Toronto Raptors’ veteran center Marc Gasol got a chance to see this year’s version of Team USA’s World Cup team up close and personal Friday when the Americans defeated his Spanish national team, 90-81, in a pre-tournament exhibition at the Honda Center in Anaheim.
And he was impressed enough to become one of the first to dispel the notion the U.S. is in crisis mode, even though it had over 35 players take a pass or withdraw from consideration for this team which will participate in this major pre-Olympic qualifying tournament next month in China
“I’m sure that it’s going to fuel them,’’ Gasol told the New York Times.
“The amount of talent that the U.S. generates every year is unbelievable. Even with all the guys that dropped out—or if you want to say these guys don’t have experience internationally—they’re still super talented physically and technically. And they’re well coached too. So you put it all together and it’s a great team.’’
Head coach Gregg Popovich, the best bench coach in the tournament, is the biggest name on this team, which took 13 finalists on a charter flight Saturday night from Los Angeles to Australia for three more exhibitions before heading to Shanghai. The roster, with the exception of All-NBA guard Kemba Walker, may not have the marquee value of the 2014 World Championship or the 2016 Olympic team. But they do have 12 NBA players and that was enough to build a 18-point lead over a more experienced Spanish medal contender and then cruise to the finish.
The U.S. has a solid nucleus with Walker, guard Donovan Mitchell of Utah, forward Jayson Tatum of Boston, center Kyle Turner of Indiana and forward Khris Middleton of the Milwaukee Bucks and have enough balance to put six to seven players into double figures in every game.
This was the first taste of high- level international play for most of the players on this team. But the fact remains that no team in this 32-country field has a higher potential ceiling. No one knows whether they will be enough to defeat pre-tournament favorite Serbia between now and Sept. 15, but the outlook is certainly better than it was at the start of minicamp as long as the Americans continue to shoot well and rebound aggressively while cutting down on the 23 careless turnovers.it had against Spain .
The U.S. grabbed 42 of the game’s 62 available rebounds against Spain.
“We believe we had to win with defense and rebounding,’’ Team USA managing director Jerry Colangelo said. “We don’t have a horse we can go to carry us—a Kevin Durant type player. It’s got to be a collective deal.’’
