Image via WikipediaSTANBUL (AP)—For weeks, U.S. players have been hearing about what they aren’t.
Not big enough. Not old enough. And maybe even not good enough.
Kevin Durant and Team USA looked solid in their opener at the worlds.
On Saturday, they finally got to show what they believe they can be: the team that ends a 16-year world championship drought.
“People aren’t expecting us to come out here and win, so we just wanted to make a statement and I think tonight we did,” Durant said.
Eric Gordon(notes) made four 3-pointers and had 16 points to lead the Americans, who turned a close game into a blowout by limiting the Croatians to six points in the second quarter. Chauncey Billups(notes) finished with 12 points.
It was an impressive start for a U.S. team that came to Turkey without any players who helped them win the gold medal in the 2008 Olympics. Instead of those superstars, the Americans are left with a young, undersized team that features Durant, the NBA’s leading scorer, as its centerpiece.
All 12 players scored for the Americans, as coach Mike Krzyzewski was able to give his starters plenty of rest with the U.S. playing its three toughest Group B games in the first three days of the tournament.
Bojan Bogdanovic scored 17 points and Marko Popovic added 16 for Croatia, which once was among the world’s best teams but hadn’t played in the world championship since winning a bronze medal in 1994.
The Croatians hung tough for a quarter but couldn’t overcome their awful perimeter shooting in the second period.
The Americans scored the first seven points of the game, but Croatia settled down and executed its offense well in the halfcourt to get open looks under the basket. The Croatians grabbed a 19-18 lead on Marko Banic’s follow shot with 1:42 left in the first quarter and trailed just 22-20 heading to the second.
But the U.S. quickly blew it open in the second. Durant’s three-point play started a 12-0 run that pushed the lead to 14, and consecutive 3-pointers by Gordon and another by Rudy Gay(notes) extended it to 47-26 with 1:48 to go in the half.
Croatia was just 3 of 17 from the field in the period and missed 12 of its 13 3-point attempts in the half.
Gay and Russell Westbrook(notes) both scored 10 points for the Americans, who shot 55 percent from the field and were only outrebounded 41-39 despite using a small lineup with 6-foot-10 Lamar Odom(notes) as the starting center. Reserve Kevin Love(notes) grabbed 10 rebounds in just 13 minutes.
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