medal game is not this Sunday. It is next Sunday. And a lot can change in a week. So the burden is on coach Mike Krzyzewski: Figure out who is going to give you the best chance to beat the host nation, start shortening up the rotation, and hope that in one week you can achieve what it
BARCELONA — From the betcha didn’t realize category … Guess who is the defending FIBA-Americas champion in tomorrow’s USA-Mexico game in the Round of 16 at the World Cup? That would be the team that is a 37 1/2 point underdog — Mexico. One year ago, Mexico pulled off one of the unlikeliest tournament victories in FIBA history by winning the FIBA-Americas tourney in Caracas, Venezuela, as Gustavo Ayon was named the tournament MVP. It was the first time in 40 years
When you shoot 8-for-11 from the field, as Kenneth Faried did Wednesday in Team USA’s 106-71 victory over the Dominican Republic, and your shooting percentage for the tournament actually goes down … well, that says something about the kind of tournament you are having. Faried is unquestionably the leading candidate to be MVP of the 2014 FIBA World Cup after four games of pool play. The question is whether he will be able to keep it up over Team USA’s next
The debate over whether Derrick Rose should be playing for Team USA is behind us. Clearly he is not yet himself, and clearly he is using the FIBA World Cup to get himself back into playing shape so he has a running start when the Chicago Bulls’ NBA season begins. A big test is coming Tuesday-Wednesday-Thursday as Team USA plays on three consecutive nights. We will have a much bigger body of work to judge him on when those three days
We will spare you too many of the gory details of Team USA’s massacre of Finland. Here’s all you need to know: The Finns were 0-for-17 from the field in the second quarter. If you watched the entire game, congratulations. You have proven yourself worthy of throwing away two perfectly good summertime hours from your Labor Day weekend that could have been spent doing something more enjoyable, like watching paint dry. Day One of the 2014 FIBA World Cup is in the books,
The national colors of Slovenia are red, white and blue, but for some reason they wear green as their national color when playing basketball. And technically, chartreuse is a shade of green. But damn, those were some ugly unis that Goran and Zoran Dragic were sporting. Watching the Americans’ 101-71 victory of Slovenia from the home office (I will be covering the tournament from Spain after pool play ends) gives you a different perspective. For instance, I thought Mark Kestecher and
NEW YORK — Two pieces of news to report after Team USA’s final exhibition game on American soil: They are going to bring only 12 players on the plane tomorrow when they fly to Grand Canary Island, and while they are in the air they will discuss whether Derrick Rose should remain the starting point guard. Four players will be cut Saturday morning, and the educated guess here is that those four will be Gordon Hayward, Kyle Korver, Chandler Parsons and
Derrick Rose expects to play Friday night for Team USA against Puerto Rico, which will end a six-day reprieve from actually playing basketball. He has not taken part in scrimmages at practice since playing 24 minutes in a victory over Brazil last Saturday. Knee soreness and general precautionary reasons are what is keeping Rose sidelined, and should that really be a surprise? He has had surgery on each of his knees overt the past two seasons, and it takes players time