Team USA head coach Steve Kerr spoke after the quarterfinal game at the FIBA World Championship.
Kerr expressed his satisfaction with how his team performed in a convincing victory over Italy, securing their place among the top four teams.
“Excellent defense from the beginning, the second unit that came in did the same. This was our best defensive performance, and we will need it until the end of the tournament,” Steve Kerr said.
Defeat to Lithuania as motivation
“We lost the previous game. You always want to respond to a loss. Satisfaction and competitiveness go hand in hand. When you compete and play with that kind of energy, you have ball movement, like Tyrese Haliburton did, then it becomes fun. It’s all about the team, no matter who scores.”
How to maintain the level?
“We’ve been together for five weeks, and there are five days left. We’re entering the final stretch, and we need to reach our peak. The guys feel that this is the end of the road, and the energy and rhythm have been at the right level. They know what’s ahead, they know the goal, and I have no doubt it will be the same in the next game.”
Your opinion on the Serbian national team?
“We have great respect for FIBA. What we need to do is teach the players that FIBA is different, to prove how good other teams are. Lithuania played fantastically. I didn’t watch Serbia’s game, but I understood that Serbia was brilliant. Excellent basketball has been played in that region for a long time. We are aware that those teams are tough to beat.”
Differences between FIBA and NBA?
“In the NBA, Mikael Bridges would have hit a three-pointer, turned towards the opponent’s bench, and it would have gone unnoticed. Here, you get a technical foul for that. There was also one situation where Brandon Ingram received an unsportsmanlike foul. That wouldn’t happen in the NBA. In FIBA, it does, and we respect that, so we need to adapt,” Kerr emphasized.
The USA will play in the semi-finals against the winner of the Germany-Latvia match.