Gregg Popovich said that Team USA had to take away the right lessons from their 90-87 loss to Nigeria in an exhibition game on Saturday night.
"In a way I'm kind of glad it happened," said Popovich. "It means nothing if we don't learn from it. It could be the most important thing in this tournament for us. To learn lessons from this."
Team USA was 54-2 in exhibition games coming into their matchup against Nigeria.
Coming in with just four days of practice, Jayson Tatum said that the team was still trying to find its identity.
"None of us have ever played with each other, we're just trying to figure it out. We don't have three to four weeks. This is good for us, we'll learn a lot from the film and we'll regroup," said Tatum.
Nigeria shot 20-of-42 from 3, while also adding 21 assists.
Popovich added that Team USA wouldn't be able to take any result for granted.
"I don't think anyone should act, nor will we act, like this is the end of the world. It's about everyone else deserves a lot of credit, and we have to play our ass off to do this."
