SHANGHAI — The United States Men’s National Team opened the 2019 FIBA World Cup with a 88-67 win over the Czech Republic on Sunday night.
After an ugly first quarter (in which the U.S. scored just 17 points on 20 possessions), the Americans took control early in the second by forcing three turnovers on the Czech Republic’s first five possessions. They coverted the last of those into a Jayson Tatum transition 3-pointer that put them up 27-16, and the Czechs never got the lead back down to single digits.
The U.S. took care of the ball themselves, committing only seven turnovers, a big improvement from the 19 they committed in their last exhibition game against Canada. They only got to the line six times, but shot 50 percent from the field and drained 10 3-pointers on 26 attempts.
Donovan Mitchell led the U.S. with 16 points on 7-for-11 shooting, highlighted by a two-handed dunk midway through the fourth quarter.
Harrison Barnes and Kemba Walker added 14 and 13 points, respectively. The Chicago Bulls’ Tomas Satoransky finished with a team-high 17 points for the Czech Republic.
The Americans started a lineup of Kemba Walker, Donovan Mitchell, Jayson Tatum, Harrison Barnes and Myles Turner. But 11 of the 12 players saw the floor by early in the second quarter, and 11th man Derrick White was a spark in that early-second run that helped the U.S. take control.
The U.S. has a 54-game winning streak in (non-exhibition) games with a roster made up entirely of NBA players, going back to the bronze-medal game of the 2006 World Championship.
The team’s next game will be against Turkey on Tuesday (8:30 a.m. ET).
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John Schuhmann is a senior stats analyst for NBA.com. You can e-mail him here, find his archive here and follow him on Twitter.
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