USA Basketball 2014 World Cup: Halftime #SplashBrothers Report vs Ukraine (Photo: @letsgowarriors Instagram account)
BILBAO EXHIBITION CENTRE, BILBAO, SPAIN — Here’s the first half recap of the #SplashBrothers at #Spain2014. The starters were once again the Golden State Warriors‘ Stephen Curry, Kyrie Irving, James Harden, Anthony Davis, and Kenneth Faried.
Curry said in a postgame interview after the USA defeated the Dominican Republic that the team had to stay consistent, but that’s not what happened out of the gate, not even for Curry himself.
FIRST QUARTER
Whereas he was deferring against the D.R., he tried a different approach in this game, being a little more selfish trying to get into a rhythm. However, an early three off the dribble at the top was no good, a shoulder fake and pull up long jumper rimmed off and a left-handed attack resulted in a bad pass turnover.
Curry’s defense was still on point, though, as he recorded a steal getting in a good position on help defense on a weakside drive by Ukraine. Unfortunately at the other end, Curry once again tried to make something happen with the ball in his hands, but missed a jumper.
At the 5:27 mark, Thompson and Derrick Rose subbed in for Curry and Irving. #TeamUSA was down 7-2 in what was developing into a slow-paced game.
After hitting a jumper on a set play out of bounds from the baseline that made it 13-10 in favor of Ukraine with 2:30 to go in the first, Klay found himself guarded by the 6’4″ Olexandr Mishula and decided to post him up, which is something #DubNation would probably find comfort in hearing about.
However, his turnaround shot rimmed short. Thompson would come back later with a stop-n-pop that gave the Ukraine a 19-14 lead heading into the second quarter.
SECOND QUARTER
Thompson started the second quarter and, after a missed three from the left wing, once again got a steal by way of a strip. He’s been doing that with more frequency lately and this time, it led to two free throws by DeMar DeRozan.
Near midway through the second, coach Mike Krzyzewski brought back all the starters with the exception of Curry. Thompson stayed on the floor, but soon after, was subbed out by Curry.
On the next two occasions, in what has become a recurring theme, Steph was wide open on the far wing, but Harden decided to take it himself and got fouled. Irving also took a turn at completely forgetting Curry, taking his own bad three with Curry waving his arms on the weakside.
But Faried got the offensive rebound and delivered an assist to Curry, who didn’t relent in his waving of the arms to draw attention.
Curry got another three after giving up a three to his defender, which was caused by dribble penetration and DeMarcus Cousins not offering anything resembling a second line of help defense, leaving Curry as the third line of defense under the basket to contest the penetration.
Another recurring theme for Team USA has been the player who gets scored on having the green light. If that is indeed something USA has secretly employed, then Curry made full use of the “get out of jail free” card.
Thompson came back in for Curry with 1:50 to go in the half and delivered immediately. He had a blocked shot that led to an in-transition basket for the US with under a minute and an assist to Faried off of a left-handed dribble penetration with ten seconds remaining.
Team USA led 44-32 at the half. Curry had 6 points on 2-for-3 from three, 0 rebounds, 0 assists, 1 steal, 1 turnover, 2 personal fouls, and a plus-minus of +5.
Klay had 4 points 4 rebounds, 2 assists, 1 blocked shot, 0 turnovers, 0 fouls, and was 0-for-1 from downtown.
The second half is now underway and we will report again when the final buzzer sounds.
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