USA’s Crushing Italy: The 2023 FIBA World Cup semifinals will include Team USA Basketball. Tuesday in Manila, the Americans defeated Italy, 100-63, to advance to the tournament’s final four. Team USA will take on either Germany or Latvia in the semifinal matchup on Friday.
By the end of the first quarter, Team USA had a 10-point advantage against Italy and had never looked back. With 24 points and an 8 for 11 field goal percentage, Mikal Bridges finished first among scorers. Tyrese Haliburton, who came off the bench, contributed 18 points and six 3-pointers in the rout, which Team USA controlled for most of the second half by a margin of 30 or more.
After losing to Lithuania in their final match in the second round on Sunday, Team USA was looking for a comeback. Team USA has already finished higher in the World Cup than in 2019 when it placed seventh.
You might also be interested in reading this: Remarks From The USA’s Defeat To Lithuania In World Cup
Takeaways from Team USA’s crushing Italy in basketball
Here are three lessons learned from the USA’s crushing Italy:
1. Team USA does not require a go-to player
Before the 2023 FIBA World Cup, Anthony Edwards was hailed by many American fans as the ideal top scorer for Team USA. The Minnesota Timberwolves star’s offence has fluctuated throughout the competition, despite the fact that he scored 35 points in the loss against Lithuania. On Tuesday, Edwards scored just three points on 1-for-6 shooting while dishing out three assists. He’ll probably perform better after everything is said and done, but with so many strong players on the roster, there’s no reason to make him the centre of attention.
Bridges has consistently matched or increased his scoring output throughout this tournament, and he was unquestionably the driving force behind Team USA’s run to the quarterfinals. The Brooklyn Nets forward delivered two steals and a block on defence while shooting effectively 8 of 11 from the field.
Then there’s Haliburton, who over the past five weeks has shown to be a crucial bench spark alongside Austin Reaves. Bridges was joined by both of the backup guards to make up Team USA’s quartet of double-digit scorers. Despite great volume scorers like Brandon Ingram currently being in hibernation, the Americans are still capable of pulling off victories this convincing. This side will succeed if they put out a concerted effort throughout.
2. The Americans require greater coherence in the middle
Team USA’s defeat over Lithuania was in large part caused by their lack of post presence, which is still a glaring weakness for the Americans. At power forward and centre, Jaren Jackson Jr., Paolo Banchero, and Bobby Portis are the rotation’s go-to players, but bigger clubs might benefit from this bunch. Jackson, the current NBA Defensive Player of the Year, began the game with two early fouls after less than three minutes had passed in the first quarter. He played for fewer than 11 minutes and hardly registered, finishing with two points and three rebounds. Far more productive people were Banchero and Portis. If Team USA wants to avoid a significant obstacle on the way to the gold medal game, this pattern must stop.
Walker Kessler, a top rim protector, is unlikely to soon log significant playing time. But later on, they could require his verticality in a crucial situation. German and Canadian big men were able to threaten America more than Italy did because they were more skilful. Italy came up short in the overall rebounding contest but prevailed 9-8 in the offensive rebounding contest. Too many missed opportunities for second chances will only hurt Team USA.
3. Perimeter shooting has a significant impact.
Against Italy, Team USA won by their second-largest margin in this tournament, and the long ball contributed to their triumph. In the second part of the group stage, they did not sink more triples than Montenegro or Lithuania, but they did score 17 of their 36 attempts on Tuesday. Their success placed pressure on Italy, which suffered a dreadful defeat by just making seven of its 38 attempts from beyond the arc. Against Italy, three Americans made numerous threes, and all three of them were successful at least 66.7% of the time.
Although continuing to shoot at such a high level would likely not be feasible for the remainder of the competition, the performance should give Team USA’s snipers confidence. More than any other team in the competition thus far, Latvia has made more threes per game (13.2). While shooting at an almost comparable rate, Germany is converting 2.6 more triples per game than Team USA. The Americans will need some dependable shooting if things continue to be tight.
