The United States began their journey to the World Cup in China with a comfortable 88-67 victory over the Czech Republic in Shanghai.
The US team, winner of the last two World Cup events (Turkey-2010, Spain-2014), arrived at the Chinese event with a team much less fearsome than expected, although made up entirely of NBA players.
At the controls, in addition, is coach Gregg Popovich, coach of the San Antonio Spurs since 1996 and therefore champion of five NBA championships (1999, 20003, 2005, 2007, 2014).
After a victorious first quarter by 17-14, the American team went to rest dominating 43-29, and when they returned from the dressing room they only had to manage their advantage smoothly, bringing the entire squad onto the field.
Only two players exceeded 20 minutes on the court, guard Marcus Smart and point guard Donovan Mitchell, who added 16 points and a 50% accuracy in 3s in 25 minutes.
Forward Harrison Barnes was the North Americans’ next leading scorer with 14 points, and point guard Kemba Walker, who arrived at the Boston Celtics this summer, had 13 points and 4 assists.
On the part of the Czechs, the Chicago Bulls point guard Tomas Satoransky stood out, author of 17 points and 5 assists.
The combined of the Stars and Stripes was deprived of the presence of its best players, such as LeBron James, Stephen Curry, Kawhi Leonard or the preselected James Harden and Anthony Davis.
Despite everything, they are the top favorites to revalidate the title for the third time in a row, although teams of the stature of Serbia, Spain, Greece and Australia will want the history of 2002 and 2006 to be repeated, when the Americans were left out in the quarterfinals. final and semifinals respectively.
At the moment they have fulfilled in the first day like the rest of the favorites and have placed leaders of their key E with 2 points, the same as Turkey, which dispatched Japan earlier this Sunday with a very similar result: 86-67.
The Turks will be precisely the next opponents of the United States, next Tuesday. AFP