USA Basketball Clinches Top Spot In Group With Win Over Dominican Republic

USA Basketball probably hasn’t brought its A-game yet at the 2014 FIBA World Cup, but against a Dominican Republic team playing without its best player, Coach Mike Krzyzewski’s squad didn’t need it Wednesday. With a 106-71 victory, Team USA remained undefeated in group play and clinched the top spot in Group C.

Kenneth Faried continued to play his way into a nice future contract extension with the Denver Nuggets, putting up 16 points on 8-of-11 shooting and six rebounds. He’s now shooting an absurd 29-for-37 from the field (78.4 percent) in the tournament, leading the entire tournament in field goal percentage. Faried’s motor and toughness attacking the basket has proven to be a problem for Team USA’s opponents and Faried continued to scrap his way to easy points from high-flying alley-oops and tenacious putbacks:

Another lackluster first half effort helped the Dominicans hang around early, but unlike games against Turkey and even New Zealand, Team USA’s bench played a big role in the first quarter, scoring 13 of their 25 points. Rudy Gay was one of the first guys off Coach K’s bench and finished with nine points, five assists, four rebounds, two blocks and two steals. DeMarcus Cousins had a solid game with 13 points, five rebounds and a team-high six steals, while Klay Thompson added eight points and three steals.

DeMar DeRozan hasn’t played particularly meaningful minutes so far for Team USA, but that didn’t stop him from submitting the highlight of the game with an emphatic dunk that put the Americans up by 27 and ignited his teammates on the bench. On the following play, Derrick Rose found DeRozan on a fast break lob after nearly letting the ball slip from his hands. DeRozan finished with 11 points, two of which came on that aforementioned gravity-defying jam:

That dunk was one of many fast break opportunities for the United States in the second half, when the Americans used a 22-0 run spanning the third and fourth quarters to build a 40-point advantage. At that point, the game had pretty much become a real-life version of NBA Jam for Team USA, with the rarely used Andre Drummond and Mason Plumlee logging some minutes.

USA Basketball’s defense looked like it needed some work in the first half. Despite Anthony Davis throwing his own block party early on, Team USA’s perimeter defenders were continually beat off the dribble in one-on-one situations by the crafty Dominican guards. In the second half, the Americans locked down on that end, contesting shots, turning steals into transition points and holding the Dominicans to 30 second half points. The Americans finished with 17 steals and eight blocks while Davis had with 10 points, seven rebounds and five blocks.

James Harden added 10 points, three assists and two steals, Stephen Curry had with eight points and seven assists and Kyrie Irving and Derrick Rose finished with six points apiece. Rose, whose game (and shot) has been the subject of some scrutiny so far at the FIBA World Cup, went 2-for-5 from the floor and continued to struggle from three-point range. However, despite looking slightly less athletic playing his fourth game in five days, Rose almost made SportsCenter’s Top 10 for a month when he got UP for an alley-oop that he simply mishandled.

The Dominicans, who were playing without Francisco Garcia, were led by Victor Liz, who finished with 15 points. Garcia is the fifth-leading scorer at the FIBA World Cup and might have helped keep things close early, but the Dominican Republic decided to withhold him to make sure he’s rested for a potential do-or-die game against Turkey Thursday.

Despite what the final score indicates, it wasn’t a perfect effort from the US by any means. Team USA will still need to be better once they face some real competition (like Spain) in the knockout stage. The Americans once again struggled from the free throw line, going 12-for-19 from the stripe (63 percent). They also had major problems from three-point territory, going 6-for-29 from downtown (29 percent). Finally, Team USA will need to cut down on their turnovers against better competition (16 against the Dominicans).

Team USA wraps up group play Thursday against Ukraine. Regardless of the result they will play the four seed from Group D in the Round of 16.