USA vs SERBIA
Before the 2014 FIBA World Cup started, Coach K said to his team, “Bring your Body, Mind and Heart; If you can deliver we can do this!” Team USA took the last step in their journey today at the Palacio de los Deportes de la Comunidad in Madrid. The USA hammered Serbia 129-92. This game was an example of the impact that quickness and athleticism can have on a game.

Serbia began the game strong and got the USA off-balance, taking a 15-7 lead, but their aggressiveness ended up working against them. They were cocky on the floor, and when big Nenad Krstic pushed Kenneth Faried on a rebound, the monster was awakened. The USA got angry, woke up and never looked back. Klay Thompson and Steph Curry picked up the defense on Milos Teodosic, preventing him from penetrating and kicking the ball to his bigs. This created 6 quick turnovers, and the USA was off to the races. Thompson and James Harden went for 18 and 17, respectively, in the first half, and the team shot 12/16 from the three-point line to take a 67-41 lead into halftime. 

In the second half, Teodosic became so frustrated over the USA defense, which was forcing him left out of his comfort zone, that he asked to come out of the game. Bojan Bogdanovic tried to pick up the slack by hitting two threes and also had two nice assists, but at the end of three quarters the lead had reached 105-67. Faried opened the fourth with a jump hook and Bogdanovic had two nice drive-and-scores, but it was pretty much over at that point and both teams devolved into street ball until the buzzer sounded.  

Kryie Irving was the USA’s leading scorer with 26 and was on fire from three, shooting 6/6. Other top scorers included James Harden (23) who played his best game of the tournament, Thompson (12) and Faried (12). The team shot 15/30 from the 3pt line, out-rebounded Serbia 44-32 and made their free throws (83% to Serbia’s 71%). Serbia was led in scoring by Nemanja Bjelica (18), Nikola Kalinic (18) and Bogdanovic (15).

Team USA showed how much this win, and the gold medal, meant when they celebrated at the buzzer, leaping into the air. They looked like kids in love with the game of basketball and grateful for the chance to play with each other and for their country. It was refreshing to see. Kyrie Irving tucked the MVP away very proudly and will take it back to Cleveland and show it to a very excited coach David Blatt.

Although they fell one win short, Serbia was excited to win the silver, their best placing under the Serbian flag. They will return home and be instant heroes, as will the French who took home bronze. 

The 2014 FIBA World Cup All Tournament team is an impressive line-up with Pau Gasol (Spain), Nicolas Batum (France), Klay Thompson and Kenneth Faried (USA) and Milos Teodosic (Serbia). Congratulations to all of the players! I had fun watching.

USA vs SERBIA PREVIEW
At 3pmEST, all my boys from Serbia will be gathered around the TV to see if their beloved basketball team can produce a miracle and defeat a USA team that has beaten up on every team it’s faced so far. In this game, "speed kills,” and in this match-up, the USA definitely has the upper hand. The USA fields a talented group: Derrick Rose, Steph Curry (if he can avoid foul trouble), Klay Thompson, Anthony Davis and Kenneth Faried. If Harden plays team ball, his contribution will make them an even more formidable opponent. Serbia has their hands full. The USA has won every game in the tournament by at least 20 points. If they do the same tomorrow, they will be the first team to do that in the World Cup. It’s an attainable goal. They have the depth, and if they play smart, they’ll be difficult to stop.

Keys for Serbia:

• If the USA starts slowly like they have in previous games, Serbia must try their best to keep them off-balance - don’t let them find their rhythm and gain momentum
• Nenad Krstic and Miroslav Raduljica must play solid defense, box-out, force fouls and keep the USA away from their game plan
• Milos Teodosic must pick up the point guard and force him out of his comfort zone
• Serbia can level the playing field by forcing the USA to make bad decisions

Keys for the USA:

• The USA must make Serbia set up high and bring the Serbian bigs up high
• Teodosic must be defended, because he is capable of taking over a game
• Kenneth Faried must have a super game. He is certainly capable of it, and Serbia doesn’t have anyone who can match up with him
• Quickness and athleticism go a long way in wearing down the opposing team

If Serbia can stay in this, they could make the USA work. This is a David-and-Goliath deal though. Ultimately, I don’t think the game will be close - USA wins by 25!

