and 15 were off of fast-break opportu- nities. After USA 10-0 and 8-0 runs, the score was 76-49 when the two teams headed into the final 10 minutes.
USA 129, Serbia 92 Led by 26 points from tournament
MVP Irving and 23 points from Harden, the USA saved its best perfor- mance of the World Cup for the gold medal clash as the Americans captured a second-consecutive FIBA World Cup gold medal with a blistering 129-92 win over Serbia in Madrid. The USA distanced itself from
Serbia early in the game with a 28-6 run to close the first quarter. “I think the results were dominant,
but we had spurts of dominance in a lot of games,” said Krzyzewski. “And, we had tough games, and then all of a sud- den we’d have a spurt and it looked like we dominated. “Tonight, we had like a 35-minute
spurt. Tonight we played great. Tonight was a heck of a performance in those last 35 minutes.” Irving shot a USA men’s World Cup
record 6-of-6 from 3-point, and the USA as a whole finished the game shooting 45-of-78 from the field (.577), 15-of-30 from 3-point (.500) and 24-of-29 from the free throw line (.828) to help record its highest scoring game of the tournament. “It’s the greatest feeling in the world
right now,” Irving said of winning gold. “Dealing with a group of guys that are my brothers. This means so much more to our country – three days after 9/11. A lot of pride, a lot of things we did to prepare for this trip. A lot of mental things and a lot of physical things that brought us closer together. I’m glad that the journey ends with a gold medal.” Irving also dished out four assists,
and a total of eight U.S. players reached double-figure scoring. Faried recorded 12 points and seven rebounds, and Thompson tossed in 12 points; Cousins contributed 11 points and nine rebounds; Gay added 11 points; while Curry and DeRozan scored 10 points apiece. “You always save your best for last,
right?” Faried said. “That's what every- body says. It's a saying, we save the best for last, and that's what we did tonight. We saved the best for last to go home
USA Basketball News
minutes, and Serbia never recovered. “In a big time game you just have to
make plays,” said Harden, who scored nine of the USA’s first 13 points. “I kind of started it off, and Kyrie (Irving) kept it going and everybody else followed along. You have so many great players on this team that made the job easier.” The USA added six 3-pointers in the
second period from five different players and the U.S. advantage grew to 31 points when Curry made two free throws at 59.3 seconds to make the score 67-36. Serbia scored and added a 3-pointer at the buzzer to trail 67-41 at halftime. The USA continued to build upon its
A newcomer at the national team level, DeMarcus Cousins powered his way to 9.6 points a game on deadly 70.6 percent shooting, and added 5.6 boards a game.
with this gold medal right here.” Trailing 15-7, an old-fashioned
three-point play from Harden ignited a 15-0 USA run. Instrumental in the turn- around was Cousins who anchored the USA defense and posted a blocked shot and grabbed the USA’s first five rebounds of the game as the Americans sprinted ahead 22-15. “Those first five minutes of tonight’s
game they knocked us back,” Krzyzewski said. “I thought DeMarcus Cousins had about five plays in the middle of the first half that really turned a positive eight-to-ten points for us then our whole team gelled. Obviously, Kyrie (Irving) and James (Harden) were amazing. This has been a great group to work with. They always wanted to work, they were very well prepared and I am proud of them.” While Serbia scored out of the
timeout to stop the streak, the USA’s 15-straight points were the start of a 28-6 run that saw the USA take a 35-21 lead after the first 10 minutes. The USA, which had been plagued
throughout the first eight games by poor shooing in the first period, was a perfect 5-of-5 from 3-point in the first 10
lead after halftime. As eight U.S. players put points on the board, the Americans reached triple digits at 1:44 when Davis finished an alley-oop from Thompson to make it 100-65. After going up by 39 points, 104-65, at 1:09 when Davis made two free throws, the USA took a 105-67 lead into the fourth quarter.
