Utah Jazz star Donovan Mitchell and Team USA losing to Joe Ingles and the Aussie Boomers felt like a gut punch. Really, it was a much-needed gut check.
This weekend, we saw one Utah Jazz’s players finest moment in international competition and another Jazzman’s worst moment all in one shot. After falling to USA Basketball in their first of two exhibition bouts, Joe Ingles and the Aussie Boomers beat Donovan Mitchell and Co. in what was Australia’s first-ever win over the Americans.
Not only that: it was Team USA’s first loss in FIBA play since 2006. That’s a streak of 78 games without an L snapped in front of a hostile crowd of more than 52,000.
After the contest, Ingles, who scored 15 points, dished out seven assists and snagged four boards in the win, was surprisingly businesslike in looking back on one of the biggest wins in Boomers history —
"“We can keep building or we can think we’re on top of the world now after one win. So, we’ll enjoy it tonight, but obviously it’s back to work tomorrow to get ready for the World Cup.”"
Talk about acting like you’ve been there before. Good on ya, mate.
Meanwhile, some fans stateside have flipped their lids over the Team USA dropping a game to the Aussies. And who can blame them — the Americans have lacked cohesion at times on the court, some of the World Cup’s best players are suiting up for other countries and the streak is officially over.
Those realizations are enough to feel like a real gut punch. Really, though, this may be the gut check moment Mitchell, Kemba Walker and the rest of the red, white and blue crew need to get things right before they begin tournament play.
Utah’s alpha dog put it best after the game (via The Athletic’s Eric Nehm) —
"“Obviously it hurts to lose, but I look at this and we look at this as more of a learning experience as opposed to we just lost,” Mitchell said. “That’s the mindset. If you think of this as a loss, you start to get carried away with all that.“We’re focused on the film. … We’re going to watch it on the plane and we’re going to be ready for Canada. That’s the best thing. You want to win every game, but you learn a lot in losses too.”"
He’s not wrong; the Ls can be just as important as anything in establishing a winning culture. In fact, a well-timed loss can be the last lesson a great team needs to learn before it can really make good on its potential. Such was the case during Team USA’s last loss, which came during the ’06 FIBA Worlds.
After the debacles that were a sixth-place finish at the ’02 World Championships and bronze at the ’04 Olympics, USA Basketball tore down their program and rebuilt it from the ground up in an earnest effort to field actual teams in international competitions, as opposed to a hodgepodge of players who just so happened to say yes.
They invested in the program, built up a pool of players, ran extended camps and did so more frequently. Finally, they established a leadership group and a philosophy under Jerry Colangelo and coach Mike Krzyzewski, guys who were in this for the long haul and not just whatever competition was coming up next.
After all that, a team populated by big-time NBA players like LeBron James, Dwyane Wade, Carmelo Anthony, Chris Paul, Chris Bosh and Dwight Howard — just as they were all entering their primes — still managed to lose in the semifinals to Greece.
Up to that point, they had been awesome. Team USA was undefeated in group play, racking up a point differential of 115 over five games. Then, they cruised to dominant wins over the Aussies and Germany in the Round of 16 and the quarterfinals. It wasn’t just the talent winning out, either. There was actual chemistry; 12 guys buying in.
But they still lost, after which they had to swallow their pride and play in a bronze medal game with full knowledge of the fact that they’d already failed in their ultimate mission.
Two years later, the Redeem Team — which was led by the same group of players — crushed it in the Olympics. America was the dominant force in international hoops once more, and it remained so for the next decade.
Fast-forward to now and Mitchell and the current iteration of USA Basketball may have just gone through their own last trial; that final lesson necessary to achieve total success. Thankfully, their “shocking” loss came in a friendly; a glorified scrimmage.
World Cup gold is still very much in play and, for my money, our guys are still very much the favorites.
Just so long as the lesson was actually learned.
USA Basketball is back an action with their final exhibition game against Canada on Monday morning. The Americans will tip-off World Cup play on September 1 against the Czech Republic.