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Team USA Advances To World Cup Finals

Holly MacKenzie - Raptors.comThanks to a Thursday evening victory against Lithuania, Team USA moves on to Sunday’s World Cup gold medal game. Bouncing back from an ugly first half, USA used a huge third quarter to pull away from Lithuania and finish with a dominant 96-68 victory.

After the game, USA head coach Mike Krzyzewski praised the competitive spirit of his opponent.

“It’s always an honour to play against Lithuania,” Krzyzewski said. “What a great basketball country.

“For us they were more than a worthy opponent tonight. They’re a really good opponent. We fouled like crazy. I can’t think of a game that I coached for the U.S. where it’s 42-20 [in favor of the opponent] for free throws. We’re usually the aggressor.”

After starting out slow and holding just an eight-point lead at the half, Team USA came out on fire after the break. Reeling off an 18-2 run to start the third quarter, USA found its groove and didn’t look back.

Kyrie Irving led Team USA with 18 points, while Klay Thomspon and James Harden scored 16 points apiece. 

“Kyrie [Irving] was special in this game, in that third quarter,” Krzyzewski said. “He got us moving. Everybody started moving with him. We feel very fortunate to be going on and playing on Sunday.”

Mindaugas Kuzminskas led Lithuania with 15 points and nine rebounds while Toronto Raptors big man Jonas Valanciunas scored 15 points and grabbed seven boards. Valanciunas recorded just five field goal attempts against USA’s front-heavy roster, but he spent much of his time at the free throw line where he shot 11-for-13 from the stripe.

“They definitely came out hard,” DeMar DeRozan told Ball in Europe’s Emmet Ryan. “They got two traditional bigs that were trying to play inside. We were just trying to contain everything they were trying to do.”

Harden scored all of his 16 points in the third quarter where Team USA outscored Lithuania 33-14 to own a commanding 76-49 lead going into the fourth.

“Maybe we let them go,” Valanciunas said.  “They really did it in the third quarter. They made their run. That was good from their side.”

The semifinal included plenty of chippiness as DeMarcus Cousins took offence to an elbow from Valanciunas and stepped toward him to let him know he wasn’t impressed. Cousins received a technical foul for his reaction. 

Despite the huge USA advantage, DeRozan was scoreless in eight minutes off of the bench. Thursday was the first time that Valanciunas and DeRozan had faced each other in international competition since Valanciunas was drafted by Toronto in 2012.

 While Valanciunas was disappointed with the outcome for Lithuania, he acknowledged that it was fun to take the court facing off against his Raptors teammate and said the two spoke before the game and that he wished him good luck in Sunday’s final after the final buzzer. 

Although he is playing a limited role for Team USA, DeRozan is continuing to embrace the opportunity of suiting up for his country and was excited to advance to the championship game.

“It should be fun,” DeRozan said. “This is what we all signed up for, to be playing there for the gold medal. This is what it’s all about.”

USA will play the winner of Friday’s semi-final match up between Serbia and France. Lithuania will play for the bronze medal against whoever loses in Friday’s battle between Serbia and France.