The United States men's national team bounced back from Sunday's loss to Lithuania with a dominant performance on Tuesday, steamrolling Italy 100-63 in the 2023 FIBA World Cup quarterfinals in the Philippines.
Pacers All-Star guard Tyrese Haliburton had a big hand in the USA's success. Haliburton went 6-for-8 from 3-point range on his way to 18 points, four rebounds, five assists, three steals, and one block.
Haliburton provided the highlight that summed up the game, throwing a between-the-legs alley oop to Paolo Banchero.
Mikal Bridges had a team-high 24 points for the United States, while Austin Reaves added 12 in a balanced effort.
With the victory, the Americans advance to Friday's semifinals, where they will face the winner of Wednesday's game between Germany and Latvia. If Germany wins, Haliburton will go head-to-head with his Pacers teammate Daniel Theis for a berth in Sunday's championship game.
By advancing this far, the United States has already qualified for the Olympics and ensured no worse than a fourth-place finish. That will be an improvement on their performance in the last World Cup in 2019, when the United States finished seventh. The Americans won the two previous iterations of the world championship in 2010 and 2014.