Five thoughts on Team USA heading into quarterfinals vs. Italy

Team USA is through to the quarterfinals, the eight-team knockout round of the World Cup.

This round is where the 2019 iteration of Team USA lost at the World Cup. That USA roster with Jayson Tatum, Jaylen Brown, Donovan Mitchell, Markus Smart, Khris Middleton, and coached by Gregg Popovich, was 5-0 after the first two rounds — just like this year’s Team USA — but got beat by France in the quarterfinals. The USA finished a disappointing seventh in the tournament, still good enough to qualify for the Tokyo Olympics (where the USA won gold, getting revenge on France in the Gold Medal game).

The 2023 version of Team USA has aspirations of winning gold in Manilla. Here are five thoughts on that quest as they enter the knockout round.

1) Loss to Lithuania may be the scare Team USA needed

No loss is ideal, but for a USA team that had been able to overwhelm opponents with their athleticism and depth on the way to a 9-0 record (between tune-up games and the World Cup), this roster needed a little adversity. It needed to be reminded that it had to take every opponent seriously — and from the opening tip, not flipping the switch partway through the game — or they would lose.

Don’t take my word for it. Coach Steve Kerr leaned on a classic Gregg Popovich line talking about the loss to Lithuania. Via the Associated Press:

“There’s a little more ‘appropriate fear,’ as Pop likes to say,” Kerr said. “And that’s what’s needed.”

“It makes it real,” Austin Reaves added. “Obviously, now, it’s lose and go home. We see the reactions. We obviously know that everybody wants to beat us in particular. We see the joy that they get from that. That taste in your mouth, it don’t feel good.”

The loss didn’t really hurt the Americans outside their egos. The USA had already qualified for the quarterfinals before they played Lithuania, and after losses on Sunday eliminated Brazil, Puerto Rico and the Dominican Republic, the USA…