USA 96, Lithuania 68 For a second consecutive
game, a second-half run sealed a must-win contest for the USA as it rallied behind a 33-14 third quarter scoring advantage to secure a 96-68 victory over Lithuania. The win earned the USA the right to play in the gold medal game.
“It’s always an honor to
play against Lithuania, one of great basketball countries. We’ve had so many good games with them,” said Krzyzewski.
“I thought Klay’s
(Thompson) play in the first half was the biggest reason we were ahead at halftime. Then in the second half we were able to start fresh. We made a huge adjust- ment on the defense that helped a lot, and we didn’t give up threes; we stopped putting them on the line as much and we turned them over. The outrebounding them and turning them over I thought was the difference.
“Kyrie (Irving) was special in this
game, in that third quarter he kind of got us moving and everybody started moving with him. We feel very fortunate to be going and playing on Sunday. I’m proud of my team and their effort, and hopeful- ly we get rested and whoever we play, I hope we give them a heck of a game,” added Krzyzewski.
Irving led the USA with 18 points
and four assists; while Harden scored all 16 of his points in the third quarter; Thompson added 16 points; and Curry finished with 13 points.
The USA’s eight-point, 43-35,
halftime lead quickly ballooned to 18 points, 53-35, in the third quarter after Harden nailed a 3-pointer at 8:07 to cap a 10-0 run by the U.S. Following two free throws from Lithuania, the USA ripped off eight more unanswered points to take a 61-37 lead and secure control of the game.
“We had a nice lead going into half-
time, it’s kind of been the story of this tournament, how we wear on teams, not letting a lead affect us and just playing hard for 40 minutes,” Thompson said.
The USA, which again struggled to find the bottom of the net to start the
32
Stephen Curry claimed a second World Cup gold medal and provided the 2014 USA Team with sharpshooting skills, making 21-of-48 attempts from 3-point, while averaging 10.7 points and 2.9 assists.
game, trailed 13-10 midway through the first quarter, however, 3-pointers from Irving and Thompson helped warm the USA’s shooting, and the Americans closed the period by outscoring Lithuania 11-3 to lead 21-16 at the first break. The USA made just 6-of-21 from the field in the first quarter (.286). Also slowing the USA were three starters with two fouls each in the first quarter, including Curry, Faried and Harden, and the USA went over the five-foul limit with 6:56 remaining in the first quarter.
Cousins and Davis, both not only
grabbed six rebounds in the game, but also fouled out. Overall, the USA was whistled for 27 personal fouls that helped Lithuania to shoot 32-of-42 from the line, while the USA was just 11-of- 20 itself from the charity stripe. “We fouled like crazy; I can’t think
of a game that I’ve coached for the U.S. where it’s 42 to 20 on free throws,” Krzyzewski said. “We’re usually the aggressor, and in that first half we had three of our starters with two fouls after three minutes. So there was a lot of adversity in this game.” The second quarter started with two
made free throws from Curry after the Lithuanian coach was whistled for a technical foul at the close of the first quarter. The USA worked its way to a 10-point lead at 7:27, but Lithuania quickly cut that deficit to six points,
32-26 at 6:29. The teams trad- ed scores over the next six minutes, and a basket from Irving with 41.6 seconds left made it 43-35 in the USA’s favor at the midway point. While 11 offensive boards
were helping to combat the USA’s 36.0 percent shooting from the field, Lithuania was winning the rebounding battle 28-26 at halftime. Lithuania shot even worse from the field, sinking a frigid 35.7 percent of its field goal attempts, but Mindaugas Kuzminskas tallied all 12 of his first-half points in the second period to help keep his team within range of the USA. Out of the halftime locker
room, the USA quickly estab- lished control of the game. Nine of the USA’s third-quarter points came off of turnovers,
USA 96, Lithuania 68 September 11, 2014
LTU MIN FG FT R A PF PTS
Juskevicius 26 1- 8 10-10 121 12 Maciulis 13 1- 6 0- 0 201 2 Seibutis 18 0- 2 3- 4 223 3 Motiejunas 17 1- 5 0- 2 304 2 Valanciunas 27 2- 5 11-13 702 15 Pocius
24 4- 7 1- 2 212 10
Kuzminskas 27 6- 9 3- 6 910 15 Lavrinovic 17 2- 7 4- 5 201 9 Jasaitis
4 0- 0 0- 0 000 0
Lavrinovic 13 0- 3 0- 0 313 0 Jankunas 6 0- 2 0- 0 210 0 Vasiliauskas 8 0- 2 0- 0 122 0 Totals 200 17-56 32-42 38 10 20 68
USA Curry Faried Irving
MIN FG FT R A PF PTS 14 4- 8 2- 2 314 13 24 3- 8 3- 5 632 9 35 8-15 0- 0 141 18
Harden 23 6-11 2- 2 202 16 Davis
Thompson 26 7-12 0- 0 333 16 Rose Gay
19 4- 7 0- 0 615 8 15 1- 8 2- 2 110 4
DeRozan 8 0- 1 0- 0 011 0 Plumlee
13 1- 2 1- 1 701 3 7 1- 2 0- 2 401 2
Cousins 13 3- 5 1- 2 605 7 Drummond 3 0- 1 0- 4 402 0 Totals 200 38-80 11-20 50 14 27 96
Lithuania USA
16 19 14 19 -- 68 21 22 33 20 -- 96
3PT FGs-Lithuania (2-18): Lavrinovic 1-4, Pocius 1-2, Juskevicius 0-4, Maciulis 0-2, Motiejunas 0-2, Lavrinovic 0-2, Kuzminskas 0-1, Vasiliauskas 0-1; USA (9-24): Curry 3-6, Irving 2-5, Thompson 2-5, Harden 2-4, Rose 0-4; TO-Lithuania 21, USA 16; BLKS- Lithuania 6, USA 4; STLS-Lithuania 5, USA 9.
USA Basketball News
Nathaniel S. Butler/NBAE/Getty Images
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