Milwaukee Bucks: Khris Middleton comes up in clutch, Team USA escapes Turkey

Thanks to a pair of clutch free throws from Milwaukee Bucks All-Star swingman, Khris Middleton, Team USA survived an Ersan Ilyasova-led Turkey in what was an overtime thriller in Shanghai.

By the skin of their teeth, Team USA fended off a determined Turkey team in overtime Tuesday morning with a 93-92 win that helped them to take their group and advance to the next group stage at this year’s FIBA World Cup.

Hungry to upset the favorites for the World Cup, Turkey were on top of their game and veteran Milwaukee Bucks forward Ersan Ilyasova was at the center of their strong performance.

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Ilyasova got right down to it after the opening jump and provided his team’s first batch of points as Team USA got off to a rolling start of their own by hitting smooth shots from mid-range and capitalizing on mismatches in the post, especially with how small the Americans played for certain lineup configurations.

Putting down his signature second chance tip ins all throughout the night as well, Ilyasova played an incredibly savvy performance that Team USA had no answers for, even as the 32-year-old’s shooting effectiveness waned in the second half.

Ilyasova’s putbacks and strong presence at the rim led to Turkey taking a two-point lead late in regulation, which forced Team USA to tie it up at 81 to force overtime, and then he later dished out a steamy pass for a three while running the break to give Turkey what was a five-point lead at the 3:20 mark in OT.

In the end, Ilyasova finished with a game-high 23 points on 9-of-19 shooting from the field (1-for-5 from three, 4-for-5 from the foul line), 14 rebounds, three turnovers, one assist, one steal, one block and was a +5 in nearly 37 and a half minutes of action.

Switching sides, Team USA was in desperate need of some reliability and overall consistency to fend off the 12 Giant Men and Bucks All-Star swingman Khris Middleton fit that bill all the way down to the wire.

Middleton got his showing off on the right foot by connecting on a triple, a smooth mid-ranger after curling off a screen and a baseline jumper in his early run between the first and second periods. The 28-year-old largely kept up his immaculate shooting throughout the day, even if it coincided with a more trigger-shy Middleton for the majority of the second half when his shots began to fall at a slightly reduced rate.

Nevertheless, Middleton came up with big scores late as Turkey ramped up their comeback by putting down a critical follow through following a miss from All-Star guard Kemba Walker. It all culminated in the overtime period when Middleton, with Team USA down 1 with eight seconds to go, buried a pair of clutch free throws to give his squad the lead to do what Turkey couldn’t do with the game on the line.

The former Aggie posted a team-high 15 points on 5-of-9 shooting from the field (2-for-4 from downtown, 3-for-4 from the charity stripe), two rebounds and was a staggering +17 in nearly 19 and a half minutes of run.

Rounding it all out was Brook Lopez, but it was a very rough outing for the starting Bucks big man. Lopez’s only make, a triple, promptly came upon entering game midway through the first quarter and he subsequently misfired from long distance and his defensive stylings fell short of the mark for the rest of his limited performance.

The 31-year-old Lopez put up just three points on 1-of-5 shooting from the field (1-of-4 from three), three rebounds, two blocks and was a -4 in over eight and a half minutes of burn.

After securing their first place finish in Group E, Team USA will round out their first group run by taking on Japan on Thursday morning for a 7.30 central time tip off. Meanwhile, Ilyasova and Turkey will look to advance out of the group and will have to take on the Czech Republic Thursday morning for a 3.30 a.m. central time contest.