Curry. “Not every game’s going to be pretty when we get to Spain, so this was a good test for us and good experience for everybody on the roster, and just thankful we got the win and can look forward to our travel day.” Both Harden and USA National
Team vet Gay had 13 points each on the night, while forward Kenneth Faried (Denver Nuggets) continued to impress on both ends of the court with hang-on- the-rim dunks and send-it-into-the-sec- ond-row blocks. Faried finished with 12 points on flawless 6-of-6 shooting, five rebounds and two blocked shots. To the delight of the fans, Rose was
back in action, and had six points and four dishes coming off the bench in 13 minutes of play. Rose also looked impressive defensively, keeping the pres- sure on Puerto Rico’s backcourt. “Derrick brings something that we
don’t have as far as being able to push the ball so fast and get into the paint,” said Harden of Rose’s play. “He made a couple cross-court passes for open 3s. He really looked phenomenal.”
USA 101, Slovenia 71 The final exhibition game for the
2014 USA Basketball Men’s National Team, which was a 101-71 win over Slovenia on Aug. 27 in front of a sold- out crowd at Gran Canaria Arena in Gran Canaria, Spain, also was the team’s first as a 12-member unit, and the USA’s depth was on full display as 11 U.S. players scored, including six in double figures. “Yes, it's a game of adjustments,”
said Krzyzewski on whether he was sat- isfied with the USA’s game. “We just got here, and we played against a very good team in front of a great crowd. I thought overall our effort was good, we can do things better, but overall it was good.” Davis led the way with 18 points,
nine rebounds and five blocks in 18:34 of action; while Faried added 14 points and eight boards; Irving finished with 13 points; Gay and Rose tallied 11 points apiece; and Curry added 10 points. Playing on his 25th birthday, Harden
recorded nine points and a game-high four assists. “We're definitely clicking at the
right time,” said Davis. “We make sure that we talk on defense, we make sure
38
Above: Andre Drummond offered the USA coaches an inside and defensive force. Below: Originally selected for the USA Select Team, Mason Plumlee quickly made a positive impression and ultimately was selected for the USA World Cup Team.
won the rebounding battle 50-37, while its defense forced 21 turnovers.
“We're still very versatile with what
we can throw out on the floor,” Curry said. “Having six bigs that can rotate at the four and the five gives us that presence. We're very deep, so we still have the opportunities to go small and play fast. But the way those guys can defend the paint, rebound, block shots and then turn that to easy offense by the way they run the floor, it's pretty hard to score on us and defend on the other end.”
In the first few minutes, the USA led
10-7 before putting together an 8-2 run to take an 18-9 advantage when Gay scored at 3:15.
Back-to-back 3 pointers from
Slovenia followed by a made free throw, however, cut the U.S. lead to two points, 18-16, at 1:35. After a U.S. free throw and a score from Slovenia, Davis closed out the first quarter with five straight points to make it 24-18 at the first break.
That U.S. extended the run through
the first four minutes of the second quar- ter and strung together 10 more unan- swered points to push its lead to 34-18 at 6:03. The teams traded baskets for the next two minutes before the Americans made four straight free throws to take their largest lead of the first half, 18 points, at 2:17. Slovenia responded by outscoring the USA 10-3 to trail 46-35 at the half.
The Slovenia coach was whistled
for a technical foul as he headed to the locker room, so the USA started the second half with free throws and pos- session of the ball. That helped the USA start the quarter with an 8-2 run, and after a score from Slovenia made it 54-39, a 3-pointer from Curry ignited a 15-0 U.S. run that made the score 69-39 at 4:50. Overall the USA outscored Slovenia 33-19 in the stanza to put the game out of reach.
“I think at first we were rusty,
that we always communicate no matter what it is. It could be a little thing as far as making a pass, we just want to make whatever we do, we do it together because we know its going to be tough.”
Nearly leading from start to finish, U.S. drew 32 fouls from Slovenia and
missed a couple of free throws, but we were able to take control of the game,” Rose said. “Those free throws can easily be fixed so we're not worried about that. We know we just have to play hard and come out here and just play together.”
The only signs of struggle for the
U.S. team were at the free throw line, where the USA made 29-of-46 tries.
USA Basketball News
Nathaniel S. Butler/NBAE/Getty Images
Joe Murphy/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