NBA

Team USA maintains perfect pace in FIBA World Cup after their third-straight victory vs. Jordan

Antonio Kozlow Sports Editor

Updated30 Aug 2023

This Wednesday, Team USA improved their mark to 8-0 this summer, counting their first five tune-up exhibitions before the World Cup, and their last three group-stage contests in Manila, Philippines. They’ve now become one of the three nations who’ve won all their matches by at least 20 points, just as Canada and Lithuania did.

Today’s game was the easiest of the three, considering the Americans beat Jordan 110-62. The other two were against New Zealand by a 27-point margin, and Greece by 28.

Anthony Edwards, who led the squad in points after hitting 22 points, thinks he just has to keep things simple and direct in order for him to find the most efficient version of himself inside Steve Kerr’s roster.

Anthony Edwards only needed 19 minutes to cook up a feast today. 🥘

📊 22 PTS | 8 REB | 4 AST | TCL Player of the Game#FIBAWC x #WinForAll | #InspireGreatness pic.twitter.com/bohNhepDYi

— FIBA Basketball World Cup 2023 🏆 (@FIBAWC) August 30, 2023

“Staying aggressive, staying confident, it’s just something that I do,” he said. “It paid off today. I’ll just keep it simple and short. For me, it’s just all about putting the ball in the basket and getting a stop.”

Bobby Portis, on the other hand, dropped in 13 for the United States, who was already leading the game by 29 at half time. Jaren Jackson Jr. contributed 12 points, while Jalen Brunson added 10 to his name.

“It’s always fun when everybody gets to play and contribute,” the U.S. head coach expressed after the match. Jordan trainer Wesam Al-Sous, on the other hand, believes his squad tried their best. “We tried to slow them down as much as possible. We failed. They scored 110 points,” he said.

The only Jordan player on their roster who had any NBA experience was Rondae Hollis-Jefferson, who led his team with 20 points and won 7 rebounds. Unfortunately for the Middle Eastern nation, they finished group play 0-3 and will compete in the classification round for non-second-round teams.

“He was kind of like my vet when I was a rookie,” Edwards said about his former teammate. “We haven’t seen each other since then, so it was fun to catch up.”

Kerr admitted to have benched a couple of players because he wanted to try different lineups against Jordan

While many were wondering why Pelicans star Brandon Ingram didn’t recieve much play time against Jordan this Wednesday, his head coach explained why he wanted to try new players.

“Yeah, we just wanted to look at some different lineups. You know the tricky part with FIBA is you only have a few weeks to figure out your team as opposed to an NBA season with six, seven, eight months. So we just felt like it was important to take a look at Josh as the starting group and Brandon in the next group and see if the combinations fit. I like what I saw, and obviously, the game wasn’t competitive, but there was youth flow with both groups, so we’ll see. We haven’t made a decision moving forward, but we just wanted to look at new things,” Kerr said after the contest.

As for Team USA’s ball pressure, Kerr delivered praise for his pupils in their final group-stage match.

“We didn’t get into a good start in the last couple of games, so it felt good to jump right out and grab that early lead. I thought the ball pressure between Anthony, Mikal, and Josh; they really pressured the ball in the first five minutes, and that set the tone. That’s one of the things we always look for in Team USA, is ball pressure,” he added.