The Americans lost to Lithuania on Sunday at the FIBA World Cup, but there are reasons for optimism before the knockout round.
in a loss that left a chastened Edwards singing a different tune.“They beat us fair and square,” Edwards said after the 110-104 loss, which saw USA Basketball trail by 21 points in the first half. “Shout out to [Mindaugas Kuzminskas]. He hit two big threes in the fourth [quarter] when we were making our run, off-balance and falling out of bounds. One of them was with two seconds left [after] I stripped the ball, and he threw it [in]. Shout out to him. It was his night.
The Americans’ side of the bracket includes Italy, Germany and Latvia. First up on Tuesday at 8:40 a.m. Eastern is Italy , which beat Serbia in a nail-biter but otherwise had a soft path to the quarterfinals. Germany has several NBA players — Dennis Schröder, Franz Wagner and Daniel Theis among them — and it has impressed with signature wins over Slovenia and Australia, but it lost to USA Basketball in a pretournament exhibition.
“Jaren’s got to be better with that,” USA Basketball Coach Steve Kerr said. “We need him on the floor. He’s one of our best players. The early fouls changed the game, for sure. He’s got to improve with that, and he knows that.”Jackson’s absence only exacerbated the Americans’ rebounding struggles and difficulty defending inside. Lithuania outrebounded USA Basketball, 43-27, collected 17 second-chance points and earned 25 free throw attempts.
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