After Two More Wins, Team USA Is Continuing To Go America All Over Everyone's Asses

Juan Ocampo. Getty Images.

With about 11 days to go until the FIBA World Cup officially starts, all eyes have been on this new version of Team USA. None of the players on the roster have ever played for Team USA before, so the tune up games are really the only thing we have to base any sort of opinion on how this group looks together. 

In their opener, they beat the absolute shit out of Puerto Rico after a close first half, ultimately winning by over 40. That felt pretty familiar when you're talking about Team USA vs the world. Over the weekend Team USA had a couple more tune up games, one against Slovenia and the next against Spain, and I'm happy to report that this group continues to look at dominant as ever.

Unfortunately for Slovenia, they decided to rest Luka Doncic for that game. I think you can pretty much imagine how that went if you weren't able to catch it live

A 40 point win in Game 1 followed up by a 30 point win in Game 2. Not bad! 

Anthony Edwards continues to show he's every bit the unstoppable international force that Team USA is going to need him to be. His job is pretty clear. Get buckets

What's been great so far in these tune up games for Team USA is how balanced they've been. While Edwards may be their #1 offensive option, what has stood out is how consistently they've been getting strong performances from up and down the roster. In this game alone Jalen Brunson had 11/8, Austin Reaves and Tyrese Haliburtin both had 10, Josh Hart did a little bit of everything filling his role to perfection in his Team USA debut now that he has that signed extension. They're moving the ball (26 AST on 39 FGM), and once Team USA was able to break away in the 2nd quarter, this was one was pretty much a wrap.

It's one thing to beat Slovenia without Luka, it's another to take on Spain. They are a much more formidable opponent, and are also coming off winning the EuroBasket title last summer. At some point you would like Team USA to be tested, and that's exactly what this game was

This time, it was the Jalen Brunson show. I don't want to get too dramatic here, but it was essentially a perfect showing

Tough to be better than that in my opinion. But again, the balance of this roster was everywhere. JJJ had 14/5 with 3 blocks, Mikal Bridges chipped in 12, Edwards and Ingram both had 11, offensively it was a complete bloodbath. If Team USA is going to shoot 66/55% with 10 3PM, they're going to rock this tournament. If there were any questions how this team would do shooting the ball once we saw the roster, I'd say the 56.7% we've seen through 3 tune up games is pretty damn good.

Remember, Spain had passed over the US as the #1 team in the FIBA rankings, and I think after what we saw yesterday a rematch during the real games would be very, very fun. If Team USA is going to continue to find way to lock in defensively, dominate at the rim, and then combine all that with a balanced offensive attack with good ball movement, it may not matter that none of these players have international experience. The expectation of Team USA will always be to dominate everything in their path, and coming off a gold medal in the Olympics, there's a lot of pressure on this group to avenge the horrific showing the 2019 FIBA team had and everything we've seen so far suggests that's exactly what's going to happen.