Anthony Edwards scored 15 points to lead a cooperative effort during their warm-up game against Slovenia, Jalen Brunson added 11 points and eight assists, and the Americans prevailed in Malaga, Spain. On Saturday, the World Cup team defeated Slovenia 92-62 in a warm-up game.
Five of the 12 American players finished with between seven and nine points during the World Cup warm-up game. (Photo: San Diego Union Tribune)
Before traveling to the Philippines for the World Cup, the Americans improved to 2-0 on their five-game warm-up game schedule thanks to 10 goals from Tyrese Haliburton and Austin Reaves. It defeated Puerto Rico 117-74 in Monday’s warm-up game opener in Las Vegas.
Dallas Mavericks All-NBA guard Luka Doncic missed Saturday’s contest out of caution. In Slovenia’s 99-79 loss to Spain on Friday, he had 17 points but also missed some of that warm-up game due to a somewhat awkward landing on a drive.
Five of the 12 American players finished with between seven and nine points during the warm-up game. For the winners, Mikal Bridges had nine points, Cam Johnson, Paolo Banchero, Bobby Portis, each had eight, and Brandon Ingram had seven.
On Sunday, the United States plays Spain in a game between the top two countries in the world as ranked by FIBA, with Spain at the top of that list.
Sergio Scariolo, the coach of Spain, stated, “One more stage of our preparation against the strongest rival in the world.”
After Sunday, the American team travels to the United Arab Emirates for matches against Greece on August 18 and Germany on August 20 in Abu Dhabi.
The World Cup will be held in the Philippines, Japan, and Indonesia; the United States will be in Manila for the duration of the competition and will play New Zealand on August 26, Greece on August 28, and Jordan on August 30.
Tip-ins
Slovenia: Despite Doncic’s absence, Slovenia still had eight members of the squad that placed fourth at the Olympics in Tokyo two summers ago: Aleksej Nikolic, Klemen Prepelic, Mike Tobey, a former center for Virginia, Jaka Blazic, Gregor Hrovat, Ziga Dimec, Zoran Dragic, and Jakob Cebasek. Vlatko Cancar of the Denver Nuggets was supposed to play for the team, but he injured his knee earlier this month and will now be out for a while.
USA: Josh Hart played his first game for USA Basketball. As part of his four-year extension with the New York Knicks, he was unable to attend the game on Monday. … Jeff Van Gundy assisted Tyronn Lue and Mark Few on coach Steve Kerr’s staff this weekend as U.S. assistant coach Erik Spoelstra of Miami was absent due to his attendance at the Basketball Hall of Fame enshrinement ceremony (Heat great Dwyane Wade was among the class).
