Team USA moved closer to a spot in the FIBA World Cup quarterfinals Saturday.
But they are not there yet.
The Americans defeated Greece and its NBA MVP Giannis Anteokounmpo, 69-53, in a second-round game of the FIBA World Cup in Shenzhen, China to improve its record to a spotless 4-0. They can join Spain, Poland, Argentina, France, Serbia and Australia in the quarters if they defeat Brazil (3-1) Monday or have a close loss.
All NBA point guard Kemba Walker of the Boston Celtics, the team’s best player, led Team USA with 15 points and six assists and guard Donovan Mitchell of the Utah Jazz, playing on his birthday, had 10 points 5 rebounds and 3 assists for the Americans, who only put two players in double figures and struggled offensively, shooting just 36.8 percent and 23.3 percent from three- point range.
But they overwhelmed Greece (2-2) defensively, eliminating them from consideration.
Anteokounmpo, who shot 7 for 11, finished with 15 points and 13 rebounds. But the rest of Greek team shot just 14 for 55 and Greece was only 7- for- 27 from three- point range. Team USA is coming together defensively, limiting its opponents to an average of 49 points and 38 for 128 shooting in the past two games, defeating Japan by 53 points.
Still, this is far from the best team the USA has sent to international competition, primarily because it is still figuring out an offensive identity. The Americans has had most success playing small ball, but they spent more than half the game against Greece playing without a center. Brook Lopez has fallen out of favor with U.S. national coach Gregg Popovich and Mason Plumlee hasn’t been effective in his playing time. Popovich is used to playing with two big men when he coaches the Spurs, but he has been forced to experiment more with this group and the interior matchups could be more difficult against Nikola Jokic of Serbia, Rudy Gobert of France and Marc Gasol of Spain.
The Americans should receive help if starting forward Jayson Tatum, who has been out for the past two games with a sprained left ankle, returns and they can create a more cohesive rotation. But they are only shooting 32.8 percent from the three for the tournament and will have to shoot the ball better from distance if they reach the knockout stage. Serbia is shooting 47.8 percent from long distance.
The bottom line is this: There will be seven teams that automatically qualify for the Olympics—two sports for the best-ranked teams in FIBA Europe and Americas, and one apiece from the best ranked team from Africa, Asia and Oceania.
