Former Team USA coach Gregg Popovich used to talk about “appropriate fear,” which is what current coach Steve Kerr said his team should be feeling after losing to Lithuania on Sunday, writes Tim Reynolds of The Associated Press. After going unbeaten through exhibition play and the first four games of the tournament, the Americans now understand they’re not invincible as they enter the quarterfinals.
“It makes it real,” Austin Reaves said. “Obviously, now, it’s (win) or go home. We see the reactions. We obviously know that everybody wants to beat us in particular. We see the joy that they get from that. That taste in your mouth, it don’t feel good.”
Although the U.S. remains favored to win the tournament, it will have to play significantly better for that to happen. Sunday’s loss came after a close call Friday against Montenegro in which Team USA had to stage a late rally to pull out a victory.
Reynolds notes that Kerr has been through this experience twice before as a member of Popovich’s staff. The U.S. dropped its first game against France in the last Olympics, but didn’t lose again on the way to a gold medal. In the 2019 World Cup, the team lost in the quarterfinals and wound up finishing seventh.
“Every player that plays for USA Basketball, they have to recognize what they’re up against and it’s not enough for us to just tell them. They’ve got to feel it,” Kerr said. “I think they’ve felt it in the last couple games.”
There’s more on Team USA:
- Tuesday’s matchup with Italy will be especially significant for Paolo Banchero, Reynolds adds. With an Italian father and an American mother, Banchero had a choice of representing either nation, but he chose the U.S. because that’s who his mom once played for. “I’ll treat it like any other game,” he said.
- Jalen Brunson is accepting blame for the troubling pattern of slow starts, per Aris Barkas of Eurohoops. Lithuania dominated the early part of Sunday’s contest, building a 31-12 lead after one quarter. “They executed their game plan and we just started too slow. We played way better in the second half and we waited too long to come to play,” Brunson said. “That’s on me, I have to come ready to play, I have to have everyone else ready to play. Respect to them, they played great.”
- Mikal Bridges vows that the U.S. squad will be more focused for the rest of the tournament, Barkas adds in a separate story. “We just have to be ready for the next one, add more fuel to the fire,” he said. “We are not getting sent home. We just have to keep playing with our talent, we have to keep our guys out there.”
It should be noted that media members repeatedly asked Kerr and US players if they were preparing for this game. Kerr brushed it off early and before the Montenegro game I believe Edwards said they would beat them. It doesn’t seem like they had appropriate fear.
Foul trouble is why they lost. 2 players fouled out with less then 15 minutes. jackson needs to play smarter and Reeves needs to improve his defense. Watching the game they were trying to get Edwards the ball too much. All the players need to score.
Bigs staying out of foul trouble, consistently from the 3-point line, poor defense guarding the 3, and a massive rebounding discrepancy are the reasons why Team USA got their tails handed to them.
If they don’t correct their mistakes, adjust, and execute better it’ll happen again.
Also, when they play a team that has alot more size than them they’re going to have to figure out a proper plan. Either they add more size to their rotation to defend against that size, or they play more to their strengths and use their speed and athleticism. One or the other, or some combination of both, Kerr has to pick a strategy and go with it.