MADRID – Binalewala ng mga Americans ang kuwestiyon sa kanilang talento at ang pagdududa sa abilidad nila.
Ito ay matapos angkinin ng Team USA ang kanilang ikalawang sunod na FIBA World Cup mula sa 129-92 paggiba sa Serbia sa kanilang gold medal match.
“It kind of was, again, a smack to our face, saying the US was sending the B-team to go play in the World Cup,” sabi ni forward Kenneth Faried. “Just because LeBron’s not here, Kobe’s not here, (Kevin) Durant’s not here, doesn’t mean anything. We can step up and win the gold, too. That’s what we did tonight.”
Tumipa si tournament MVP Kyrie Irving ng lahat ng kanyang anim na 3-point attempts at umiskor ng 26 points para pamunuan ang Team USA.
Nag-ambag naman si James Harden ng 23 points para sa Americans, nagposte ng 11 of 16 3-pointers sa first half.
Marami ang nagduda sa kakayahan ng koponan na makamit ang gold medal.
Ito ay dahil sa pag-atras nina All-Star forwards Durant, Kevin Love at Blake Griffin.
“I think the results were dominant, but we had spurts of dominance in a lot of games,” wika ni US coach Mike Krzyzewski. “And we had tough games and then all of a sudden we’d have a spurt and it looked like we dominated. Tonight we had like about a 35-minute spurt.”
Nagposte ang koponan ng winning average na 32.5 points per game at ang kanilang pinakamaliit na panalo ay ang kanilang 21-point win kontra sa Turkey.
Naglista ang Americans ng 15 of 30 3-point attempts at ang walo sa 12 players ay umiskor ng double figures.