FIBA WORLD CUP 2019 | SPAIN are new WORLD CHAMPIONS

[MrDollarBills]

I'll say it again, USA lost today because they couldn't rebound. It was a roster construction issue at the 4 and the 5. The team that lost in Greece in 2004 had the same problem.

Kemba, Mitchell, Barnes, Brown and Harris played fine in this tournament. There was just a hole in the middle today. They needed Turner to play big and he got overmatched.

Was saying this before the tourney started, the US was stretched super thin in the frontcourt and that was the end of it. That's why I said we were going to get beaten...I just thought it was Serbia would do it, not the French

[RB34]

Let’s go Boomers!

[stitches]

Read on Twitter

Good job Myles Turner... good job...

[pootbrah]

**** didn't watch 2nd half of France us game any any of Aus game cause too late with work and need to sleep. Woken up at 4 and can't get back to sleep and had to check can't do no spoilers till after work. and ****! Just realised I have a work shift that starts halfway through Australia Spain semi. ****

[jinxed]

Read on Twitter

Good job Myles Turner... good job...

What did Myles Turner say?

[Ballerhogger]

Mitchell is already a star. He put up 29/6/4 today on 12/23 shooting. I don't think he's the problem.

Watch on YouTube

ya Mitchel is a great player.

but overall team play - they just got eaten up. Mitchell scored 29 points but he was team worse -13?

That was all the 4th quarter. USA as a whole was -17 in the final 7 minutes. Mitchell and Kemba were on the floor for that period. Gobert was shutting down the paint and USA's offense broke down.

so he had good game until the 4th against ok french team.... Not good.

[pootbrah]

Maui wovie, this was intense, like both are playing for Bronze or smt. I guess they wanted to avoid USA down the road.

Serbia is the team to avoid. I put the US on the same tier as France and Aus with Serbia as clear favourites.

Claim.

Forgot to also mention Spain on that same tier. Serbia ended up being massive disappointments but claim nonetheless. The US can't get by on talent alone anymore. teams like France, Aus, Serbia and Spain have closed the gap markedly where even if they bring their most talented guys, these are knockout games and you can't expect them to win them all.

[stitches]

What did Myles Turner say?

On a question pre-game about what does he think about the matchup vs Gobert:

"Looking forward to it. He's a good defensive player, I'm a good defensive player... so... it's gonna be a good game. He's the defensive player of the year... according to some. I'm ready."

The bolded was the headline that I assume Gobert saw.

[JonFromVA]

This loss pretty much guarantees that we will see US super-star team forTokio and hopefully next WC as well.

Meh ... Americans don't care about the FIBA WC let alone FIBA. I'm not sure what's going to make that change, certainly not FIBA if they continue to schedule tourneys and qualifiers during or so close to the start of the NBA season.

Losing will peak interest for the future games. But Americans have very much different sense of national pride as Europeans do, so following how your nations athletes do in world cup type of events isn't nearly as big as in Europe, when (at least where I'm from) basically everyone from kids to grandparents follow this type of events regardless of the sport.

It's not about national pride, it's that "world cup" is by and large a meaningless word in the US. It has no power, no prestige, beyond the inroads futbol has made in some areas.

The US will field a better team in Tokyo because it's the Olympics, not because anybody is going to feel we need to redeem the hot mess FIBA has made of this tourney.

[Catchall]

ya Mitchel is a great player.

but overall team play - they just got eaten up. Mitchell scored 29 points but he was team worse -13?

That was all the 4th quarter. USA as a whole was -17 in the final 7 minutes. Mitchell and Kemba were on the floor for that period. Gobert was shutting down the paint and USA's offense broke down.

so he had good game until the 4th against ok french team.... Not good.

Kemba froze him out in the 4th quarter. He only got one shot after scoring 29 in the first three quarters, because Kemba thought he should take over.

[limbo]

Obviously the US can field a more talented cast if they wanted and dominate everybody, but that's neither here or there, because everybody knows the US has the most talented players in the World.

The question here is, if the USA don't overwhelm opponents via all-star extreme talent disparity, why do they play below their level despite still bringing a talented cast. Kemba, Mitchell, Smart, Middleton, Turner, Brown are still talented players. Why can't they figure out how to play togheter and instead are getting exposed by Cedi Osman and Ilyasova?

[JN61]

Meh ... Americans don't care about the FIBA WC let alone FIBA. I'm not sure what's going to make that change, certainly not FIBA if they continue to schedule tourneys and qualifiers during or so close to the start of the NBA season.

Losing will peak interest for the future games. But Americans have very much different sense of national pride as Europeans do, so following how your nations athletes do in world cup type of events isn't nearly as big as in Europe, when (at least where I'm from) basically everyone from kids to grandparents follow this type of events regardless of the sport.

It's not about national pride, it's that "world cup" is by and large a meaningless word in the US. It has no power, no prestige, beyond the inroads futbol has made in some areas.

The US will field a better team in Tokyo because it's the Olympics, not because anybody is going to feel we need to redeem the hot mess FIBA has made of this tourney.

It's national pride in its roots.

[BoogieTime]

Small ball helped them to make that 17 point swing until Kemba was inserted.

