The United States, with a roster made up entirely of NBA players, and Canada, led by All-NBA guard Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, both fell at the World Cup semifinals on Friday, defeated by Germany and Serbia, respectively.
The Germans and Serbians will vie for the gold medal on Sunday, with the loser claiming the silver. Before that game tips off, the U.S. and Canada will battle for bronze.
Although the U.S. entered the tournament – and Friday’s semifinal – as the betting favorites, Germany remains the only undefeated team at the 2023 World Cup. The Germans won their seventh consecutive game, with Bayern Munich guard Andreas Obst (24 points, six assists) and NBA veterans Franz Wagner (22 points, five rebounds), Daniel Theis (21 points, seven rebounds), and Dennis Schröder (17 points, nine assists) leading the way.
The Americans, who were missing Brandon Ingram due to an upper respiratory illness, got 23 points on 10-of-17 shooting from Anthony Edwards and had no problems scoring as a team — they made 38-of-65 shots (58.5%) from the field overall, including 12-of-25 three-pointers, and missed just one of 24 free throw tries.
However, they struggled on defense, giving up 113 points in the 40-minute contest. That’s the most a U.S. team has ever conceded in a World Cup game, breaking the previous record of 110 that was set a few days ago in the second-round loss to Lithuania, per HoopsHype (Twitter link).
Meanwhile, in Friday’s early game, Serbia took a first quarter lead and never looked back, led by another big game from Hawks guard Bogdan Bogdanovic (23 points on 8-of-12 shooting). The Serbians got the ball out of Gilgeous-Alexander’s hands, limiting him to just eight shot attempts (he had 15 points), and controlled the boards, grabbing 33 rebounds to Canada’s 22.
Despite missing key players – such as Maxi Kleber for Germany and, more importantly, Nikola Jokic for Serbia – the two European clubs have looked terrific in the World Cup, clinching 2024 Olympic berths and at least a silver medal.
The Canadians will go home a little disappointed if they can’t claim a medal, but regardless of the result on Sunday, they’ll have their best ever World Cup finish. And earning a spot in the Olympics for the first time since 2000 qualifies as a win from the program.
On the other hand, it’s a second consecutive discouraging World Cup for Team USA, which finished seventh at the 2019 tournament. The Americans won’t end up lower than fourth this time around, but also won’t do better than a bronze medal in an event they were favored to win.
lol
Of course 2 of the teams that been together for years vs teams been together for a month. NO surprising since most of team USA will not be Olympic team players in 2024. Wait until you have the real USA lineup out there.
That didn’t stop Hoops Rumors faithful from overwhelmingly picking the US and Canda to win their semi-final games in their recent poll.
Hoops Rumors should list the “names” of people picking Germany over the USA, so we can see who’s knowledgeable on here and who’s just guessing in their comments.
A poll means what people hope will happen. USA won the first meeting is why people pick them a second time. One 3 pt shot was the difference in the game. So it wasn’t very much knowledgeable but guessing. USA did not dominate over good teams just bad teams.
My bad… I didn’t realize the poll asked “Who Do You HOPE Will Win Between Germany And The United States?” I stand corrected!
Clearly, you picked the US.
For some reason, there were several Americans hoping for a German win!
Why is that?
If you ever taken a college statistics class you would understand why polls are easily manipulated and have 0 scientific usage. I bet if you went to foreign boards most would never have picked USA. I bet in Germany they believed Germans would blow USA off the courts. Just like they thought they would win WW2.
Only college statistics I was worried about were the ones I put up…
Yeah! Let’s do that so no one has fun on this site!
Thank you.
I thought Germany were favourites because they are a much sounder team (and Serbia even more so), with more size and with more good players for the important moments (Obst in particular). Germany’s D toughest, even if this game didn’t really show it. I couldn’t believe the odds for a Germany win, impossible to resist. Now I just need to decide what to use the money for.
So Jaren and Paolo both sucked on defense in this game, and Kessler didn’t even touch the floor. Playing the non-centers as Centers so they can play faster and/or shoot was defensible when we won, but in a two-point loss that was never beyond winning, Kerr not making that adjustment and trying to get an actual Center in there was terrible. Portis played fine, at least.
Also probably didn’t help that Haliburton couldn’t hit the broad side of a barn. 2/7 with 1/5 from 3 and three fouls. Playmaking is always great, but it doesn’t matter when you have a crappy scoring night.