FRANCE vs LITHUANIA
France 95 Lithuania 93. To those who made it through today's bronze medal game between France and Lithuania standing and in one piece, a big congrats! The last two days have seen these teams tested and worn to a frazzle. France’s Nicolas Batum was special, scoring 27 on top of his 35 points yesterday. Jonas Valanciunas put on a show with 25 points for Lithuania. 

Today’s game was a fan’s delight, and players on both teams should be proud of their efforts. The coaches exhausted everything they could muster to get a win. This was a championship war. I only hope tomorrow’s gold medal game between the USA and Serbia is entertaining as this proved to be.

FRANCE vs SERBIA
Milos Teodosic (24pts), the best true point guard on the planet, came out firing and running pick and rolls like a pro to lead his Serbian team to a 46-32 first half blitz on a French team that had no answers. With his crafty ball handling and razor-sharp passes, Teodosic totally confused France, a team that had played great defense at times in the tournament. Teodosic, who is a member of top pro Russian team CSKA Moscow, time and time again made beautiful assists to his bigs Nenad Krstic and Miroslav Raduljica, both of whom scored 11 points and ruled the paint. In one three-minute span, Teodosic had four assists to his bigs. 

Boris Diaw (13pts) and Thomas Heurtel (12pts) kept France close, but Serbia’s 14-point lead continued through the third quarter. French coach Vincent Collet changed his defense at the beginning of the fourth quarter by putting pressure on the ball and forcing the pick and roll offense out higher toward midcourt. This moved the Serbian bigs out higher and away from the basket. It also changed the pace of the game and allowed Nicolas Batum room to operate. Operate, he did! Batum went 8/12 from the 3 point line and pulled France to within three in the last two minutes. During this run, Serbia started fouling, and Heurtel went 10/10 from the free throw line. With two seconds remaining and France only down by three, Teodosic made the assist of the game to Krstic for a short jump hook to raise the lead to 5, taking the game out of reach for France. Final score Serbia 90 France 85.

Both teams played tired with some players on the court for more than 30 minutes. This was a shooter’s game. Serbia shot 53% from three and France was close behind at 45%. France had a few more turnovers (12 to Serbia’s 9) and out-rebounded Serbia 32-28. Batum finished with 35 points and was better than advertised. I thought one of the unsung players for Serbia was Bojan Bogdanovic, who contributed 13 points in 26 minutes on the floor. He and Teodosic were key to Serbia’s win. 

Thanks, fellows, for an exciting game! I’m looking forward to more to come as Lithuania and France face off Saturday for the bronze, and Serbia battles the USA on Sunday in the 2014 FIBA Finals. Check back here tomorrow for analysis on the France/Lithuania game as well as a preview of the Finals, including keys to the game for both teams.

USA vs LITHUANIA
The game tipped off at 3:30EST, but Team USA didn’t show up until closer to 4:10EST. The first half looked more like a foul-fest than a basketball game, at least on the USA’s side, allowing Lithuania to keep things close. The score at halftime was 43-35. After the half, however, the USA broke open a 33-14 run to seal the win over a hard-nosed Lithuanian team. The final score of 96-68 belied the sloppy and ineffective play of Team USA in the first half. 

Klay Thompson deserves a lot of credit for USA’s lead at halftime. He looked great and took up the slack when his teammates were committing fouls and making poor shot selections. Luckily it wasn’t all doom and gloom. Team USA kicked into gear in the third quarter and put the game out of reach. James Harden got under control and scored all of his 16 points in the third and fourth quarters. Kyrie Irving had his highest scoring game of the tournament and led the USA with 18 points. Klay finished with 16, and Steph Curry had 13. 

