Basketball Capsules: U.S. gets needed practice, expects to look sharper

ISTANBUL — After one lackluster victory during pool play, Mike Krzyzewski encountered some feistier competition in his news conference than the U.S. faced on the court.

“Why didn’t the USA score more?” one reporter asked.

“Why isn’t the team practicing?” questioned another.

Maybe the two issues were related.

The Americans finally got into the gym for practice Saturday, the first step in what they believe will be cleaner play during the elimination round of basketball’s world championship.

“We haven’t played as consistent in the preliminaries as we wanted to for the most part, but I think this practice helps us get our execution and timing back and our aggression on defense,” guard Stephen Curry said. “So I like where we’re at going into Monday.”

The U.S. will play Angola that night in the round of 16, which began Saturday with Serbia ousting Croatia 73-72 and Spain eliminating Greece 80-72. The Americans earned some extra time off by winning Group B with a 5-0 record.

Krzyzewski said the practice Saturday was the Americans’ first since Aug. 27, the day before the tournament started. They then had games on three straight nights, opted not to practice on the group’s off day before closing with games on consecutive days.

The players were given a day off Friday, with Krzyzewski saying “they needed to just get away from everything” before finally having what he called a hard practice Saturday. They’ll work out again Sunday.

“Somebody said, ‘Well, why aren’t you practicing?’ Well, we’re playing games,” Krzyzewski said. “And that’s just the nature of international tournaments, how they bunch everything up at one time and all of a sudden you’ve got time. But hopefully it’ll be productive time for us.”

Forward Rudy Gay of the Memphis Grizzlies took part in the entire practice after sitting out the second half of the Americans’ 92-57 victory over Tunisia on Thursday with a sore right groin.

That was just a four-point game early in the third quarter after a sluggish first half by the U.S. The Americans weren’t impressive in the 88-51 victory over Iran that preceded that, but they believe the lack of sharpness was because they were playing overmatched opponents in games that didn’t matter to their seeding.

“These practices are going to really help us, because we really didn’t have any practice time in those games,” forward Kevin Durant said. “None of those games, actually.”

Krzyzewski had warned that teams can have slippage when just playing games and not practicing, so the players welcomed the chance to work, even in the steamy gym belonging to a Turkish club team.

“You can get better in the games, but when you have time to break down plays, run repetitions, just compete against each other, I think it definitely will get us excited and prepared for the next four games,” Curry said.

Four games would mean the Americans would be playing next Sunday for the gold medal, and they have a draw that gives them a chance. They should be heavily favored against Angola and the Russia-New Zealand winner before they would likely face either unbeaten Lithuania, Argentina or Brazil, which the U.S. beat 70-68 in pool play.

“It’s not so much about who we play, it’s about how we play,” USA Basketball chairman Jerry Colangelo said. “And if we take care of our business and we improve the way we feel we need to improve in those certain areas, then we’re going to be fine. Do we win it? Time will tell. I think we have a great shot. I said that from the beginning and I believe it even more so now.”

Krzyzewski said he expected Angola to attack on offense, and that’s probably what the Americans need to bring out their best. They knew they were going to beat Iran and Tunisia no matter what, so they rarely even pressed and didn’t use normal rotation patterns, not interested in embarrassing their opponents.

“They’ll do better in a game where they know they can lose than in a game where you know pretty much, those last two, they’re not going to lose those games,” Krzyzewski said.

Unlike his NBA players, who play best-of-seven series in the postseason, Krzyzewski is used to playing games in a single elimination format from coaching in college’s NCAA tournament. So he knows the consistent play that often was absent in the last round must arrive right from the start of this one.

“We need to play really well and get into the mood for this week, that one-and-done mood,” he said.

Spain beats Greece 80-72 at worlds

ISTANBUL — Juan Carlos Navarro scored 22 points for Spain in an 80-72 victory that eliminated Greece from the basketball world championships Saturday.

The Spaniards made 8 of 18 3-pointers and used a 13-3 run in the fourth quarter to push ahead during the game in the round of 16.

Greece closed within 72-68 on Vasileios Spanoulis’ layup with 1:01 left in the game, but Ricky Rubio answered with two free throws.

“It was very a tough game for us,” Rubio said of a game which drew 15,000 to Sinan Erdem Dome. “Obviously it was not easy. We have faced some similar problems before with teams like Lithuania because they play very physically and tough.”

