{"id":328231,"date":"2023-09-04T00:47:11","date_gmt":"2023-09-04T00:47:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/?p=328231"},"modified":"2023-09-04T02:01:15","modified_gmt":"2023-09-04T02:01:15","slug":"not-the-same-fear-team-usa-stunned-at-world-cup","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/?p=328231","title":{"rendered":"'Not the same fear': Team USA stunned at World Cup"},"content":{"rendered":"

The US is assured of going to Paris 2024<\/a>. That's good. It also has a quarter-final game at the World Cup<\/a> awaiting. That's also good.<\/p>\n

Thing is, the only celebrating in Manila on Sunday night was done by the guys in the other locker room.<\/p>\n

It will not be an undefeated summer for the Americans, not after Lithuania \u2014 with a mix of pizzazz from outside and power down low \u2014 led for all but a few very early moments against the only World Cup team composed entirely of NBA players.<\/p>\n

READ MORE:<\/strong> Iconic band to headline AFL grand final day<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n

READ MORE:<\/strong> 'Ruthless' Roosters ploy revealed that busted Bunnies<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n<\/p>\n

LIVE UPDATES:<\/strong> All the scores and action from the US Open day seven<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n

The final score: Lithuania 110, US 104. The winners went a staggering 9 for 9 from 3-point range to open the game and set a tone, bullied their way to a 43-27 rebounding edge and had seven players in double figures with two others just one point shy of joining that club.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe're fortunate that the loss doesn't hurt us in terms of our goal, which is to win the gold medal,\u201d US coach Steve Kerr said. \u201cBut it's a great game for us to experience because this is FIBA. There's some great teams that have continuity, that understand what they're doing, that execute and I thought Lithuania was brilliant tonight. They deserved to win.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"US<\/p>\n

Vaidas Kariniauskas scored 15 points, Mindaugas Kuzminskas added 14 and Lithuania (5-0) wound up winning its second-round group, which really only matters for seeding purposes. Lithuania gets Serbia in the quarter-finals, while the US will face Italy.<\/p>\n

The other quarter-finals are: Germany vs Latvia and Canada vs Slovenia.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn (the) locker room, I said to our guys to celebrate shortly and save all the energy and emotions also for the upcoming game,\u201d Lithuania coach Kazys Maksvytis said.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt's very hard. We got one of the biggest wins in our career, but we don't have time to celebrate this. Serbia's waiting and they're not waiting for us with flowers and the red carpet.\u201d<\/p>\n

https:\/\/twitter.com\/BasketballOnX\/status\/1698479732851986857?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw<\/a><\/p>\n

The loss \u2014 the first for the US in 10 games this summer, counting five exhibitions on the way to the World Cup \u2014 came on a night when the Americans officially clinched a berth in Paris next year.<\/p>\n

And the loss won't change the mission going forward in the World Cup medal chase, either.<\/p>\n

Win Tuesday, win Friday and win next Sunday, and the Americans are gold medallists. Sounds simple. But Lithuania showed it won't be.<\/p>\n

\u201cGot to give them credit,\u201d US point guard Jalen Brunson said. \u201cThey came out ready to play. Lot of respect to them.\u201d<\/p>\n

But it was a still a shocker, especially for a US team that was the overwhelming favourite to win the gold.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The US is assured of going to Paris 2024. That's good. It also has a quarter-final game at the World Cup awaiting. That's also good. […]<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":328233,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/328231"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=328231"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/328231\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":328234,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/328231\/revisions\/328234"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/328233"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=328231"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=328231"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=328231"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}