Yeah Kemba playing iso hero ball in 4th ruined the game for USA. Mitchell was destroying France in third, Brown, Smart was playing well. He came in when they led with 7 points and he never passed again...

Skickat från min SM-N950F via Tapatalk

Barnes was awful also. His travel and black hole offense is real bad in FIBA. If you are going to play Kemba you need a pick and roll partner, that's all Kemba does. HE ran the most in the league. Barnes isn't a pick and roll partner, he's an ISO chucker.

Stop the “reputation” nonsense. Barnes was the opposite of a chucker today and on this team, with 3 FGA in 31+ minutes. There is a reason why Pop trusted him with copious minutes compared to his peers on this team, and played the second most today. His BBIQ is among the best of this squad

[LuDux1]

YYYYYYYEEEESSSSSSSSSSS
VIVE LA FRANCE.
Je peux mourir heureux.

j'en reviens pas , c'est historique bordel

Après toutes les merdes qu'on a subit, les défaites contre l'Espagne, notre choke contre la Grèce etc... C'est HIS-TO-RI-QUE.

SACRE BLUE!

[JonFromVA]

Losing will peak interest for the future games. But Americans have very much different sense of national pride as Europeans do, so following how your nations athletes do in world cup type of events isn't nearly as big as in Europe, when (at least where I'm from) basically everyone from kids to grandparents follow this type of events regardless of the sport.

It's not about national pride, it's that "world cup" is by and large a meaningless word in the US. It has no power, no prestige, beyond the inroads futbol has made in some areas.

The US will field a better team in Tokyo because it's the Olympics, not because anybody is going to feel we need to redeem the hot mess FIBA has made of this tourney.

It's national pride in its roots.

We were going to field a serious team in Tokyo regardless of whether we won or lost the WC's.

National pride is certainly in the mix, but so are convenience, career, family, marketing potential, exposure, likely role on the team, etc.

They old adage is "follow the money", which in this case translates to "follow the TV ratings".

For reference, here's an old article from 2014 when we actually fielded a decent team:

https://www.sbnation.com/nba/2014/9/5/6109763/fiba-world-cup-american-tv-ratings-horrible

[Showdown]

I'll say it again, USA lost today because they couldn't rebound. It was a roster construction issue at the 4 and the 5. The team that lost in Greece in 2004 had the same problem.

Kemba, Mitchell, Barnes, Brown and Harris played fine in this tournament. There was just a hole in the middle today. They needed Turner to play big and he got overmatched.

In the press conference before the game Turner said that some people think that Gobert is best defender among centers and DPOY but he disagree, probably implying that he is better and that he should be on All Defensive Team and DPOY and then got destroyed by Gobert in the game, it was pretty pathetic and make him look even worse, don't know why people don't talk more about that.

[JonFromVA]

Obviously the US can field a more talented cast if they wanted and dominate everybody, but that's neither here or there, because everybody knows the US has the most talented players in the World.

The question here is, if the USA don't overwhelm opponents via all-star extreme talent disparity, why do they play below their level despite still bringing a talented cast. Kemba, Mitchell, Smart, Middleton, Turner, Brown are still talented players. Why can't they figure out how to play togheter and instead are getting exposed by Cedi Osman and Ilyasova?

They can, but it does take time to learn the style of play and how to play as a team, and even so, losing one game is not exactly hard to do even for a solid team (see Serbia and Greece). To constantly win with barely even the threat of losing takes a crazy level of dominance.

Remember Tim Duncan threw up his hands and simply gave up on participating in international Basketball due to his frustration with the rule changes and the way the games were being called. How many of the players on this roster had played in previous tourneys?

I've got Mason Plumlee ... anyone else? lol

[nedleeds]

Yeah Kemba playing iso hero ball in 4th ruined the game for USA. Mitchell was destroying France in third, Brown, Smart was playing well. He came in when they led with 7 points and he never passed again...

Skickat från min SM-N950F via Tapatalk

Barnes was awful also. His travel and black hole offense is real bad in FIBA. If you are going to play Kemba you need a pick and roll partner, that's all Kemba does. HE ran the most in the league. Barnes isn't a pick and roll partner, he's an ISO chucker.

Stop the “reputation” nonsense. Barnes was the opposite of a chucker today and on this team, with 3 FGA in 31+ minutes. There is a reason why Pop trusted him with copious minutes compared to his peers on this team, and played the second most today. His BBIQ is among the best of this squad

And how did that work out? Barnes is bad.

[klemen4]

Do not know what Pop was thinking??? Playing without C, even PF most of game...Gobert owned them on defense and rebounding...ok you can go small but with at least one big guy. Loss is on Pop imo

[BoogieTime]

Barnes was awful also. His travel and black hole offense is real bad in FIBA. If you are going to play Kemba you need a pick and roll partner, that's all Kemba does. HE ran the most in the league. Barnes isn't a pick and roll partner, he's an ISO chucker.

Stop the “reputation” nonsense. Barnes was the opposite of a chucker today and on this team, with 3 FGA in 31+ minutes. There is a reason why Pop trusted him with copious minutes compared to his peers on this team, and played the second most today. His BBIQ is among the best of this squad

And how did that work out? Barnes is bad.

He’s actually better in practice on USA than anyone on the current Knicks besides maybe Randle

There is a reason he was the starter and played as he did.