Nothing seems to come easy for this under manned U.S. national team, which is playing in the group stages of the FIBA World Cup in China.
The defending champions (2-0)—which lost an exhibition game to Australia in Melbourne last week– survived a major scare against Turkey to win, 93-92, in an overtime thriller to advance to the second round of this 32-team tournament in Shanghai.
“We stuck together and grinded this thing out,’’ Team USA center Kyle Turner said. “We know we are going to get every team’s best shot. We are Team USA. Teams are gunning for us and want to beat us. They gave us a run for our money.’’
Turkey led 92-91 with 9 seconds left and then missed four free throws – two apiece by Dogus Balbay and Cedi Osman– to let the USA back in the game. Forward Jayson Tatum of the Celtics grabbed the rebound off a missed free throw by Osman and streaked down the court, dropping the ball off to Khris Middleton of the Milwaukee Bucks, who drew a foul with 2.1 seconds left and drilled two deciding free throws.
“It was a heck of a game as we all know,’’ USA national coach Gregg Popovich said. “It was anybody’s game. We will accept the win but it was anybody’s to win. The team we played tonight showed its experience and the improvement that we have to make execution-wise. We are not there yet. We are still trying to get better at that.’’
Ersan Ilyasova missed a three at the buzzer and the USA won their 21st consecutive game at the Worlds by the narrowest of margins. Middleton led the Americans with 15 points and point guard Kemba Walker hit some big shots in overtime to finish with 14.
Trailing by 15 points in the second quarter, Turkey fought back through the inspired play of Ilyasova, who finished with 23 points and 14 rebounds. A tip-in by Ilyasova with 12 seconds remaining in regulation gave Turkey a two-point lead but Tatum was fouled from behind the arc with 0.1 seconds left on the clock. Tatum made two of three shots to force overtime and the USA hang in during a tense overtime.
“I am very sad,’’ Turkish coach Ufuk Sarica said. “I think USA is the favorite in this tournament. We played great today. We had control of the game, but we made easy turnovers and gave them fast break points.’’
“We just wanted go out there and step up, everybody stepped up today,’’ Turkish forward Furkan Korkmaz said. “The game was in our hands; we gave them the game. It’s not easy to play against them but we did everything. We just want to play for our national jersey. That’s the most important thing for us. We want to compete against anybody—it doesn’t matter who.’’
This was not the type of game the Americans anticipated. They shot just 35 percent from the field but did make 14 threes compared to 10 by Turkey. The USA will play Japan Thursday in their final Group E game while the winner of Turkey and Czech Republic will advance.
