After suffering a massive upset against France yesterday, the US Basketball team lost another game at FIBA World Cup in China. Serbia defeated the USA in the classification round, 94-89, and pushed the American team to their lowest position in the World Cups so far.
Gregg Popovich’s boys will play against Poland for the 7th place in this tournament, although most of the fans and the experts saw them as the biggest favorite.
A clash against the Serbs wasn’t supposed to be before the finals, according to vas majority of the experts. Serbia was seen as the only side who could endanger Team USA, and it appears that the prognosis about their strength was right. But Nikola Jokic and the rest of his teammates suffered a shock in the quarterfinals against Argentina.
Only they recovered much better than the Americans and inflicted them the second straight loss, and that hasn’t been seen in a long time.
“We’re not here to get moral victories, we’re here to win,” Donovan Mitchell said. “To lose two in a row stings.”
The US team opened the game in the worst possible way, scoring just 7 points while allowing 32. It is one of the most disturbing quarters in the history of the American national basketball, and in those moments, it seemed that a catastrophe is on the way for Popovich’s guys. Sacramento’s Bogdan Bogdanovic opened the match with four consecutive threes, and the Serbs had 8 of 9 from downtown.
But somehow, the USA pulled themselves together and managed to find a solution for the rival’s solid defense. In the second period, they shot 72% from the field, while allowing the opponent just 31%. And in no time the result was thigh. At the halftime, Serbia led 44-40, and many believed that Walker and the rest of the guys might win this one. But it didn’t happen like that.
Serbia continued to control the pace, and even though they had the Americans close behind them, they never panicked, like against Argentina. The defense was the key to the entire match. In the last 10 minutes, Serbia had several excellent reactions on the defensive side of the ball, closing down the paint, and rejecting several American players under the rim.
They reached a 10-point lead, which was cut in the end, but there were no troubles for Aleksandar Djordjevic’s guys to close out this contest.
“The guys went out with a desire to compete, to show that we are a good team despite the tough loss we survived,” said Djordjevic following the event.
Bogdanovic was the man of the match with 28 points and 6 assists. Nikola Jokic scored just 9, while Vladimir Lucic added 15.
For the American team, Harrison Barnes had a team-high with 22 points and 5 boards, Kemba Walker 18, while Khris Middleton dropped 16.
The US team plays the last match of the tournament against Poland on Saturday, and after that closes this painful chapter of its history. After 2005 FIBA Americas this is the first time for one US basketball team to finish one tournament without a medal.
