BARCELONA Spain– When guard Stephen Curry arrived at Team USA training camp for the 2014 FIBA World Cup, he was confronted with the same situation he encountered when he made the 2010 national team that won the gold meal in the World Championships following his rookie year with the Golden State Warriors.
The roster was filled with new faces and there was a limited amount of time to build chemistry.
None of the players from the 2008 Redeem Team– which won a gold meal in Beijing– participated in the 2010 competition in Istanbul.
But a group of new young stars emerged. The team had five players– MVP Kevin Durant, Russell Westbrook, Kevin Love, Tyson Chandler, and Anthony Igaudola– from the World Championship team who made the 2012 Olympic game in London, along with LeBron James, Carmelo Anthony, Kobe Bryant, Chris Paul and Deron Williams and two newcomers, forward James Harden and center Anthony Davis, a last second pickup after Blake Griffin was injured.
Curry is one of three returning players from that 2010 team, along with guard Derrick Rose, who was coming off two severe knee injuries that cost him almost two years of play with the Chicago Bulls; and 28-year old forward Rudy Gay, a late addition to the roster after forward Paul George suffered a broken leg in an exhibition in Las Vegas.
But he is watching this team, which smothered Mexico, here yesterday in the Round of 16, grow up quickly.
“This team is very similar to the one we had in Turkey,” Curry said. “Obviously, this is a new team and the focus is on winning, but we play better each and every game. Earlier in the tournament, we were lackadaisical in the first five minutes. We’ve addressed that and I think we’ve gotten better. I think as we get more comfortable with each other, we’re learning how to get our shots, driving angles and just playing off each other. We’re living in the moment and just enjoying the ride.”
Curry, the team’s best pure shooter, definitely enjoyed the ride against Mexico, scoring 20 points on seven-of-10 shooting and splashing home six big three pointers, rekindling memories of his 2008 NCAA run with Davidson.
Curry saw his role change more than anyone on the roster after the unexpected withdrawals of front court stars like George, Durant, Love, LeMarcus Aldridge, and Griffin, who took a pass because of a combination of injury, contract negotiations and exhaustion.
He was expected to be the team’s first option from the perimeter, but it took him longer than expected to rediscover his three point stroke, partly because the team leaned too much initially on getting the ball inside to the 6-10 Davis and partly because he was missing open looks as the team played an exhaustive schedule of six games in eight days.
“I was expecting to have a huge impact on this team from get go,” Curry said.. “Having the 2010 experience and being healthy four years later. talking to coach before r training and getting back into that USA vibe. I definitely felt a huge opportunity to be a leader, to be vocal, to use my expeience with some of the guys who had been here before,” he said. “Obviously, when the roster started to change, you understand what needed of you and it becomes more real as you go through the process. You can’t really foresee how’s it’s going to work out until you get here. You have to be willing to live in the moment.”
Curry was expected to be the team’s first option from the perimeter, but it has taken him longer than expected to rediscover his three point stroke, partly because the team initially leaned too much on getting the ball inside to the 6-10 Davis and partly because he was missing open looks as the team played an exhaustive schedule of six games in eight days in this country.
“When I got the camp, coach K told me to just be myself,” Curry recalled. “But we have so many good players, no one on this team is getting more than seven e shots a game and sometimes that makes it hard to get into a groove.”
“For a few games, I think our perimeter guys were just trying to get Anthony off because we hade not looked for him and the pendulum went too far,” Krzyzewski explained. “Today, it’s swinging more to the middle and if we get that balance, we’re be better. We think we are a good offensive team. but we think we can be an outstanding offensive team.”
Krzyzewski also got another strong performance from from 6-11 center Demarcus Cousins, who scored 12 points on 5 for 5 shooting and grabbed seven rebounds in just 13:37 minutes. “That’s a couple games in a row where he’s been a force for us,” U.S. national tam coach Mike Krzyzewski said. “He’s a different player than Anthony Davis and that’s kinda what we were hoping for going forward.
”We believed in DeMarcus right from the beginning of training camp and all the reports about him not making the team were not all not right. We felt he would the perfect guy, with or in place of Anthony at times,” Krzyzewski said. “I think it’s just a matter of him getting in better shape and our guys getting accustomed to,k when he comes into the game, to look for him and I think they see him more now. I think his defense is really improved. He tried to take three charges today and did a really good job defensively on (6-9 Gustavo) Ayon without help. If I were rating him, I’d give him an A plus.”’
Team USA held Mexico to just one three pointer until the final three minutes and and completely shut out forward Hector Hernandez, Mexico’s best peremptory shooter, who shot just 0-for-2 in 23 minutes.
“I think our defense is the thing that’s keeping us going,” Curry said. “We’re pressuring our opponents to take them out of their game We did that at the start of the game and it just carried over, helped us force the tempo.”
Team USA also had to deal with a new defensive tactic they are likely to see going forward. Mexican players constantly fouled in an effort to slow down the American’s lethal fast break. “That’s just something you saw in FIBA basketball.. And we have actually done it ourselves a couple times and maybe that will be a new thing in the NBA. What we have tired to do is just pass the ball. When we pass the ball ahead, we got to make sure we put the ball down right away. In other words, if you see the foul coming, just pass ahead. It’s just a thing to stop us. I remember in the 2012 gold medal game, in the fourth quarter, three times we had a chance to break away and we got fouled like that. We talk about that a lot.”
