Coach Mike Krzyzewski's frontcourt made short notice of Slovenia. Then he was asked about their matchup with Spain who also has formidable big men. He said, "I'm not going to compare. I haven't seen Spain play. If we play Spain, it's a long way away. So I'm just concentrating on U.S. and trying to get better."
There's lots of time and his frontcourt personnel are faring pretty well. Anthony Davis and Kenneth Faried dominated the paint, leading Team USA, 101-71 vs Slovenia on Tuesday in its last exhibition game before the FIBA World Cup of Basketball. Faried finished with 14 points while Anthony Davis had 18 for the Americans, who will go to Bilbao, Spain, for the said world cup of basketball to take on Finland for their first game.
Next in line will be Turkey, New Zealand, the Dominican Republic and Ukraine in their group. A USA vs Spain, and its frontcourt of Pau Gasol, Marc Gasol and Serge Ibaka, will only happen if the 2 teams would reach the gold-medal game on Sept. 14 in Madrid. The Americans opted to go big this tournament after recent years of playing with a rather small lineup.
"We just try to make sure that whatever we do, we do together, because we know it's going to be tough in the tournament," said Anthony Davis of the New Orleans Pelicans who also is the starting man in the middle for Team USA.
They were not that remarkable during this last game vs Slovenia but were aggressive, with Davis and Faried working the shaded lane -- even teaming up on a rare big man -to-big man alley-oop when Faried lobbed one to Davis and slammed it home mid third period.
Starting point guard Kyrie Irving contributed 13 points for the Americans. Derrick Rose had 3, Rudy Gay, together with Klay Thompson had 11 each From the stripe, the U.S. missed five of its first six free-throw shots but attempted more free throws, finishing 29 of 46 compared to Slovenia's 10 of 17. Goran Dragic, star of the Phoenix Suns, finished with only six points. His brother, Zoran, though, led Slovenia with 16. Slovenia will play in Group D, with Lithuania, Angola, Australia, Mexico and Korea. Both USA and Slovenia could face off again if both reach the knockout stage of the tourney, since Groups C and D both belong to the same side of the bracket and advance to Barcelona.
Team USA got in front by six after the 1st period then scored 10 in the 2nd to go up 34-18 against the Slovenians. The lead was cut to 46-35 by halftime but the Americans rapidly built a big lead in the second half. Slovenia was having an easy time in their other exhibition games, but couldn't quite keep up with the Americans, who had six players scoring 10 points or more. The Americans had greater game by their big men, who time after time hustled on offense and defense Team USA finished with a 50-22 advantage in points in the paint.
