MANILA, PHILIPPINES (AP) – Another game, another blowout for the United States (US) at the Basketball World Cup. And now the competition figures to get considerably tougher.
Anthony Edwards scored 22 points and the Americans completed an easy march through the group stage yesterday, beating Jordan 110-62 to improve to 3-0 and finish atop Group C.
Second-round play for the US starts tomorrow against Montenegro.
Bobby Portis scored 13 for the US, which led by 19 after one quarter and 62-33 at the half.
Jaren Jackson Jr scored 12 and Jalen Brunson added 10.
Rondae Hollis-Jefferson – the only player with any NBA experience on Jordan’s roster – led his team with 20 points and seven rebounds. Jordan finished group play 0-3 and will play in the classification round for non-second-round teams starting today.
The US improved to 8-0 overall this summer, counting five exhibitions played on the way to Manila.
They’re one of three teams that won all three group-stage games by at least 20 points -joining Group H winner Canada and Group D winner Lithuania, which will face the Americans in the second-round finale on Sunday.
This one was the easiest of the three for the US, which beat New Zealand by 27 in its opener and Greece by 28 on Monday.
Hollis-Jefferson has tried to fashion his game – not to mention his current haircut, it seems, since there is a striking similarity – after Los Angeles Lakers legend Kobe Bryant, even wearing No 24 on his jersey for Jordan this summer.
If this was his audition to get back to the NBA, after not playing in the league since June 2021, it wasn’t bad. He had 66 points in Jordan’s first two games at the World Cup, then shot six for 16 yesterday.
Hollis-Jefferson had previously gone up against all four coaches on the US staff – head coach Steve Kerr of Golden State and assistants Erik Spoelstra of Miami, Tyronn Lue of the Los Angeles Clippers and Mark Few of Gonzaga.
His Arizona teams went 2-0 against Gonzaga, and in the NBA, Hollis-Jefferson’s teams had a 1-7 record against Golden State when he played, a 3-7 mark against Lue’s teams (3-6 vs Cleveland, 0-1 vs the Clippers) and a 6-10 record against the Heat.
The US also won all its group games by at least 20 points at the 2014 tournament, when there were five games in that round and not three. It was the first time Jordan played the US in a senior men’s competition. After playing Egypt today, Jordan finishes its World Cup stay against Mexico on Saturday.
