That one was close.
What many projected as a runaway FIBA World Cup victory early Friday morning turned into a nail-biter for an undersized Team USA squad facing a physical Montenegro national basketball team to open the second round.
Team USA narrowly escaped with a 85-73 victory — but it was a 64-62 game at the 7:50 mark of the fourth quarter, and Montenegro only spent a small portion of non fourth-quarter minutes trailing by more than five.
That’s because Montenegro leaned into Team USA’s biggest weakness: a lack of size. They outrebounded the Americans, 49-31, including a 23-8 differential on the offensive glass. Montenegro also attacked the paint like no team the USA had played this summer: Chicago Bulls big man Nikola Vucevic finished with a game-high 18 points and 16 rebounds and was a plus-21 in his 26 minutes on the floor.
From a size standpoint, Montenegro is not the biggest team the USA will face in the second round, where margin of victory continues to play a role deciding which teams advance to the next round. That title belongs to Lithuania, the other team that emerged from Group D which Team USA — Group C’s top squad — will have to defeat in order to advance.
The Lithuanian national team is led by noted NBA bruiser Jonas Valanciunas and averaged 48 rebounds per game through its first three World Cup games.
This is Team USA’s biggest test: Can it win in the face of its Achilles heel?
Steve Kerr knows size is his team’s biggest shortcoming: In fact, it’s a reason why the head coach made a starting lineup shuffle, moving the lanky scorer Brandon Ingram to the bench in favor of Knicks forward Josh Hart, who is shorter than Ingram but brings more of a presence crashing the glass and diving for 50-50 balls.
Kerr tightened his rotation in the Round 2 opener: Anthony Edwards played 27 minutes; Austin Reaves played 25 off the bench; Nets star Mikal Bridges played 24-and-a-half minutes, and Pacers All-Star Tyrese Haliburton turned in another impressive performance with 10 points and six assists in 23-and-a-half minutes off the bench.
Haliburton has brought size where starter and Knicks guard Jalen Brunson has lacked: The Pacers’ star closed the game alongside Edwards, Bridges, Reaves and Jaren Jackson Jr. on Friday, and it’s become clear Haliburton will be inserted into a game if Brunson isn’t cooking — though Kerr has turned to lineups featuring both guards alongside either Reaves or Edwards at different junctures across the World Cup.
Kerr also turned to the only other true center on the roster — Utah Jazz big man Walker Kessler — but he didn’t do much in his five minutes on the floor.
Edwards finished with 17 points on 7-of-16 shooting from the field, and his team pulled away for a double-digit victory.
But the secret is out. The jig is up. The key to competing against this rendition of Team USA is to attack them in the paint, on the glass, and take advantage of their size.
If Team USA can continue to crack the code and win despite other teams targeting their weakness, crown them gold medalists.
NEW YORK MINUTE
Nets forward Cam Johnson picked up his first DNP of the FIBA World Cup. After a hot start in Showcase play, Johnson’s inconsistent play moved him down the rotation. Kerr instead played Reaves heavy minutes, Paolo Banchero heavy minutes, and played Ingram off the bench with Hart inserted into the starting lineup.
Hart only grabbed two rebounds against a supersized Montenegro national team. He had tallied 11 boards in each of his two previous games,
Brunson finished with four points and two assists on two-of-six shooting from the field.
Bridges had, by far, the most impactful game of any New York-area player on Friday: He was an irritant defensively who finished with 10 points and two steals.
BACK-TO-BACK
Team USA plays against Lithuania early Saturday morning. The remaining games have not yet been scheduled. Lithuania is also home to former Knicks forward Mindaugas Kuzminskas, a former draft pick of ex-general manager Phil Jackson.
