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Coach Pop decided to field Kemba Walker, Donovan Mitchell, Harrison Barnes, Jayson Tatum and Myles Turner as USA's starting lineup to tipoff their 2019 FIBA World Cup campaign. Entering this matchup as the surefire favorites, Kemba and his men obliterated the Czech via a convincing 88-67 win to start off their title defense.
The Americans received a wake up call when their 78-game winning streak was snapped by the Australians recently on the back of some brilliant shooting by Patty Mills. However, they continued their winning run in major tournaments – one that dates back to 2006 – by beating Czech Republic and the streak now stands at 54 games.
Let's take a quick look at their dominant first win of the 2019 FIBA World Cup and draw out some key arguments.
#1 Donovan Mitchell is emerging as the unofficial leader of this team
USA's coaching staff had quickly realized the prominence of Mitchell on the roster and elevated him into a bigger role than anyone expected.
“When you tap somebody that has leadership ability, it’s better to start it sooner,” Popovich told ESPN earlier this week. “The quicker you make them feel responsible that they can do that, the better. Then if that person grabs onto it then you know you chose the right guy.”
The 22-year-old played the most minutes (25) of any American player in the first game and ended with a team-high scoring total. Two of his total tally of 16 points came through a highlight speed dribble-and-dunk sequence that brought the crowd to its feet.
There appears no doubt that he'll be a key factor in the coming days when his team faces more lethal threats as the tournament progresses. Despite Kemba being the captain of this squad, Donovan's energy, athleticism, and motivation on the court makes his intangible leadership stand out.
#2 Team USA's rather slow start meant this is no NBA basketball
Amidst the roaring spectators in Shanghai, the Czech stunned the Americans with a 9-0 run for a brisk 11-7 lead early in the game. As predictable as it might sound, Team USA bounced back with 10 straight points to go on a 29-9 run of their own and never looked back from that point on. The prohibitive favorites showed the world that there does exist a slight chance in the near future that the underdog just might topple the scales for good.
Apparently, this is not the league where you get to meet one particular team twice or thrice during the year. From the perspective of any team currently playing in the FIBA World Cup, there only exists a small window of time before you need to adapt to the opposition's style of play, before the clock runs out on you.
With this being the biggest World Cup ever - consisting of 32 teams - the versatility needed to read and capsize different teams on different days, is sky-high. And the quicker Team USA gets used to it, the better.
#3 Key takeaways for both the teams going forward
To everyone's surprise, Czech Republic were the more efficient team from the three-point line than their favored opponents. Despite the loss, the Czech shot 8-of-17 (47%) from distance while USA went 10-of-24 (41%) from long-range. Much of this three-point shooting anomaly could be attributed to the absence of Kyle Kuzma who was shooting lights out from deep before pulling out due to injury.
Team USA is due to face Turkey on Tuesday, which possesses professional weapons in Ersan Ilyasova and Cedi Osman. Coach Pop might repeat the smaller lineup and use Brown or Barnes who can handily defend the Turkish stars individually
Having fittingly relied on their biggest NBA export, Czech Republic received much-needed help from Tomas Satoransky who dropped a game-high 17 points on 7-of-13 shooting along with five assists. Next up his team faces Japan who house the latest dynamic NBA addition in Rui Hachimura. Japan dropped their first game to Turkey via a double-digit deficit and would be desperate to get a win on the board.
