FIBA WORLD CUP CHINA 2019: USA advances to World Cup quarterfinals, clinches Olympic berth with win 89-73 vs. Brazil as Australia edge France
Before they even stepped on the court Monday in China, Team USA had already clinched a trip to the FIBA World Cup quarterfinals, the eight-team tournament and knockout round of the event. Greece upset the Czech Republic earlier in the day, which locked the Americans into the next round.
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However, the USA still wanted the top seed, wanted to go undefeated in group play, and wanted to beat Brazil to secure a berth in the Tokyo Olympics next summer.
The USA got all that with an 89-72 victory over Brazil, behind 16 points each from Kemba Walker and Myles Turner.
The USA will now play France in the first round of the quarterfinals on Wednesday. The French team came into the World Cup as a dark horse to win it all thanks to Rudy Gobert locking down the paint on defense and scorers such as Evan Fournier, Frank Ntilikina, and former Spur Nando De Colo (who has been impressive in FIBA games). If the USA, as expected, knocks off France they likely will face Nikola Jokic and the Serbian team — the biggest threat to the USA in this tournament — but let’s not get ahead of ourselves.
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Eliminating Brazil also put the USA into the Tokyo Olympics as one of the top two teams in the World Cup from the Americas (Argentina is the other one still standing). Brazil falls into the qualification tournament next summer before the Games.
Monday was a breakout game for Turner, who has been the USA’s best big man in this tournament (so much so that when he is not on the court Gregg Popovich tends to go with small ball now, Mason Plumlee and Brook Lopez get very little run). Turner scored at the rim, knocked down a Duncanesque 12-foot bank shot multiple times, and finished 8-of-11 shooting, with 8 rebounds and strong defense in the paint as well. Plus, Turner got Brazil coach Aleksander Petrovic ejected when the coach ran on the court to argue that a Turner block on Anderson Varejao was a foul. (Yes, Aleksander Petrovic is the brother of the late, great Drazen Petrovic.)
The USA also got 11 points from Jaylen Brown, who has arguably been the American’s best all-around player in the FIBA tournament. He is being decisive and attacking with the ball, something Celtics fans should love to see after last season.
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There was another good sign in this game, the USA’s zone offense has improved. Most teams are going to a matchup zone against the USA (those teams don’t have the athletes to go man-to-man for long stretches) and at times that has frustrated the USA, especially when their threes are not falling (and Team USA was only 8-of-25 in this win from deep). Turkey had real success with it in the game that took the Americans to overtime. Now the USA is doing a better job of getting into the middle and the heart of the zone, and making plays off that. It’s a good sign for what is coming up, because when France plays a zone two-time NBA Defensive Player of the Year Gobert is the guy in the paint.
Brazil kept it close in the first half (43-39 USA at the break) with former NBA player Anderson Varejao working as the fulcrum of the offense. He finished the game with 14 points, as did another former NBA player Leandro Barbosa. Victor Benite led Brazil with 21 points for the game.
The USA pulled away in the second half with an 11-4 run sparked by tighter defense, which led to transition opportunities for the Americans. After that, the game was never really in doubt.
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It was a good showing for the Americans because they had nothing on the line but chose not to mail it in. The USA had already clinched a spot in the quarterfinals before they took the court because Greece beat the Czech Republic in an earlier Group K game. (As an aside, Greece needed to win by 12 and have the USA beat Brazil to advance, and the Greeks were up 10 with 5:20 left when Giannis Antetokounmpo fouled out — on a terrible call, welcome to FIBA — and ended up winning by just 7.)
Here are the matchups for the first round of the FIBA World Cup quarterfinals:
Argentina-Serbia
USA-France Spain-Poland Australia-Czech Republic
The USA vs. France game is Wednesday. If the Americans and Serbians win (both will be favorites) their showdown will come Friday in Beijing. The championship game is Sunday in Beijing./ Kurt Helin,NBC Sports
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Basketball -USA ease past Brazil 89-73 as Australia edge France
Reuters 8 hours agoBEIJING, Sept 9 (Reuters) – Holders United States romped into the basketball World Cup knockout rounds with an 89-73 win over Brazil and booked a quarter-final clash with France, who were edged by Australia 100-98 in a thriller on Monday.
The U.S. win over Brazil also sent the Czechs through to the last eight despite their 84-77 defeat by Greece but they now face a daunting clash with the Australians, who stretched their perfect record to five successive wins.
Those two quarter-finals will be played on Wednesday while Serbia take on Argentina and Spain will start as strong favourites against Poland in Tuesday’s action.
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Monday’s results also mean that the United States and Argentina qualified for next year’s Olympic Games in Japan as the two top-ranked teams from the Americas in the 32-nation tournament in China.
They joined Australia, who earlier booked their berth by advancing into the second group stage as Oceania’s best-placed team with New Zealand dropping into the 17-32nd place playoffs.
The top two teams from Europe will also qualify as well as one each from Africa and Asia.
Brazil held their own against the more athletic Americans in the opening half and were level 23-23 at the end of the first quarter before the champions engineered a 43-38 halftime lead.
A barrage of fast breaks coupled by Marcus Smart’s audacious three-pointer on the buzzer gave the U.S. a 68-57 lead at the end of the third quarter and the Brazilians ran out of steam in the final 10 minutes.
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Guard Kemba Walker and centre Myles Turner netted 16 points each for the U.S., who dished out 21 assists to Brazil’s 12 and racked up 11 steals.
Australia, who reached the 2016 Olympics last four, appear set to at least emulate the achievement after they garnished another impressive performance with a dramatic win in the last few seconds of a rip-roaring contest against the French.
The lead changed hands throughout with both teams trigger-happy from three-point range before Matthew Dellavedova and Mitch Creek sank a free throw each in the final few seconds to seal Australia’s win as France threw away their last possession.
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San Antonio Spurs playmaker Patty Mills shone with 30 points for Australia, Joe Ingles added 23 and Aaron Baynes chipped in with 21 as the Boomers’ ironclad backbone carried them again.
Orlando Magic guard Evan Fournier nailed a game-high 31 points for France and Nando De Colo added 26 but the French will rue spilling a 70-61 lead in the third quarter when they appeared to be in the driving seat.
Greece needed to beat the Czechs by at least 12 points in the day’s opening fixture and hope that the U.S. beat Brazil in order to advance, but came up short although they were 65-53 ahead early in the fourth quarter.
Their top performer Giannis Antetokounmpo, last season’s most valuable player in the NBA, fouled out shortly afterwards and the Czechs managed to slash the deficit thanks to some lethal long-range shooting. (Writing by Zoran Milosavljevic; Editing by Christian Radnedge)
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