Team USA opens the second round of the FIBA World Cup early Friday morning, New York time, facing off vs. Montenegro and its NBA center Nikola Vucevic, the first of two scheduled contests against teams with a big who relishes physical play. On Sunday, they face Lithuania and Jonas Valanu010diu016bnas.
One criticism of the roster Grant Hill and Steve Kerr have put together is that it’s not a physical and FIBA ball is physical. The Americans’ bigs are athletic rather than physical so expect Montenegro to put the ball in Vucevic’s hand ... a lot .