Team USA beat Slovenia on Sunday to begin their journey to World Championship gold by winning their first two games. In their 99-77 victory, Kevin Durant led the way with 22 points. Off the bench, Kevin Love chipped in with ten points and 11 rebounds.This game wasn’t as easy as the final score indicates. In fact, Slovenia was within five points shortly before halftime. The small European nation featured a number of players with NBA experience including Goran Dragic, Bostjan Nachbar and Primoz Brezec. But Team USA exploded at the end of the second quarter to take a 14-point lead into the second half and never look back.
The other Americans in double-figures were Rudy Gay (16), Russell Westbrook (11) and Andre Iguodala (11). Slovenia was led by Nachbar’s 13 points.
On Monday, Team USA faces its biggest challenge to date when they take on Brazil. Brazil’s talented size (most notably Anderson Varejao and Tiago Splitter) might give the Americans trouble. Then again, Team USA seems to be hitting on all cylinders right now.
Let’s hope Kevin Durant’s metaphorical journey through the FIBA World Championship isn’t as arduous as the actual journey he took with Team USA to Spain for a tournament warm-up. The poor guy didn’t even have a well air conditioned hotel room when he got to Madrid.(Serious side note: Who the hell booked the travel arrangements for Team USA? Who stops twice from the East Coast to Western Europe anymore — were they on a World War II bomber or something? And then stick them in hot hotel rooms? I don’t understand. Maybe they got some guy who books AA baseball teams on bus trips to figure this thing out.)
Durant and the rest of Team USA are only beginning to get a taste of the inhospitable conditions they’ll encounter on this European excursion. Basketball crowds in Europe are much more boisterous than those in the U.S., to put it mildly. This will be high-pressure basketball in real life several timezones away, no matter how lightly it’s taken on our shores while football season is getting cranked up.
But how to view the World Championship from the perspective of the Thunder fan hoping Durant, and of course to slightly lesser extent Russell Westbrook (if he makes the final roster), performs well as the offensive focal point of a team playing do-or-die basketball? If he plays well and Team USA wins, it’s easy to chalk it up as another milestone passed on the way to greater things. If he doesn’t and Team USA loses, you can say it doesn’t really matter, and no one will care in a few years if the Thunder are chasing titles in the Ford Center.
ISTANBUL — Kevin Durant beamed as he listened to his national anthem, which hadn't been played at the end of the world championship in 16 years.And that was no "B-Team" standing beside him on the center of the medals platform.
It was the best team in the world.
The United States won its first world championship since 1994 on Sunday, beating Turkey 81-64 behind another sensational performance from the tournament MVP.
Durant scored 28 points, setting a record along the way for most in the tournament by a U.S. player. He left the court with 42 seconds remaining and shared a long hug with coach Mike Krzyzewski, who finally won the world title after his previous two attempts ended with bronze medals.
"Our only option was to come out here and get a gold, and it feels really good to bring this back home to the States," Durant said.
Lamar Odom added 15 points and 11 rebounds for the Americans, who won gold in the worlds for the fourth time, doing so with a team that was no sure thing after coming to Turkey without the superstars from its Olympic gold medal team.
With Kobe Bryant, LeBron James and Co. sitting home, this group was called a "B-Team," which the players were aware of and couldn't wait to disprove.
"I think that was extra motivation," Durant said. "It was exciting to come out here and win and also to prove people wrong."
And they came through where many of their bigger-name predecessors couldn't four years ago in Japan in the world championship, beginning to quiet a raucous crowd midway through the second quarter with a superb defensive effort.
Durant scored 20 in the first half, then hit consecutive three-pointers early in the third quarter, yelling at Turkish fans sitting courtside and pounding his chest after the second, as the U.S. quickly extended a 10-point halftime lead.The Americans already knew they'd be bringing a different team to Turkey after all the gold medalists from the 2008 Olympics opted to take this summer off. Then All-Star forwards Amare Stoudemire and David Lee were forced to withdraw on the opening day of training camp.
The U.S. was left with a young, undersized team, featuring six players 22 or younger and only one true center in Tyson Chandler, who quickly became a backup when forward Odom was installed as the starter.
So this team simply rode Durant to the gold medal. The NBA scoring champion made seven three-pointers against Turkey, often pulling up from places that were simply too far away for its zone to reach, and the Americans outrebounded the Turks 42-34.
"This team had a lot of character and poise," Odom said. "A lot of people thought we were undersized and we didn't have a center, we didn't have too many big guys. People thought we were going to get killed on the inside, but we played tough, hung in there, and stayed strong, focused."
The whistling was so loud when U.S. players were introduced that it was hard to make out the names. There were more whistles and boos every time the Americans had the ball in the early going, and the building was at its loudest when Turkoglu made consecutive 3-pointers to give Turkey its first lead at 15-14 with 4:07 remaining in the first quarter.
Durant was most of the U.S. offense, as he often was throughout the tournament, scoring 11 points in the quarter to help the Americans to a 22-17 advantage.
Unable to crack Turkey's zone, the U.S. kept going smaller to get more shooting on the floor, at one point playing Durant and Rudy Gay with guards Eric Gordon, Stephen Curry and Russell Westbrook.
The U.S. held Turkey to one field goal over the first 6 minutes of the second quarter, extending the lead to 10 on a 3-pointer by Durant. The Americans were ahead 42-32 at halftime.
The U.S. victory put a disappointing end to an important day for Turks, who approved sweeping changes to their constitution in a referendum vote, which the government hailed as a leap toward full democracy.
President Barack Obama called Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan before the game, congratulating him on the success of the tournament and Turkey's team while acknowledging "the vibrancy of Turkey's democracy as reflected in the turnout for the referendum."
But the team, serenaded throughout by fans singing "12 Giant Men," its theme song since its runner-up finish while hosting the 2001 European championship, fell short of becoming the fourth host to win the world championship and first since Yugoslavia in 1970.
