Team USA will face Lithuania in the semifinals at the 2014 FIBA World Cup on Thursday. You might have some questions about this, and we're here to answer them.
When and how can I watch it? 3 p.m. ET on ESPN. You can also stream it on WatchESPN.
How's Team USA doing? They slipped up a bit in the first half against Slovenia, but once again they recovered from a slow start and demolished their opponent. The good news is they haven't had to rely on any one player to save their games; it's been a total team effort. While Stephen Curry and James Harden struggled for the first half of the Slovenia game, Kenneth Faried, Klay Thompson, and Anthony Davis held the fort down before the entire team started clicking. Team USA dominated the second half with a 70-34 margin they led to the final outcome being a chance for Mason Plumlee to work on his lobs to Andre Drummond while teammates cheered in elation from the bench.
Slovenia is a pretty good team too. They have a lot of firepower on the perimeter, so a slow start against them isn't exactly the end of the world. And considering Spain just got knocked off by France, the path to the gold medal ceremony looks a lot easier and Team USA is a virtual lock to win this tournament. But Team USA won't have the size advantage against Lithuania that they had against Slovenia. Lithuania doesn't have the guard power of Slovenia, but you can neutralize some of USA's play inside, meaning the slow start could be more dangerous in the semifinals.
So how's Lithuania? They look really good. They've only lost one game in this tournament and that was to Australia. In the rest of their games, they're using their size advantage to either dominate the inside or neutralize the good frontcourt facing them. They made it to the semifinals by knocking out Turkey. They held Turkey to a terrible outside shooting game and only allowed 61 points in a 12-point victory. They aren't relying on any one scorer to lead them, although Jonas Valanciunas has been their primary go-to guy early to establish a presence inside.
He was effective against Turkey and helped take Omer Asik out of the game after being quite effective for much of it. Renaldas Seibutis was the leading scorer in a game for the second time in this tournament for Lithuania. The previous time was the loss to Australia. Valanciunas led the team in rebounding for the sixth time in seven tournament games during the World Cup.
Who is exactly is on the Lithuania team? You should be familiar with a couple of the big men. Jonas Valanciunas is the promising center for the Toronto Raptors and he's the best player on Lithuania. Donatas Motiejunas of the Houston Rockets is his running mate inside and has done a great job of complementing Valanciunas on both ends of the floor. Outside of those two big men, this is a pretty solid rotation of role players who can do some damage. Seibutis is a good scorer from outside. Martynas Pocius can also light it up from the perimeter on occasion.
Lithuania also has Darjus Lavrinovic and Ksistof Lavrinovic to back up the two NBA big men if they get into foul trouble. Adas Juskevicius has been really good at point during key stretches and Jonas Maciulis is trying to fill in for the absence of Linas Kleiza.
What should I pay attention to? Whether or not Team USA will be in trouble with the size of Lithuania. Lithuania's big men can actually move up and down the floor. Valanciunas is a good pick-and-roll defender and he can rotate quickly from the weak side to block shots. Motiejunas is also very mobile and can run the floor well. Darjus Lavrinovic is also a load inside who can be pretty active all over the place. Team USA brought big men to battle Spain, but they don't have to worry about that anymore. What they do have to worry about is whether or not Kenneth Faried and Anthony Davis are going to be strong enough to handle the Lithuania bulk, or maybe Coach K will have to trust one of the other bigs to be effective for key stretches.
Should I watch this? You betcha. Two games left until the gold ceremony is held and Team USA is almost a lock to win it now. But they're dealing with possibly three very prideful and good basketball countries left. The winner of Serbia and France will be tough and tested, but the US has to get through Lithuania before that. And if you're just into battles of the big men, Davis vs. Valanciunas should be worth the price of admission or the effort of streaming on your computer at your job while you pretend to fill out paperwork.
