USA Punches Ticket to 2014 FIBA Finals

After limping into halftime, Team USA dominated Lithuania in the second half, earning entry into the 2014 FIBA Finals

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.