Page 19 - ARUBA TODAY

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SPORTS Friday 23 august 2019

USA Basketball ing as facing Spain or Aus-

tralia is at this point.
Continued from Page 17 world No. 2 Spain, then But bigger challenges will
two games at Australia, fol- loom. Serbia believes it can
That composure and poise lowed by the pre-China fi- win the World Cup and isn’t
was tested when Austra- nale in Sydney on Monday afraid to say so. Greece, a
lia took the lead on two against Canada — is not potential quarterfinal op-
different occasions Thurs- cupcake city for the U.S. ponent, has reigning NBA
day, much to the delight It was put together with a MVP Giannis Antetok-
of a crowd of more than purpose, to help a team of ounmpo. France could be
51,000 people who came guys who know each other a major medal factor. And
to watch basketball in a gi- turn into an actual team the Australians, even after
ant stadium typically used before the games start to losing Thursday, shouldn’t
for soccer and cricket, count for real. be overlooked either.
the game getting played “We’re learning,” Popov- That’s why Popovich is lik-
on a raised court and sur- ich said. U.S. head coach Gregg Popovich talks to player in a time-out ing these gut-check mo-
rounded by fans in what Popovich thought he was during their exhibition basketball game in Melbourne, Thursday, ments now.
resembled a Final Four at- on a stage Thursday. The Aug. 22, 2019. There will be a time in China
mosphere. raised court — a fairly Associated Press when the U.S. is in trouble,
No, the deficits weren’t common sight now in col- “Felt like I was on a runway, with the game against quite possibly with a medal
large — the Americans lege basketball’s biggest an Armani deal,” Popovich Canada, and then it’ll be at stake. Having the expe-
were down three in the moments, something that said. He got through it. His time to fly to Shanghai to rience of going through
second quarter, down one is hardly ever seen in the team got through its chal- get ready for what should adverse moments like the
early in the third quarter, NBA game — threw him lenges as well. be three relatively easy ones on Thursday should
the total time trailing add- off at first. So did the neon- Another test comes on Sat- group games against the make the real challenges
ing up to a mere 1 minute, lit walkway that was lined urday, back in Melbourne Czech Republic, Turkey much easier to handle.
54 seconds. But whenever with fans leading to and for Round 2 against the and Japan. None of those “This was good for us,”
it looked like the Austra- from the floor. Boomers. The US finishes games should be as daunt- Mitchell said.q
lians might have a shot at
pulling off the upset, the
U.S. responded emphati-
cally and quickly.
In the second quarter, it
was an 11-0 run that fol-
lowed the Australians tak-
ing the lead.
In the third, the response
was a 13-0 run.
“The way we bounced
back in the second half,”
U.S. guard Donovan Mitch-
ell said, “shows the char-
acter of this team.”
If the U.S. had been so in-
clined, they could have
scheduled a bunch of
blowouts to get ready for
the World Cup in China.
Instead, they decided
to schedule games that
could potentially become
losses.
USA Basketball goes on a
tour before any major inter-
national tournament like a
World Cup or an Olympics.
The last was a five-game
journey before the 2016
Rio de Janeiro Games, a
stretch where the Ameri-
cans — albeit with a far
more star-packed roster
than the current one —
prevailed in every game
by an average of 41
points. The biggest deficit
the U.S. faced in any of
those games was a mere
two points.
The Americans didn’t ex-
actly get better in those
blowouts.
But this exhibition sched-
ule — last week against