Little consolation

BEIJING—It’s called the consolation rounds, but no doubt Team USA found little comfort there.

Donovan Mitchell scored 16 points and handed out 10 assists, Joe Harris scored 14 and the Americans, reduced to playing classification games to determine their final forgettable standing, defeated Poland, 87-74, on Saturday for seventh place at the World Cup.

Khris Middleton had 13 points, six rebounds and six assists for the Americans, who will head home with a 6-2 record—yet their worst placing ever in a World Cup, world championship as it used to be known, or Olympics.

Sure, losing just two games in eight outings should have been a source of solace for Team USA. After all, in the last World Cup, Serbia went home with the silver medal with a 5-4 record while France took bronze with a 6-3 card.

Timing is everything though, and one of the US’ losses was the quarterfinals against France, a defeat that knocked the Americans from medal contention. A subsequent loss to Serbia dropped the US to a battle for seventh place.

Derrick White scored 12 and Harrison Barnes added 10 for the US against Poland, which got 18 points from Mateusz Ponitka, 17 from Adam Waczynski and 15 from AJ Slaughter.

Poland, playing in the World Cup for the first time since 1967, finished with an even 4-4 record.

The Americans put together a 10-0 run in the first quarter to take a 28-14 lead. Poland started 0 for 13 from 3-point range, not getting one from beyond the arc to fall until Michal Sokolowski connected with 1:28 left in the half—and by then, the US lead was 18.

There was little to play for except pride—and the Americans were playing with the realization that, for some of them, it easily could be their last time wearing the red, white and blue uniforms with “USA” across the chest. The roster for the US trip to the Tokyo Olympics next summer is likely to look considerably different than this one.

Gregg Popovich’s team at least managed to avoid a third defeat in a row, but it was an anticlimactic denouement to their title defense. The US missed the NBA’s elite names, but was still fancied to at least reach Sunday’s final.

Instead, Spain and Argentina will slug it out for the trophy after both won dramatic semifinal victories Friday night. —AP, AFP