The Lithuanian bigs competed well - Valanciunas and Kuzminskas each had 15 points, leading their team in scoring. They helped to keep things close in the first half, as Lithuania nearly matched the USA in rebounds (28-26). However, they weren’t able to maintain down the stretch, and the USA ended up out-rebounding Lithuania 50-38 in the game. Lithuania’s biggest weakness was lack of depth at the guard position. Free throw shooting accounted for almost half of their points (32/42, 76%). 

Team USA faces the winner of tomorrow’s battle between France and Serbia in the 2014 FIBA Finals on Sunday. Lithuania will play the loser in the bronze medal game on Saturday.

SERBIA vs BRAZIL
Serbia saved its best play for the second half and blasted a tired Brazil team 84-56 in Madrid. Teodosic put in 28 minutes of real hoops, hitting 10/10 from the free throw line,3/5 from the 3pt stripe and 2/4 from 2 for a total of 23 points and 4 assists. Big Krstic and Raduljica each scored 10 points as the bigs beat up on Brazil and helped Serbia advance to the Semi-Finals. Brazil was led in scoring by Varejao and Vieira, who scored 12 each.

FRANCE vs SPAIN
BRAVO LES BLEUS!!! France 65 Spain 52. Often in the game of basketball (and life) good things happen to those who are patient and work on their craft! Today, in Madrid, France pulled off an upset that few thought possible in front of a packed house of Spanish fans. The French team had underachieved early in the tournament but seemed to be on a mission of late.Their intensity on defense picked up, guards stepped up and made plays and some of the older bodies returned to their prime form. France took over the tempo and forced Spain into missed shots and mistakes, crushing their dream of meeting USA in the Finals. Boris Diaw led scoring for France with 15pts, 5 boards and 3 assists, and Rudy Gobert took over the paint, securing 13 rebounds and a blocked shot. I thought the final blow for Spain was a 3-pointer by Thomas Heurtel inside 1:10 remaining in the game. The basket put France up by 10 points, and Spain had no answers. Going 2 for 22, there was no catching up. When the three point shot didn't work for Spain, the inside game stopped working too. Spain was out-rebounded by 22 (50-28), and the French owned the offensive glass. Pau Gasol, once again, was great. He had 17pts, 8 boards and 3 blocked shots, but didn’t get any help from Marc Gasol, Serge Ibaka or the misfiring guards. France will meet Serbia in the Semi-Finals.

UPCOMING GAMES:
Sept 11th:
USA vs LITHUANIA

Sept 12th:
FRANCE vs SERBIA

LITHUANIA vs TURKEY
Lithuania defeated Turkey 73-61 in a slugfest that began with Turkey controlling the first half but ended in a Lithuanian sprint after they finally wore Turkey down in the fourth quarter. With Seibutis and Pocius banging in 6 three-pointers, Lithuania expanded their lead. Lithuania was 10/19 from the three at 52% and 81% from the free throw line. Their bench outscored Turkey’s 28-6. Turkey is normally a strong three point-shooting team but today they could only manage 3/18 (17%). The team shot 70% from the free throw line. Gonlum (13), Arslan (12) and Asik (11) led the team in scoring. Turkey was only able to run a 7-man rotation as opposed to Lithuania’s 11-man rotation. This game was a good example of how heavy legs can kill a team’s momentum and rhythm, in addition to speed.

USA vs SLOVENIA
As they have done throughout this tournament, the USA played 20 minutes of lackluster, one-on-one basketball. Hardin helped to keep Slovenia in the game by taking one forced shot after another. He only had 2 points at the half. The USA’s uninspired defense also kept the game close, and Slovenia went into the break only down by 7 (49-42). What a difference a half makes! Slovenia, typically a three point shooting team, could not make a basket in the second half. Team USA also picked up their play and basically out-rebounded, out-shot, out-defended and out-hustled a completely exhausted 7-man Slovenian rotation that just ran out of gas. The final score was USA 119, Slovenia 76. Top scorers for USA included Thompson (20), Harden (14), Faried (14), Davis (13), Rose (12) and Irving (12). USA had 54 rebounds to Slovenia’s 38, and their bench outscored Slovenia’s 60-31. USA’s defense forced Slovenia into committing 25 turnovers, most of which came in the second half, and held the Dragic brothers to 13 (Goran) and 11 (Zoran) points. Both of them play at an NBA level. 

