After a masterful three-game sweep of the first phase, Team USA begins its grind in the Round of 16 of the FIBA World Cup 2023 as it takes on the Nikola Vucevic-led Montenegro on Friday (Sept. 1) at 4:40 p.m. at the Mall of Asia Arena in Pasay City.
With coach Steve Kerr’s trust and belief in his young, energetic NBA players and top-notch NBA coaches, Team USA posted lopsided victories over New Zealand, Greece, and Jordan and installed itself as the legitimate team to beat in this tournament.
The scary thing is, Kerr is still looking at what his perfect combination on the floor should look.
Kerr admitted that he’s still trying to get the perfect combination. While cruising past Jordan, Montenegro was already on his mind.
“We just wanted to look at some of the lineups. The tricky part with FIBA is that you only have a few weeks to figure out your team as opposed to an NBA season where you have six or seven or eight months,” said Kerr.
“I liked what I saw. The game wasn’t competitive, but it was a good flow from both groups. We’ll see. We haven’t made any decision moving forward, but we just wanted to look at some things.”
And with Anthony Edwards and Austin Reaves living up to their starry billings and everyone else seeing action and contributing both in offense and defense, USA is the favored team against a Montenegro team, which prides itself of a leader in Vucevic of the Chicago Bulls.
With Vucevic averaging 20.7 points, 7 rebounds, and 1.3 assists, he has proven himself the heart of soul of the Montenegrin squad that defeated Mexico and Egypt before losing to Lithuania for a 2-1 card that brought them to the next phase.
Displaying an energetic, cohesive brand of play, Team USA would be a tough nut to track.
It won’t be easy finding an antidote against a basketball symphony that includes Edwards of the Minnesota Timberwolves, Reaves of the LA Lakers, Jalen Brunson and Josh Hart of the New York Knicks, Tyrese Haliburton of the Indiana Pacers, and Paolo Banchero of the Orlando Magic.
The USA and Montenegro have qualified for the next round along with Brazil, Georgia, Greece, Puerto Rico, Serbia and Slovenia, Australia, Canada, Dominican Republic, Germany, Italy, Latvia, Lithuania and Spain. All teams carry their first-round records into the second Round, where they will compete for quarterfinal berths, with the two top teams of the four groups qualifying for the Final Phase.
Those that were eliminated, including Team Philippines, will fight it out for rankings in the classification phase with some Asian nations gunning for a slot in the Paris Olympics 2024.