USA 129, Serbia 92 September 14, 2014
SRB
Teodosic 24 4- 7 1- 2 072 10 Bjelica
Markovic 23 1- 3 1- 2 632 3 Kalinic 25 8- 9 1- 3 313 18 Raduljica 14 3- 6 3- 3 304 9 Simonovic 8 0- 3 0- 0 000 0 Jovic
Bogdanovic 24 5-17 4- 4 212 15 Bircevic Krstic Katic
14 3- 5 0- 0 233 6 8 0- 1 0- 0 004 0
Stimac
Curry Faried Irving
13 2- 5 0- 0 101 4 8 1- 3 0- 0 111 2 12 3- 5 1- 1 200 7
Totals 200 36-75 15-21 32 20 27 92 USA
Harden 21 8-11 4- 4 322 23 Davis
Thompson 21 5- 8 0- 0 023 12 Rose Gay
14 2- 4 3- 4 403 7 16 0- 4 0- 0 160 0
DeRozan 14 3- 4 3- 3 111 10 Plumlee
16 5- 9 0- 0 304 11 9 0- 0 1- 2 401 1
Cousins 17 2- 3 7- 8 913 11 Drummond 5 3- 3 0- 0 201 6 Totals 200 45-78 24-29 44 16 25 129
Serbia USA
21 20 26 25 -- 92 35 32 38 24 -- 129
3PT FGs-Serbia (5-25): Bjelica 2-5, Bogdanovic 1- 9, Teodosic 1-3, Kalinic 1-2, Markovic 0-2, Simonovic 0-2, Jovic 0-1, Bircevic 0-1; USA (15- 30): Irving 6-6, Harden 3-5, Curry 2-7, Thompson 2-5, Gay 1-3, DeRozan 1-1, Rose 0-2, Faried 0-1; TO-Serbia 10, USA 8; BLKS- Serbia 1, USA 7; STLS-Serbia 3, USA 4.
33
MIN FG FT R A PF PTS 23 2- 7 4- 4 102 10 20 5-12 2- 4 703 12 24 10-13 0- 0 142 26
MIN FG FT R A PF PTS 27 6-11 4- 6 345 18
Jesse D. Garrabrant/NBAE/Getty Images
Page 1 |
Page 2 |
Page 3 |
Page 4 |
Page 5 |
Page 6 |
Page 7 |
Page 8 |
Page 9 |
Page 10 |
Page 11 |
Page 12 |
Page 13 |
Page 14 |
Page 15 |
Page 16 |
Page 17 |
Page 18 |
Page 19 |
Page 20 |
Page 21 |
Page 22 |
Page 23 |
Page 24 |
Page 25 |
Page 26 |
Page 27 |
Page 28 |
Page 29 |
Page 30 |
Page 31 |
Page 32 |
Page 33 |
Page 34 |
Page 35 |
Page 36 |
Page 37 |
Page 38 |
Page 39 |
Page 40 |
Page 41 |
Page 42 |
Page 43 |
Page 44 |
Page 45 |
Page 46 |
Page 47 |
Page 48 |
Page 49 |
Page 50 |
Page 51 |
Page 52 |
Page 53 |
Page 54 |
Page 55 |
Page 56 |
Page 57 |
Page 58 |
Page 59 |
Page 60 |
Page 61 |
Page 62 |
Page 63 |
Page 64 |
Page 65 |
Page 66 |
Page 67 |
Page 68 |
Page 69 |
Page 70 |
Page 71 |
Page 72 |
Page 73 |
Page 74 |
Page 75 |
Page 76 |
Page 77 |
Page 78 |
Page 79 |
Page 80 |
Page 81 |
Page 82 |
Page 83 |
Page 84 |
Page 85 |
Page 86 |
Page 87 |
Page 88 |
Page 89 |
Page 90 |
Page 91 |
Page 92 |
Page 93 |
Page 94 |
Page 95 |
Page 96 |
Page 97 |
Page 98 |
Page 99 |
Page 100 |
Page 101 |
Page 102 |
Page 103 |
Page 104 |
Page 105 |
Page 106 |
Page 107 |
Page 108 |
Page 109 |
Page 110 |
Page 111 |
Page 112 |
Page 113 |
Page 114 |
Page 115 |
Page 116