The U.S. team still lost in the semifinals, but they should be glad that it was Germany who lost, and the scene was not ugly, and if they met Serbia, they probably didn't lose only two points.
You can lose to Lithuania, and you can certainly lose to Germany, because this is probably the most modest U.S. men's basketball team to compete in the World Championship/World Cup since 1994.
To describe the American team of NBA players in plain terms is the best compliment for them. Compared with their predecessors, although these people also have outstanding physical fitness, superb and solid basic skills, they have a modest attitude, are restrained and low-key, and obey orders.
In front of such an American team, the opponents have long ceased to remain in awe or even admiration, but are full of self-confidence, and there are many masters who have broken through or even made a name for themselves in the NBA, and there is a European-style team support. In front of these European powerhouses, Cole's selection of the squad is thin and the core is not prominent enough.
At key moments in key matches, the U.S. team doesn't have its own Valanciunas, doesn't have its own Wagner brothers, doesn't have its own Schroeder, and if they run into Serbia, they don't have their own Bogdan Bogdanovic.
The U.S. team has Edwards, Bronson, and Bridges, all of whom have worked their own to make themselves leaders on their respective NBA teams. But compared to the status of European stars on their national teams, these few are not prominent enough in the United States, and even in the NBA, they have not yet reached the top.
Team USA leaders grew up in battle, and NBA resumes and backgrounds don't play any role here.
The first to strike his mark was Edwards, who proved to be in better shape than Ingram and wanted to fight more. Edwards was suppressed, and it was Bridges who stood up in the knockout rounds.
The core uncertainty of the American team makes them lack Schroder's self-giving spirit at critical moments. Trailing by 10 points, Edwards, who had already hit his team with two smashes, made a crucial pass to the air, where he thought center Jackson Jr. was standing.
As the NBA's best defensive player, Jaylen Jackson Jr. went from being used to fouling too many injuries at the World Cup until he was refrigerated at the end, reflecting two major puzzles of head coach Cole:
First, why is the best defensive player in the NBA so unbearable in front of world basketball, coming out and not getting in, going in and out, and those centers in Europe who do not play in the NBA come and go freely, both to the outside to assist in defense, but also to effectively protect the basket.
Second, he already knows international basketball so well, but European basketball can be faster, higher and stronger than he knows.
So on the question of whether to use or not use Jackson Jr., Cole hesitated. In the loss to Lithuania, Jackson Jr. committed too many fouls in the first half and was pulled away by up to 21 points, while Jackson Jr.'s plus-minus was +18 in the second half. But it wasn't until he played Germany that he realized that Jackson Jr.'s problem wasn't just fouls, because he didn't have a single foul in the first half, and the U.S. team still started 10 points behind.
With Kerr's habit of leading the Warriors, as long as there is a problem on the court, it will be small. If the striker has a problem, it will be changed to a big or four small, if the big center has a problem, it will be changed to a small center, and if the small center has a problem, it will be changed to five small. So in the first half, he only let Jackson Jr. play 7 minutes, preferring to use Banqueiro to play center, and the basket protection was left to the 1-2-2 joint defense.
Cole's small lineup was punished by the German team's forward group, with big center Voigmann playing only 17 minutes with a plus-minus of +14, and substitute striker Tieman frequently back-to-back Reeves, whether in rebounding, interior scoring or secondary scoring, Germany has the upper hand.
Cole's post-match comments were clearly from the heart -
"Basketball has been completely globalized in the last 30 years, these games are too difficult to play, it's not 1992, the players in the world are getting better and better, the teams are getting stronger and stronger, it's not easy to win a World Cup or an Olympic title."
Although Germany is the only team unbeaten so far in the World Cup, they are not invulnerable, at least when it comes to limiting leader Schroeder, Latvia has done a much better job. They let Schroeder go 0-of-9 in the first half and scored only 9 points, while the U.S. team, whether it was center Jackson Jr. or forward Reeves, couldn't do anything about Schroeder.
Super confidence, so that the German team from the beginning of the American team to play an offensive war, they did not even increase the number of mistakes, only 6 errors in the first half and 4 in the second half, which cut off the opportunity for the American team to fight back at the source. The small lineup of the United States team could not take advantage of the rebound, and Theis, who was traded in the NBA, scored 21 points on the head of the American team.
Imagine if the U.S. team had met Serbia in the semifinals, or got away with it, and the final against Serbia?
Unlike the German team, Serbia is taller and especially fierce in defense, even without the kidney removed interior lineman Simanik, there are still 6 people more than two meters and an outside height of 192. Center forward Miludinov is taller and nimble than Germany's Voigmann. He doesn't play playmaker like Jokic, but he makes Serbia more like an orthodox European powerhouse.
Without Jokic, the Serbian team has regained the traditional characteristics of the former Yugoslav team's tough defense and efficient projection, and the biggest difference from the previous is that it seems to press the double button.
Germany faced the same problem against Serbia in the final, as Germany's leader Schroeder became the shortest man on the field, and pitcher Obst struggled to score 24 points as he did in the semifinals.
As for the U.S. team, aside from Cole's statement that "the world is getting stronger and we are not moving forward", there is always a high-sounding reason for losing the World Cup, and that is not sending the best players.
So in Paris, is it to bring James back?
James's emoji is meaningful.