Stephen Curry, Coach Steve Kerr and Team USA went 3-0 in the group stage and advanced to the Quarterfinals. USA Basketball finished as the first seed, beating their three opponents by an average margin of 21 points.
Among the three unbeaten teams in group play, the United States’ overall plus-minus (+64) was 17 points higher than Germany (+47) and 44 points higher than Canada (+20).
Curry averaged 7.3 points and 2.6 assists per game in group play. He joined LeBron James and Devin Booker as the only players to start in every game.
Coach Kerr experimented with several different lineup combinations, with a unique starting five taking the court in each contest. Against reigning three-time NBA MVP Nikola Jokic and Serbia, Kerr opted for the size and post play of 2023 NBA MVP Joel Embiid.
Against a more athletic perimeter-centric South Sudan squad, Kerr started reigning NBA champion and First Team All-NBA forward Jayson Tatum.
“Whatever we need to do to win, that’s what we’re going to do,” Kerr said.
“Every opponent is different. We’ve got options for everything and we’re going to use those options.”
In every game USAB played in group play, their leading scorer came from their dynamic second unit. Kevin Durant paced the team with 23 points on 8-for-9 shooting against Serbia, Bam Adebayo led the way with 18 points on 8-for-10 shooting against South Sudan and Anthony Edwards scored 26 points on 11-for-15 shooting against Puerto Rico.
“The beauty of USA basketball is we have more great players than the other countries,” Kerr said.
“We can lean on all those great players depending on matchups and how we want to play. Every single guy is capable of taking over a game.”
From now on, USAB will face single-game elimination. They have claimed the first seed of the eight remaining teams and will play for a chance at the Semifinals on Tuesday.
The top two teams from each group and the two best third-placed teams advanced and will be regrouped based on their group stage results. The new groups and USA Basketball’s opponent will be solidified after Serbia and South Sudan’s final game of group play on Saturday.
So far, Canada and Australia have advanced from Group A, Germany, France and Brazil moved on from Group B and the United States are in from Group C.
