MANILA, Philippines — If there can be such a thing as an ideal loss, Team USA might have experienced it against Lithuania at the FIBA World Cup on Sunday.
It didn’t cost the Americans any position in the tournament — in fact, it probably improved their draw. But the loss to Lithuania also acted as a “free” focusing moment for a young team that had never experienced such adversity in major international games.
Given a reprieve, Team USA came with more intent and force from the start in Tuesday’s quarterfinal, bouncing back at Mall of Asia Arena to oust Italy 100-63 from the medal round.
“Just obviously pissed off from losing and don’t want have that feeling again,” said U.S. guard Tyrese Haliburton, who had 18 points off the bench. “They’re not going to fear us. We got to just play our style of basketball.”
Team USA will get the winner of Germany-Latvia, who play Wednesday, in the semifinals on Friday. But Tuesday’s other quarterfinal brought other interesting news as Lithuania, which had proved to have a matchup advantage on the Americans, was eliminated as its recent hot shooting went cold against Serbia in a blowout.
After having fallen behind by double figures in the first half in three of their five games in the tournament, American players and coaches emphasized the need to reverse that trend. And Team USA sprinted out to a 10-point lead in the first quarter Tuesday.
It was part of an overall energetic defensive effort from the U.S. that was way more characteristic of the team that looked like the title favorite when it arrived in the Philippines two weeks ago.
Team USA also had its best 3-point shooting game of the tournament, making 17.
Italy was led by 18 points from Utah Jazz forward Simone Fontecchio.
“It’s been a journey for this group, and there’s five more days — that’s how we look at it,” Kerr said. “We’re the horse turning back to the barn. The horse starts picking up the pace when it senses it’s near the barn, and that’s what’s happening right now. Our guys are sensing this is the end of the journey.”