Team USA faces Lithuania next. This will be a different cast of characters and a different coach. Better be ready!

UPCOMING GAMES:
Sept 10th:
Serbia vs Brazil
France vs Spain

Sept 11th:
USA vs Lithuania

LITHUANIA vs NEW ZEALAND
Lithuania and the Tall Blacks of New Zealand battled today, as Jonas Valanciunas finished strong with 22 points and 13 rebounds to lead his team to a hard fought victory, 76-71. Corey Webster was out of sight for New Zealand with 26 points and 4 rebounds. 

TURKEY vs AUSTRALIA
In the final minute of the game, Emir Preldzic hit back-to-back three pointers to give Turkey the win over Australia, 65-64. Baynes (15 points) and Dellavedova (13 points) led the Boomers in scoring. Australia made it tough on themselves by making only 52% of their free throws.

SERBIA vs GREECE
Serbia finally caught up to expectations and drilled undefeated Greece 90-72. Greece had no legs or energy, and Calathes and Printezis, their mainstays, could only manage 14 points and 12 points apiece. Serbia's bigs came to play, and Bjelica did a great job capturing 10 rebounds. 

BRAZIL vs ARGENTINA
In the second upset of the day, Brazil blasted Argentina 85-65 to advance to the round of 8.

UPCOMING GAMES
Sept 9th:
Lithuania vs Turkey
USA vs Slovenia

Sept 10th:
Serbia vs Brazil
France vs Spain

USA vs MEXICO
Steph Curry had 20 points in the USA’s win over Mexico, 86-63. Gustavo Ayon had 25 for Mexico, but the game was never in question and Coach K didn’t need to play any starter longer than 20 minutes. Steph's Warriors teammate Klay Thompson had 15 followed by James Harden at 12 and DeMarcus Cousins with 11. 

FRANCE vs CROATIA
The up-and-down French finally played a solid game to defeat a good Croatian team 69-64. The game was very even in terms of both effort and statistics (ex Croatia had 37 rebounds, France had 36). Bogdanovic led Croatia with 27, followed by Tomic with 17. The French team was led by Batum with 14, Fournier with 13, Gelabale with 11 and Huertel with 10. This was a nice team effort by the French! For the first time in the tournament, they took care of the little things that help you pull out a win in a close game.

SLOVENIA vs DOMINICAN REPUBLIC
Slovenia 71, Dominican Republic 61. Slovenia held the lead for 26 minutes of the game, and the Dragic brothers combined for 30 of their team’s points (Goran 12, Zoran 18). Slovenia’s bench scored 28 points to DR’s 18. Big Slokar did a great job on defensive boards. Feldeine and Martinez led DR in scoring with 18 and 12, respectively.

SPAIN vs SENEGAL
Pao Gasol led Spain to an 89-56 win over Senegal with 17 points. His brother Marc and Serge Ibaka did the dirty work on the boards, with 6 rebounds a piece. Marc had 9 points and Ibaka had 11. Rubio and Calderon were fantastic at the guard position. The game was never in question, but it’s exciting that we’re one step closer to a possible Spain - USA final!

UPCOMING GAMES
Sept 7th: 
Lithuania vs New Zealand
Serbia vs Greece
Turkey vs Australia
Brazil vs Argentina

Sept 9th:
USA vs Slovenia

Sept 10th:
France vs Spain

Before I get to a summary of the games on the final day of Group play, I have to ask a question to the coaches of all the teams…Why was this the poorest day for shooting the three? Don’t know? Because your players’ legs were gone! Why did you keep doing it when it clearly wasn’t working?! 

