U.S. routs Greece to reach FIBA WC 2nd round

MANILA, Philippines — When coach Steve Kerr came to practice on Sunday and saw some of his Team USA players were a little frustrated after a 27-point win, he smiled. The first FIBA World Cup lesson had landed.

That mood carried into Monday night, where the U.S. played a more focused, cleaner and overall better game in beating Greece, 109-81, to move to 2-0 in the event. The win assures the U.S. will move on to the second round after their last pool play game Wednesday against Jordan.

Against New Zealand in the opener the Americans won easily but were the less physical and less prepared team for a good chunk of the game. That is the sort of bad habit that had portended trouble for the national team in the past.

Those worries were pushed off against the Greeks, which are empirically the toughest opponent the U.S. will face in pool play if not as potent without the injured Giannis Antetokounmpo.

Jalen Brunson, who had been just so-so in his performance over the last few games, emerged looking to set a tone as is captain status demands. He came out looking for his shot, barking at the referees and generally showing fire he wanted to contagious. Brunson made all five of his shots and finished with 13 points, helping a bounce back effort from the Team USA starters that had been outplayed over the last two games.

Anthony Edwards, the Americans’ scoring ace, started 1-of-6 shooting as he was shaking off a little cool down after being awesome in the warmup games, but he found his game as the night wore on and finished with 13.

Overall the starters were better than the last few outings, but still the lesser unit. Kerr often group substitutes and the difference in the effectiveness between the first and second team is still obvious.

In the first half, the U.S. starters outscored Greece by two points. The second unit, led again by the inspired play from Austin Reaves, was plus-11. That cushion made the second half comfortable and the starters got some momentum by extending the lead in the third quarter.

Reaves was drawing fouls, thrilling the crowd with breakaway dunks and even taking some trash on his way to 15 points, five rebounds and six assists.

But he was only part of the success as Tyrese Haliburton and Paolo Banchero were terrific on defense, battling the bigger Greeks in the post and piling up stops. Haliburton blocked two shots and Banchero, who continues to get minutes at backup center, refused to yield in the post.

Josh Hart, who played some of his most effective minutes with the team thus far, and Cameron Johnson were part of some swarming defensive spurts with the “backups.”

Center Georgios Papagiannis, a former lottery pick of the Sacramento Kings, scored 17 points to lead Greece.