Basketball World Cup: US tops Turkey

Published 6:03 pm, Sunday, August 31, 2014

BILBAO, Spain - They figured it would be simple, that they would just beat up on Turkey as they did on Finland a night earlier.

Instead, the Americans were the ones on the ropes for nearly three quarters.

'I guess we felt like last night's game was pretty easy and tonight was going to be the same way, but Turkey came out and they gave us their punch from the beginning,' James Harden said. 'We took it and we were sluggish. That second half we played a lot better.'

Kenneth Faried scored 22 points, Anthony Davis all of his 19 in the second half, and the U.S. rebounded from a rare deficit at halftime to beat Turkey 98-77 on Sunday in the Basketball World Cup.

A night after crushing Finland by 59 in its biggest rout ever while using NBA players in the former world championship, the Americans couldn't take control against Turkey until early in the fourth quarter after a 17-1 run.

'I think we didn't come ready to play in the first half and we can't afford to do that if we want to win a gold medal,' Davis said. 'So we've got to come out ready to play no matter who we're playing against.'

The Americans trailed 40-35 at halftime and Turkey led by six early in the third before the Americans got the game into the quicker tempo they prefer while winning the rematch of the 2010 gold-medal game in Istanbul.

Harden added 14 points for the U.S. and Kyrie Irving added 13, playing extended minutes in the second half while struggling Derrick Rose sat. The Warriors' Stephen Curry scored nine points and Klay Thompson six.

It was tied at 59 with 3:10 left in the third before the Americans closed the period with a 7-1 burst to lead 66-60 after Faried's basket. The U.S. then ran off 10 in a row to open the fourth and open a 76-60 cushion.

The Americans haven't lost since the semifinals of the 2006 world championship and outside of their victories over Spain in the past two Olympic gold-medal games, haven't been in danger much since then.

But they needed a long time to start looking like the team that is considered the tournament favorite by so many.

'Before the game we talked about trying to keep the tempo low, in fact slow down the game and we did it very well first half. I think actually three quarters we did it very well,' Turkey's Ender Arslan said. 'But ... physically the United States team is great. They played 40 minutes ... so we get a little bit tired after the third quarter and they still played at the same level.'

The Americans are off Monday before continuing pool play Tuesday against New Zealand.

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