FIBA quarterfinals: Rose shines in USA's highlight-filled rout of Slovenia
The United States continued to steamroll the competition at the FIBA World Cup, dominating Slovenia in a 119-76 quarterfinal showdown in Barcelona on Tuesday.
Slovenia's high-powered offense, led by brothers Goran and Zoran Dragic, kept the game close enough through the first half, aided in part by an extended cold shooting spell from the U.S. Leading just 49-42, the U.S. caught fire in the third quarter to pile on 37 points, putting the game out of reach and cruising to victory in the fourth quarter.
Most notable in the performance was Derrick Rose, who shook off a shooting slump to go 6-of-10 from the floor, good for 12 points, with five assists in just 18 minutes. While there hasn't been any concern that Rose's knee is anything but healed, he drove the point home with several impressive drives in this one.
It's unclear if Rose's jump-shot tweak made a difference - he was 0-for-2 on threes, for example - but this was a very confident and effective Rose.
That may be important moving forward, as the team's other point guard, Kyrie Irving, struggled some on Tuesday. Irving has been playing through some soreness and took another hard fall in the first quarter to potentially make things worse. He ended up with a fine offensive line - 12 points on 5-of-9 shooting with three assists - but struggled on the defensive end in an appreciable way. That's not going to fly against the guard-deep Spanish squad if such a final goes down.
Also struggling for the American side was James Harden, who went 0-of-8 from the floor in the first half, only to turn around and shoot 4-of-6 for 14 points in the second half. His 14 points were topped only by Klay Thompson, who hit four triples en route to 20 points and brought it on the defensive end as well.
Anthony Davis (13 points, 11 rebounds, three blocks) and Kenneth Faried (14 points, 10 rebounds) continued to dominate, combining for 10 offensive rebounds and a handful of highlights.
Goran Dragic led the Slovenian side with 13 points and four assists.
The Americans now move on to the semifinals, where they'll meet Jonas Valanciunas and the Lithuanians on Thursday at 3 p.m. ET.
The Lithuanians have been strong without their top point guard, and could pose the largest problem on the interior that the U.S. has run into yet. That means the Americans may not have the opportunity to secure 14 offensive rebounds in a quarter, like they did in the first frame on Tuesday, or 24 offensive boards overall.
That fact could highlight something that's been a minor concern even as the U.S. have rolled through the tournament without a scare. The Americans have some bad habits on both ends of the floor, but they haven't been forced to iron them out because they're so much more talented than other teams. They'll have to tighten things up against Lithuania and be sure not to look past them to a potential finals showdown with Spain.