By Antonis Stroggylakis / info@eurohoops.net
It has been nearly 13 years since Team USA lost a game in a major international tournament.
On September 1st, 2006, Greece handed the USA what was a 101 – 95 defeat in the World Cup semifinal. This devastating result for the then-favorite to win the tournament American team served as a lesson that led to spotless records and gold medals in the World Cup and Olympic tournaments that followed.
Team USA had been considered unbeatable without even stepping on the court. Not this year though.
For the first time in 13 years, the USA feels and looks vulnerable. The numerous absences (among them All-Stars such as Anthony Davis, James Harden, Damian Lillard, and CJ McCollum) have stolen USA from some of what would have been a mountain unmatched quality. And there are a couple of teams that are ready to take advantage of this and potentially defeat them in a knockout game.
Serbia
Following USA’s defeat to Australia in an exhibition game that took place in Melbourne, Serbia is the only team that marches to the World Cup with an undefeated streak in preparation matches. FIBA has already placed them at the top spot in two straight World Cup rankings twice, and they are widely considered to be the No. 1 threat that the USA faces en route to making the World Cup three-peat.
And why not? Despite the injury and expected absence of captain Milos Teodosic, Serbia is a squad that combines an abundance of quality, experience, talent, and knowledge of how to compete in this kind of tournaments. And win medals.
All-Star center Nikola Jokic, one of the most phenomenal basketball players of our age from any way you look at it, is back with the “Orlovi” for the first time since the 2006 Olympics. There’s NBAers Bogdan Bogdanovic, Nemanja Bjelica, Boban Marjanovic and newly acquired Memphis Grizzlies guard Marko Guduric. Vasilije Micic, who is coming from an All-EuroLeague Team breakout season, will carry out playmaking duties, together with Stefan Jovic.
Serbia should be one of the most dangerous shooting teams in the tournament. There are six players (Bogdanovic, Bjelica, Guduric, Micic, Jokic, and Marko Simonovic) in the squad who can shoot, let’s say, 5/5 3-pointers in any given night, and a couple of more (Jovic, Vladimir Lucic, Stefan Bircevic) able to punish an opposing defense when left wide open.
Recent history is not on Serbia’s side since USA prevailed easily in both the 2014 World Cup Final and the 2016 Olympic Games Final. Here’s another reason that Sasha Djordjevic’s players will want to stop this run and grab the opportunity to finish at the top this time.