My biggest take is both Reeves and Paolo defense was exposed as poor. I see teams next year going at those players on offense. Reminds me when Poole’s defense was exposed as poor and teams targeted him on offense. Reeves can’t guard faster players.
Depends on the system. He’s never been a PoA defender, the way Kerr used him. But he’s not asked to do so in the Lakers system, so it’s kind of moot unless they can get him on an island. He kind of doesn’t have to be fast because the Lakers D mostly consists of funneling players into their drop or paint coverage, or switching to contest shots, which Reaves is fine at doing.
Paolo’s defense was pretty mid last season, though. He’s not nearly as strong as he first looks. Kerr playing him as a C was always a questionable decision.
I am guessing both will be targeted on offense. They will need to step up their defense. In LA case means AD will need to over compensate on Reeves defender. USA teams seems to have valued talent over what was needed. No real Center hurt them but there was not much to choose from.
Not really. LA’s defense doesn’t value point-of-attack defense like a lot of systems, say the Bucks or Warriors. Instead, the Lakers do things a bit more old-school, where they funnel drivers and cutters into their bigger and more lanky players. Rui, Vanderbilt, AD, and even LeBron were all used that way at points. If a guy gets past Reaves, as long as they point the attacker into the teeth of their defense, the Lakers see that as an acceptable outcome. And Reaves has good contest numbers whenever he does make a play, plus his number of contests was slightly above average for his minutes distribution. I imagine some of his porousness on D in the WC was partially from the lack of familiarity that you specified above. It certainly looked that way where he’d try to direct a guy in some direction but it didn’t matter because there wasn’t any good coverage behind him.
Eon – Your speaking French to arc
He has no idea what defensive scheme are, how they work or why they are relevant
Oh good wait and see how Reeves gets attacked by other teams this year. I will remember you claiming they will not attack him on defense. let me guess you feel lakers are the team to built in the west this year too. Reeves had good defensive players around him in WC. JJ was DPOY so why didn’t Reeves direct them to Haliburton or JJ? That is right because that player was by Reeves.
If I had to guess maybe the 2 weeks of practice they got together
Again , I don’t think you understood a word Eon said to you which is a shame as he’s offering you a free education
I know you are new to basketball so if what I said could be hard for a beginner like you to understand. Eon is claiming they play a set defense not man to man defense but it doesn’t work if you create havoc. Like how it didn’t work with the Nuggets. Watch a little more basketball and you will understand. Don’t give up you will get it.
Jaren and Ingram will not be playing in olympics. They are both all stars but major falling out with the coaching staff.
The U.S. has never given a darn about the World Cup which is why the B team represents in what is viewed over here as a second rate tournament. The rest of the basketball world cares mightily because when it’s Olympics time, the U.S. will bring the varsity squad and dominate.
How many people in the States actually watched this?
They did what they set out to do qualify for the Olympics.
“the U.S. will bring the varsity squad and dominate”
yeah right, that’s why you are the most hated nation in the world, your blind arrogance. You just got buttkicked and it’s not the first time but everytime you lose you make excuses on what ifs.
Americans, here’s your reality check, you’re not the best anymore, mainly because you don’t play team defense anymore, your superstars are way too old and the young ones even though they are talented they do not have cohesion as a team. What just happened is a reflection on today’s NBA game: no defense, just a bunch of highlights and individual accolades. Giving up 2 games 110 or more in 40 mins is just embarassing
Because of injuries the best NBA players were not playing for US or other teams. No big allstar is playing unless it means a gold medal. USA was not the only team without their best players. When its $200 million contract or play for your national team in a B level competition most stars stay home.
Some days ago: “you are crazy if you think anyone is going to beat us. Even if it’s a B team we are going to cruise to gold”
Two losses later: “yeah, but this is a B team, you know? And anyway, who cares”.
??? I seen most people complaining about the team not saying nobody could beat them. Stop pretending somebody is claiming they were unbeatable when they lost 2 games.
Yo to me this might be usa C team possibly D . No real super stars. Edwards is top talent, Brunson is decent. The rest not much to write home about. When you get beat by the likes of Theis and Schroeder, basic nba scrubs, it tells the story.
JJJ just won DPOY, Paolo just won RotY in a landslide, Bridges is a DPOY finalist, All-Defensive selection, and a guy who averaged 26 ppg on good efficiency last season as the focal point of an offense, and Ingram is an All-Star.
