Melbourne Australia – With the World Cup happening a week away, Team USA was stunned by the Aussies with a 98-94 win. Snappinga 78-game US winning streak that started with he bronze-medal game at the 2006 world championships. This is the first time in nearly13 years, a US roster of NBA players played an international game and lost.
San Antonio Spurs guard Patty Mills scored 30 points, and Australia called from a 10-point deficit in the second half to beat the Americans. “They wanted it more than us tonight” US guard Kemba Walker said. “Lesson learned from us”.
It was the first loss for the US in a major international tournament or exhibition since the 2006 world championship semifinals against Greece. The Americans won the bronze in that competition and then were unbeaten through the cycles for the 2007 FIBA America, 2008 Olympics, 2010 Work Cup, 2012 Olympics, 2014 World Cup and 2016 Olympics.
The Australian Boomers lead by Mills were in cloud nine as they snapped a 30-0 record agains the almighty Americans.
“It was awesome.”
Patty Mills, Guard, Australia Boomers
US Coach Gregg Popovich accepted the fact that Team USA is still going through its adjustment period. “Some of it is expected with a new group that’strying to learn about each other and learn a system. So it’s not surprising. But the Aussies gave us a great lesson as far as here we want to be and howyou have to play in this kind of a competition”.
USA basketball is No. 1 in FIBA’s world rankings, but so far in the run-up to this World Cup – with most of the top NBA starts deciding not to play thissummer, the Americans have not looked like a lock for more gold. They beat Spain by nine in Anaheim California on August 16 and needed a big second half to defeat Australia by 16 on Thursday, and let a sizeable second-half lead slip away Saturday.
Mills plays for San Antonio so ordinarily, Popovich, the longtime Spurs coach would enjoy seeing what the veteran guard was able to accomplish against his team. Mills scored Australia’s last 10 points, doing it all from banking in 3-pointers to slicing through for a layup that put the hosts up by six with only1:50 remaining.
Walker scored 22 points for Team USA while Barnes had 20 points. Donovan Mitchell’s 3-pointer with 1:05 left got the US within 97-94, the Americansforced errors and had two chances to tie but Mitchelle’s 3-pointer was off. Joe Harris tried a trifecta but also missed and Mills closed the doorto the Americans with a free throw.
With this win, except the Americans to be back in the drawing board as the actual competition starts on August 15 in China.
With Additional Reports – Associated Press, Manila Bulletin
Pictures from:
http://www.fiba.basketball/api/img/graphic/c903b57e-d6b0-497a-8b9d-b97722201227/1000/1000?mt=.jpg
https://sportshub.cbsistatic.com/i/r/2019/08/24/a5e635dd-d9a4-47d8-b8ee-cdca986f7a74/thumbnail/1200×675/4b3fd1af1e1c3744abfd9348360abeac/marcus-smart-team-usa-australia.jpg