Lithuania was one of the only teams whose coach changed the game plan (just in time) to begin driving the ball into the interior. You know I am critical of the NBA, but even those teams have the wherewithal to figure out another way to get the job done rather than continue to force shots. 

Coaches, your players depend on you to change strategy in order to give them a fighting chance. They worked too hard to get here to lose games due to poor coaching. I think playing three games in a row is crazy, but if that is the format, you're given, you have to adapt. You can tell I’m frustrated. Anyway, on to the wrap-up…

GROUP A

• Brazil blasted Egypt 128-65 with Barbosa going for 22 and Varejao for 15. They finished strong at 4-1 in Group play
• Iran gave France all they could handle, but with Heurtel and Lauvergne hitting big baskets, the French prevailed 81-76
• Spain won the Group with a 89-73 win over Serbia. Pau Gasol finished with 20 points and a great defensive game, although the game, overall, was not a great display of basketball. Spain won on the free throw line and much of that was questionable 

Group A Qualifiers:

1. Spain
2. Brazil
3. France
4. Serbia

GROUP B

• Greece won a good game against Argentina 79-71 as Nick Calathes went for 18 and Printezis followed with 15 and did a great defensive job on Luis Scola, who was held to 17
• The Philippines won their first game with a 81-79 win over Senegal
• Croatia handled Puerto Rico 103-82. PR did not show up for the games. They played with no heart or emotion! 

Group B Qualifiers:

1. Greece
2. Croatia
3. Argentina
4. Senegal

GROUP C

• The USA finished Group play at 5-0 with a 95-71 win over the Ukraine. Held to 14 points in the first quarter, the USA ran away in the second half. James Harden played his best game of the tournament with 17 points. The guards, especially Curry, hit the open shots. However, if this team wants to win the whole thing, they had best get interested in the task at hand. So far, all they have done is play street ball, and I think it will take more to beat Spain! 
• Turkey came out to play and put away the Dominican Republic 77-64
• A Finnish team that came with 8,00O fans had a frustrating end to the tournament as they lost their final game to New Zealand 67-65. Down by 12 at the half, they fought and clawed their way back to tie the game, only to have 5 forced shots steal another opportunity away. They deserved a better fate, but between now and 2018 they will learn to engage in the last 3 minutes of basketball. Congrats to Gerald Lee on his 17 points and great play

Group C Qualifiers:

1. USA
2. Turkey
3. Dominican Republic 
4. New Zealand

GROUP D 

• In the game between the top two teams in Group D, Lithuania and Slovenia, it came down to who could play the toughest team defense. Down 60-48 with 8:45 left in the game, Lithuanian coach Jonas Kazlauskas put his team in defensive mode, and they responded by shutting out Slovenia for four minutes until Miha Zupan scored to give Slovenia a 62-60 lead with 4:37 remaining. Darjus Lavrinovic (for Lithuania) then hit a running 15 foot hook to tie it up at 4:19. Lithuania then took advantage of free throws to take a 66-62 lead. After Zupan countered to pull Slovenia within two, Valanciunas made 1-2 at the free throw line to give Lithuania a three point lead. Slovenia missed a three at the buzzer to seal the victory for Lithuania. While both teams missed multiple chances to score in the fourth quarter (Slovenia only scored 2 points, Lithuania 10), Lithuania showed grit down the stretch. After a halftime adjustment, they started banging the ball inside and shooting high percentage shots. At the same time, they tightened their defense so that every time either Dragic brother got the ball, there was a hand in their face
• Looks like Australia rested their starters in their 91-83 loss to Angola in order to avoid playing the USA
• For the first time in team history, Mexico qualified for the Round of 16 by defeating Korea 87-71. They face team USA on Saturday

Group D Qualifiers:

1. Lithuania
2. Slovenia
3. Australia
4. Mexico