FIBA World Cup: Team USA can’t overcome lethargic start, loses to Serbia

Team USA has ensured its worst-ever finish at a FIBA World Cup event, losing to Serbia 94-89 in Thursday’s classification round game.

It was the matchup the world was waiting for at the FIBA World Cup. It just happened at the wrong place and time.

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Thursday’s classification round for fifth through eighth places at the FIBA World Cup opened with a meeting between Team USA and Serbia.

These were the teams that appeared to be on a collision course for a high-profile meeting in the semifinals, particularly given USA Basketball arriving with a full complement of 12 NBA players and Serbia winning its first four games by an average of more than 40 points a night.

For Serbia, it started to crumble at the end of the second round with a convincing loss to Spain followed by a double-digit defeat in the quarterfinals to Argentina.

Team USA showed its vulnerability early in the tournament, barely escaping an upset bid by Turkey — which finished 22nd among the 32 teams in the field — in its second game of the first-round group stage on Sept. 3.

The U.S. made it to the quarterfinals undefeated, but took one on the chin Wednesday, an 89-79 loss to France that set up the game the pundits were hoping for … to see which team would get to play for fifth place in the last game of the tournament to be played in Dongguan.

Team USA came out Thursday looking exactly like a team that lost 24 hours earlier and really didn’t want to be there. Bogdan Bogdanovic of the Sacramento Kings was on fire early, scoring 12 points on four consecutive 3-pointers in the first 4:02 of the game.

Bogdanovic left to have a cut on his arm attended to, but it didn’t matter. Serbia made just about everything in the first quarter and the U.S. countered by missing just about everything.

Kemba Walker of the Boston Celtics made a 3-pointer for Team USA with 6:50 to go in the period to cut the Serbian lead to 11-5.

The next basket for the Americans was a turnaround jumper by Khris Middleton of the Milwaukee Bucks. Serbia had scored 15 straight points, Team USA had gone without a point for 5:39 and the rout appeared to be on.

Serbia, for good measure, closed the period with six consecutive points and led by a ridiculous 32-7 margin at the quarter break.

To its credit, Team USA battled back. They outscored Serbia 33-12 in the second quarter to close to within four by halftime at 44-40.

But the Americans could never quite get over the hump. Serbia’s lead shrunk to two points, 61-59, in the third quarter before the Serbians pushed the advantage back to six. The U.S. trailed by three, 71-68, entering the fourth quarter, well within striking distance.

Another scoring drought would spell the end for Team USA, however. Serbia scored seven unanswered points to open the fourth quarter and the U.S. didn’t get its first points until Harrison Barnes of the Kings knocked down two free throws with 6:14 remaining.

Barnes also ended the drought from the floor with a jumper on Team USA’s next possession, but 4:17 had elapsed and Serbia led 81-72 after Barnes’ bucket. The closest the Americans would get the rest of the way was to close the gap to four.

As has been the case throughout their stay in China, Team USA just didn’t shoot enough to win. They hit 43.7 percent (31-for-71) overall and were 11-for-31 (35.5 percent) from 3-point range. Not even a 41-33 edge on the glass could help them.

That’s because Serbia hit 52.4 percent (33-for-63) overall and was 15-for-31 (48.4 percent) from 3-point range, led by Bogdanovic’s 7-for-14 accuracy from downtown.

The rising third-year NBA guard had a game-high 28 points to go with six assists and Vladimir Lucic added 15 points, including a perfect 3-for-3 from deep.

Nikola Jokic of the Denver Nuggets played point center, racking up seven assists in just 21 minutes while going 3-for-4 and scoring nine points.

Barnes, the only holdover on the Team USA roster from the gold-medal winning group in Rio de Janeiro for the 2016 Olympics, had his best game of the tournament in the loss, scoring 22 points on 7-of-11 shooting.

Walker added 18 to go with a game-high eight assists and Middleton scored 16 points with a game-high six rebounds.

The U.S. will play Poland in Beijing on Saturday for seventh place, assuring them of their worst finish ever in a FIBA World Cup/World Championships. Their previous worst had been sixth in 2002, when the tournament was held in Indianapolis.