SHANGHAI: Reigning champions the United States were given a huge scare in a nail-biting 93-92 overtime victory over Turkey at the Basketball World Cup on Tuesday to labour into the second round.
Khris Middleton was the overtime hero for Gregg Popovich’s young team, who are chasing a third straight title, but are missing their stellar names and are yet to really gel.
Following Sunday’s comfortable but unspectacular 88-67 win over the Czech Republic in their opener, Popovich said the team “got a ways to go”.
There was more evidence of that in Shanghai as they made hard work of dismissing Turkey, beaten by Team USA in the 2010 final.
“I have to give a shout-out to everybody on the team, we stuck together and grinded this thing out,” said Myles Turner, of the Indiana Pacers, calling it one of the best games he had played in.
“We know we are going to get every team’s best shot. We are Team USA, teams are gunning for us and want to beat us.”
The US led at half-time only for Turkey – ranked 17th in the world to America’s number one – to tie at 59-59 with less than two minutes left of the third quarter.
That brought a huge roar from much of the crowd. After taking the lead with 12 seconds to play, the Turks looked all set for a famous victory, only for Jayson Tatum to rescue the Americans by making two of three free throws at the death to make it 81-81.
The Americans were trailing in overtime and headed for a rare loss, before Milwaukee Bucks forward Middleton — who was to lead the US scoring with 15
points — held his nerve to nail two free throws to snatch a dramatic win. In contrast, Turkey missed a succession of free throws down the stretch.
Popovich’s team, one of the youngest at the 32-team competition, look vulnerable and, on current form, Serbia look the more potent. – AFP
