FIBA Worlds: USA Play Semis
The United States made another clear step forward to progress into the semi finals at Turkish Worlds. Durant and Co. beat Russia 89-79 with just one quarter lost after the first brought the two teams head to head to end 25-25 and give no sensation about who the winner is going to be. The second quarter started though to shape the winner the US led by five points, respectively nine in the third. The star of the night was played by Kevin Durant, the one who brought 33 points for Americans to have also a solid contribution for their place into the last four.
Ironically, the victory came at exactly 38 years after the Soviet Union defeated United States to take the Olympic gold medal at the moment as no young player is old enough to remember that period. Mike Banton, who played almost four decades ago against the Soviets is part of the US delegation in Turkey though, this being NBA’s senior vice president of player development. However, Billups told Bantom before the game that it would be a very nice present for the US team to bring that loss back and take the win in front of Russia. “I told him today, ‘I know nothing’s going to bring that back, man, but at least we’ll try to make you at least smile today. And he was like, ‘Yeah, that’d be nice.’,” Billups said. On the other hand, Durant was just two points behind Carmelo Anthony to be the one who scores the most at a world championship. Anthony claimed 35 points in 2006. Coach Mike Krzyzewski also claimed that he will look for Durant to take the ball. “We’re going to go to him. I’ve learned in coaching you should get your best player the ball,” he said.
USA wait now to see who will be their next opponent. They will play either Argentina or Lithuania as the semi final is scheduled to take place on Saturday. As for the other semi final, this already set between host Turkey and Serbia. Billups scored 15 points, while mate Westbrook just 12. “I think some of us, we kind of started off a little slow and then didn’t jump on them early, and tonight that was a big problem for us. Then second half, we kind of got into our rhythm,” Westbrook declared right after the match.
