Team USA made it look easy, as they very well should, by defeating Finland in Saturdays opener for the FIBA World Cup of Basketball played in Bilbao, Spain. They ran, they dunked, they stole balls, and Finland watched Derrick Rose run by and dunk like they were just watching a dunk contest. Yes, Finland was a mess, so much so that they were actually held to a two point quarter. That’s right, they only managed two lonely points in an entire ten minute quarter of basketball. The two points didn’t even come from a basket but two free throws. This was absolute domination by Team USA and the final score of 114-55 does not do them justice.
Coach K won’t be happy though and will definitely focus on his teams 19 turnovers they commited and the mediocre three point shooting as Team USA went 6 of 18 from three. You absolutely can’t have those kind of issues vs the top teams. Klay Thompson led all scorers with 18 points on 7 of 10 shooting. Anthony Davis was second with 17 points off 6 of 8 shooting.
Meanwhile, Derrick Rose had an impressive dunk in the game, check it out if you haven’t. It’s good to see him getting his legs right and even though Finland just stood watching the dunk it’s still an encouraging sign. Apart fron the dunk, Rose scored 12 points on 3 of 8 shooting and led Team USA in turnovers with 5. Not the category you want to lead your team in. Rose also played the most out of Team USA at 22 minutes and 41 seconds. An odd category to be leading when you’re Derrick Rose and your team wins by 59. This was just one game and the beatings won’t be this bad in the future.