And what is your A-team?? Lebron, Kyrie, Dame,Westbrick,Harden,Curry,Durant,AD,Kawhi?? They are all old af, injury prone and most important none of them play defense anymore on a daily basis (except AD). Curry is the only one from that group that will make a true difference. You can only add Tatum. Booker and a couple more good ones to the current team and you still be favorites but not for a wide margin. Don’t forget that Serbia is in the Finals WITHOUT the best player in the world aka Jokic. Fiba is not about Superstars is about solid, united, cohesive TEAMS. Argentina eliminated Serbia last World Cup WITH Jokic and they are not even playing in this one and that happened because Serbia was a mess that time as a team, way different of this WC.
Yep, the typical American sore loser attitude that the world keeps laughing at.
“Everybody but us brought their best players!”
“They’ve been playing together for ages, unlike us!”
“We only sent the B team, our best would destroy everybody!”
“The only goal was the Olympics, where we’ll dominate again!”
“We never cared about this stupid little tournament anyway!”
“If we took soccer (a.k.a. football) seriously, the U.S. would win every FIFA World Cup!” (always good for a chuckle)
I hope they never change and keep entertaining us with their tears every time their bubble of imaginary exceptionalism bursts.
That last one is a take only idiots and drunk people actually believe. Absolutely nobody actually thinks that.
Noticed how Waldfee has never been here before. Just shows up to rub it in that US loss. That is what you call a bandwagon fan.
I’ve personally heard that statement regarding football domination ad nauseam from American friends and acquaintances. During the 1994 FIFA World Cup it was actually the American media and their pundits who peddled the prediction that within 20 years, i.e. by 2014, the U.S. would completely dominate world football.
Although you’re correct, megalomaniacs are idiots.
Apparently you need better taste in friends, lol. As an association football fan, nobody who knows anything about anything believes that in 2023. Twenty years ago? Maybe. America as a whole was kind of high for most of the early 90’s.
Also, 90’s sports pundits were all stupid regardless of what country they were from. If you’re basing your assessment of current Americans on those people, no wonder you don’t think much of us.
Where do you see sore losers? Nobody is here saying US should have won. Seems more like you are the sore winner trying to rub it in everyone’s face that Germany beat US by 2 points. Entertaining is people like you that ONLY show up to rub a loss into other fans instead of being a real human.
Bravo.
For those who do not believe to waldfee’s words you have “when it’s Olympics time, the U.S. will bring the varsity squad and dominate.” That idiocy was written by WhoGotDaProps who keeps ranting about it on another comment below
Whether the world likes it or not, the U.S. doesn’t care about winning the World Cup. As ARC 2 pointed out, the U.S. only wants to qualify for the Olympics, which could be accomplished with a lesser team.
Hey we got the USA-Canada matchup we always wanted right guys?
USA basketball doesn’t have a stuctural problem. The best American NBA players are almost all in the system. That the best of them (veterans) would prefer to participate only in the Olympics, not the FIBA World Cup, is a tension that will always be there. Neither the A nor B teams play in the Americas Cup in those summers.
As for 2023 and this result, people need to understand that it’s a single elimination tournament once you get to the knockout round. Not anyone can win, but anyone can lose. E.g., NCAA tournament. That said, I would like greater participation in FIBA. Also, for the higher ups to rethink the coaching staffs. The NBA-ish approach to preparing the team was noticable and disturbing from the start.
All great points, but the U.S. will continue to turn its nose up at FIBA because the world’s best players come to the NBA to play. They represent their countries once every couple of years in a tournament and then fly back to the states for big paychecks.
It would be a waste of U.S. resources to care about FIBA. Basketball is a multi-cultural game, but will always be dominated by Black American Men.
NBA teams and stars are more worried about getting hurt than winning the WC. When it means $200 million contract many stars say pass until its the Olympics. Even Jokic didn’t play because of injury concerns and he could dominate for Serbia.
“Black American Men” I knew this idiot has to put race above all, Jokic says hi. You do not dominate nobody anymore, get your reality check
I am far from a U.S. apologist but it is a statistical fact that black american men dominate the league: 73% is the lowest estimate. Just look at the darn rosters.
None of it is to put down Euro players like Jokic, Luka, Giannis.
Kerr and his small ball… GSW need to wake up and see that they need a big man
So much for the conspiracy theory put forth by some Mavs fans that the refs were dead set against Luka to guarantee a US-Canada final lol. They never learn.
We will lose in the olympics also