For decades, USA Basketball’s strategy has been to use its top sport to run away from whoever they’re playing. No one wanted to meet the Americans.
Germany did just that on Friday, knocking Team USA out of the World Cup.
Germany played faster than any team against the U.S., exposing the Americans’ defense with space, plus forced turnovers they could use, all leading to big nights from Andreas Obst (24 points) and the Magic. Franz Wagner (22). The result was a 111-113 victory for Germany, which was the biggest victory
The victory advanced Germany to the gold medal match against Serbia on Sunday. The U.S. will play Canada for bronze on Sunday.
It was “terrible”. Jalen Branson The US effort was described by the Associated Press. “Plain and simple.”
USA’s offense wasn’t the issue – they had an eFG% of 67.7%, led by Anthony Edwards’ 23 points and Austin Reeves with 21.
The problem was that the USA couldn’t stop against a German team that could control the pressure of the ball thanks to the Raptors’ point guard. Dennis Schroeder, plus plenty of size to create mismatches across the field. whether it was Tyrese Halliburton Germany found soft spots in the American defense as they tried to move on screens, slow paint turnovers or get Reaves up.
“If you give up 113 points in a 40-minute game, you’re not going to have many,” Reaves said.
“Well, they had a lot of strong guys on the switches. “They played well, and of course on Schröder’s switch offense, and so they put a lot of stress on your defense,” USA coach Steve Kerr said. via Joe Weary. Just give them credit, they outplayed us.”
America’s defensive strategy for the World Cup was to press the ball from their athletes and have the NBA’s defensive player of the year. Jaren Jackson Jr. As a defensive point guard, however, the flaws in that scheme became apparent early in the contest, as Jackson was pushed out of the paint by switches or bigs who could shoot (the Pacers). Daniel Theis In this game, where he scored 21 points on 10-of-15 shooting – or Jackson just ran into trouble. When either of those things happened, Kerr leaned heavily on small-ball combinations, and he did so against Germany with plenty of balls. Paolo Banchero at five
That plan didn’t work against teams of size and performance like Lithuania (who beat the USA in the group stage) or Germany.
To go to Paris for next summer’s Olympics (Team USA qualified for the Games), Kerr and USA Basketball president Grant Hill need to recruit more versatile bigs. Anthony Davis And Bam AdebayoWho helped in these competitions? Many of the NBA’s top talents would love to play in Paris, but as this loss showed, cohesion is more important than talent.
USA’s defensive issues against Germany started from the start, with Germany attacking all it wanted early, leading to a 10-point lead in the first quarter (25-15). As it has been throughout the tournament, the USA bench changed the dynamic, started getting buckets at a high rate, and the team fought back after one quarter to be down 33-31 in a game where the defense was felt on free points. did
The fast-paced, back-and-forth game continued in the second half, with the USA leading 60-59 at halftime. USA’s offensive rating in the first half was 147.6 and Germany’s 145.1. Anthony Edwards and Mikal bridges They each had 15 goals in the first half, and Austin Reaves had 10 off the bench (but the Laker star became harder to play as Germany targeted him on switches and, like Lithuania, placed him next to their bigs ). Franz Wagner had 14 goals for the Germans in the first half, Daniel Thies 13.
In the second half, Germany sent two defenders to Edwards, every time the ball came off the screen, they were determined not to let him repeat the set-up play, when he scored the 34th goal to seal the victory. It became the Americans. It still almost didn’t work.
Germany took a double-digit lead into the fourth quarter, but the game slowed down in the final four minutes as the United States came close to completing a dramatic comeback win. In the end, it was a 3-pointer from Obst that proved to be the deciding blow — and the game-tying one for the U.S. defense.
The United States was without Brandon Ingram The team said: for this game because of upper respiratory disease. His status for Sunday’s game against Canada is unknown.