Team USA fell to a narrow defeat to Serbia in their first classification matchup, but Milwaukee Bucks wing Khris Middleton stepped up his performance level.
It was largely viewed as a potential blockbuster semi-final or final matchup at the 2019 FIBA World Cup, but when the USA and Serbia went head-to-head on Thursday it ultimately proved to be in an exciting, but strange classification matchup.
With disappointing losses to France and Argentina, respectively, in recent days, the USA and Serbia had to put their dashed medal dreams behind them as they took to the court in the first game of a classification round that will determine where teams will finish, between fifth and eighth, in the final standings.
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That made for a particularly unglamorous prospect for an American team that has rarely placed outside of the medals at major tournaments, and a Serbian squad that was looking to avoid losing three consecutive games for the first time.
In that regard, there was at least motivation that could provide some level of urgency for both teams, yet only the Serbians showed evidence of that when the game got underway.
With Bogdan Bogdanovic continuing his red-hot play from throughout the tournament, the Serbians raced out to a lightning fast start while their American counterparts remained stuck in the starting blocks. At the end of the first quarter, a 32-7 Serbian lead seemed to set the table for a dramatic blowout.
To the Americans’ great credit, though, a second quarter fightback ensured this in fact would prove to be an entertaining game. Playing a back-to-back, and therefore dealing with a rest disadvantage against a Serbian squad that hadn’t played since Tuesday, the USA’s flat start was by no means unexplainable.
The roles were essentially reversed in that second quarter, though, as the US took the period 33-12 to trail by just four points at the interval. Largely to thank for his part in that turnaround was the Milwaukee Bucks’ All-Star wing Khris Middleton.
Middleton has had his share of ups and downs across the duration of the tournament, particularly in terms of his shooting efficiency, but he has frequently chipped in with positive, team-first contributions. In this game, Middleton really stepped his game up to another level and was more forceful in the process.
After two first quarter points thanks to a trademark turnaround mid-range jump shot, Middleton added eight more points in the second half including knocking down a couple of three-pointers. That 10-point half-time tally left him leading all US scorers, and in a position where it was clear he’d need to add to that to get them over the line in the second half.
Middleton essentially did his part as in just under 24 minutes he finished with 16 points on 6-of-11 shooting from the field, six rebounds, one assist and one steal, and finished with a +8 plus/minus in the box score.
The problem for the US was there were issues to be found in many of the spells when Middleton took a seat. That was illustrated by the continued struggles of Middleton’s Bucks teammate Brook Lopez, who had two points and two rebounds without making a field goal, and finished with a plus/minus of -17 in just under nine minutes. That may seem like an outlier, but even a starter such as Joe Harris, who played over 22 minutes, finished with a -17 plus/minus.
In the end, it was only Kemba Walker (18 points), and Harrison Barnes (22 points) who outscored Middleton on the US team, but combined that still wasn’t enough to secure a win.
Much of the reason for that was the three-point heroics of the Sacramento Kings’ Bogdanovic who continued his lights-out shooting into the second half to tally a final total of 28 points on 10-of-17 from the field and 7-of-14 from deep. With Bogdanovic taking on much of the scoring load, Denver Nuggets center Nikola Jokic was allowed to thrive as a playmaker, finishing with seven assists to zero turnovers.
Even with the Americans fighting until the very end, the slow start ultimately proved too much to overcome as Serbia sealed a 94-89 victory.
Team USA will finish up its World Cup schedule at 3am central time on Saturday morning as they’ll match up with Poland in a match to determine seventh and eighth place.