Rudy Fernandez of the Portland Trailblazers scored 14 for Spain.

Dimitrios Dimantidis and Nikolaos Zisis each had 16 points for the Greeks, which has lost to Spain seven straight times. Sofoklis Schortsanitis added 13 points.

Spain built a 37-31 going into halftime as Greece missed all three of its 3-point attempts.

“We had trouble attacking their zone,” Greek coach Jonas Kazlauskas said. “Our shooting from outside was not strong enough to beat a team like Spain.” In the second half, Greece made seven of 20 3-point attempts.

Still, Greece opened the second half with a 7-0 run keyed by turnovers caused by Schortsanitis, who finished with 13 points.

First, the Greek center ripped the ball from guard Spanish guard Juan Carlos Navarro.

After a jumper by Zisis, the 6-9 center stayed on his feet to easily block a running layup attempt by 7-1 Marc Gasol. Antonios Fotsis then hit a corner three to put Greece up 38-37 two minutes into the half.

Greece built its lead to as much as 51-45 with 2:45 left in the third quarter, but Spain scored six straight points to end the quarter.

The Greeks struggled to shoot over Spain’s zone in the last quarter, making only seven of 18 field goal attempts.

And when they did get to the free throw line, the struggles didn’t end: Greece missed nine of 16 free throw attempts in the game.

“We wanted to play zone because some matchups on the pick and roll were giving up problems,” Scariolo said.

Spain will play Serbia on Wednesday in the quarterfinals. Serbia beat Croatia 73-72 earlier Saturday.

Serbia edges Croatia 73-72 at worlds

ISTANBUL — Oklahoma City Thunder center Nenad Krstic had 16 points and Aleksander Rasic scored five points in the last 21 seconds to help Serbia edge Croatia 73-72 in the round of 16 at the basketball world championship Saturday.

Croatian guard Marko Popovic made two free throws with 5 seconds left to tie the game at 72, but Rasic was fouled by Davor Kus as he attempted a shot with 1 second left.

Rasic made a free throw and Croatia was eliminated when Popovic’s full-court shot fell short as time expired.

“The game was very, very tough this night,” Serbia coach Dusan Ivkovic said. “It was necessary to play 40 minutes just to beat a very good team like Croatia.”

Rasic finished with 15 points for Serbia. Popovic led Croatia with 21 points, and Roko-Leni Ukic and Marko Banic 10 apiece.

“I’m not satisfied that we have made just the round of eight,” Ivkovic added.

Croatia was 5 of 24 on 3-point attempts, while Serbia hit 5 of 15.

Serbia made eight of its first eleven field goals in the first major international basketball game between the Balkan neighbors who fought a war in the early 1990s. But Croatia outrebounded Serbia 10-2 and took a 27-19 lead going into the second quarter.

Serbia narrowed the gap to 34-36 at halftime, and in the third quarter the teams traded the lead eleven times.

Serbia took a 65-57 advantage with three minutes left in the game, but Popovic had seven points down the stretch to lead Croatia back.

After Popovic missed his last attempt, he slid into the opposing bench, and laid still, face down, as the Serbs celebrated. Serbian coaches helped him stand.

“You can’t be happy when you lose like this,” Croatia coach Josip Vrankovic said. “It’s a really hard game, but what can we do?”

WNBA

Liberty set to face Dream in East finals

NEW YORK (AP) — The New York Liberty have rebounded from the second-worst season in franchise history and are back in the Eastern Conference finals for the second time in three years.

Bucks sign 2nd round pick Darington Hobson

MILWAUKEE — The Milwaukee Bucks have signed second-round draft pick Darington Hobson.

The 6-foot-7, 210-pound junior was taken 37th overall out of New Mexico in this year’s draft.

Terms were not disclosed when the signing was announced Friday.

Hobson averaged 16.4 points, 8.8 rebounds and 3.6 assists over three college seasons, the first two at Eastern Utah. Last season at New Mexico, Hobson averaged career-highs in rebounds (9.3) and assists (4.6) while scoring 15.9 points and shooting a career-best 36.1 percent from 3-point range (39-108).

Hobson was the Mountain West Conference’s Newcomer of the Year and Player of the Year. He was also named a Third Team All-American by The Associated Press.

College Women

Ex-Cincinnati women's basketball coach dies in S.C.

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