Team USA dominates China to open FIBA World Cup play
Yahoo Sports Daily host Caroline Fenton and Yahoo Sports' Jay Busbee react to Team USA's dominating 94-61 win over China. Watch the full episode of Yahoo Sports Daily on YouTube or YahooSports.TV .
Video Transcript
It was a massive win for the overwhelming favorite to win it all this season, or this year rather.
Team USA at the FIBA World Cup.
All 12 players on Team USA got playing time.
All 12 players on Team USA scored at least a point.
It was Paige Bueckers, Caitlin Clark, and Rhyne Howard who all led the way.
Each of them had 14 points, and all of them came off the bench.
It was Paige Bueckers, Caitlin Clark, Rhyne Howard, all coming off the bench.
Jackie Young also had double digits with 12.
She was one of the starters for game one.
Busby, it was just pure and utter domination.
And one thing that really stands out to me in the final score, 94-61, holding Team China to just 61 points.
Head coach Kara Lawson, t- head coach of Team USA, was also the head coach for Duke women's basketball.
She has made her living on defense.
Look at some of Duke women's basketball's final scores: 54 to 52, 56 to 50.
They like to live in some of those low-scoring, muck-it-up, great defensive games.
She's not gonna live and die by the three.
So I think you're kind of seeing that come to fruition in holding Team China to just 61 points, but everybody kinda getting theirs and getting acclimated and getting some time, and putting some points up on the board for Team USA.
I do always wonder what it's like to coach one of these teams.
I wonder, you know, if you've got every single best player in the country, not in the world anymore, but you've got every single just about best player in the country at your disposal, and you send them out.
I mean, you know, could you or I win this game by, say, 84 to 61?
Could we, could we coach them to a, to a win, or would we get taken advantage of?
I don't know.
I, I do look at this and I see all across the board you've got all 12 players scoring.
I am sure someone's gonna make something out of the fact that Caitlin Clark played more minutes than anyone else, and yet she was on the bench.
So there's, there's gonna be some kind of controversy there.
We don't even need to bother with that.
But I think it's just a great start for the US.
You wanna get out to the early lead.
You don't want to get any sort of scrap of doubt, in your own mind.
You don't want to put any sorta scrap of hope in the other team's mind.
And you wanna just set the pace early, and a, and a win by 30 some odd points is, is absolutely the right way to do that
