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Another game, another blowout for the 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 on Wednesday, beating Jordan 110-62 to improve to 3-0 and finish atop Group C. Second-round play for the US starts Friday against Montenegro.
“Staying aggressive, staying confident, it’s just something that I do,” Edwards said. “It paid off today.”
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.
“It’s always fun when everybody gets to play and contribute,” U.S. coach Steve Kerr said.
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 Thursday.
The US improved to 8-0 overall this summer, counting five exhibitions played on the way to Manila. It is 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.
“We tried to slow them down as much as possible,” Jordan coach Wesam Al-Sous said. “We failed. They scored 110 points.”
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.
“He was kind of like my vet when I was a rookie,” Edwards said. “We haven’t seen each other since then, so it was fun to catch up.”
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 6 for 16 on Wednesday.
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.
LINEUP CHANGE
For the first time this summer, the US had a different starting five. Brandon Ingram was out and Josh Hart was in, joining Brunson, Edwards, Jackson Jr. and Mikal Bridges.
EVERYBODY IN
All 12 U.S. players had scored by the end of the third quarter. The Americans also got everybody into the scoring column in Monday’s win over Greece.
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