Utah Jazz: FIBA World Cup roundup – Jazzmen shine in first slate of games

Each Utah Jazz player participating in the 2019 FIBA Basketball World Cup had a solid outing in their team’s first contest of group play.

The FIBA Basketball World Cup officially got underway on Saturday night in China, which was the early morning hours in the United States. No Utah Jazz players suited up on Day 1, but all three – Donovan Mitchell (USA), Joe Ingles (Australia) and Rudy Gobert (France) – were in action Sunday. And fortunately for Jazz fans, all three of them shined in their first round of meaningful competition.

Let’s begin with Donovan Mitchell and Team USA. Initially in the first quarter, Team USA looked a little bit scattered. True, Myles Turner set a nice tone defensively early with a pair of statement blocks and Kemba Walker, who was absolutely phenomenal, set the pace on offense right off the bat.

However, whether it was jitters, attempting to still get comfortable with one another, or a combination of both, Team USA took some time to settle in. They were up just 17-14 at the end of the first period in a low-scoring affair. Fortunately, it didn’t take them long to pick things up from there. The United States outscored the Czech Republic by a count of 26-15 in the second quarter, and wouldn’t look back from there, going on to win by a commanding score of 88-67.

Mitchell entered the half with just five points, but he dominated after the break. Although the second quarter was Team USA’s best in terms of point differential, they really looked the part of a championship-caliber squad in that second half. From a rhythm perspective, the ball moved well, the shots taken were judicious and the defense was staunch.

To the Czech Republic’s credit, they kept it closer than it likely otherwise would have been thanks to some surprising and probably somewhat lucky deep balls that happened to drop. But all told, the second half was a dominant performance by the US team.

And Donovan Mitchell was the driving force in that. He scored 11 points in the final two quarters, bringing his total on the evening to 16, the most of any Team USA player. Not only that, but he did so with the utmost efficiency, going 7-of-11 from the field and 2-of-4 from the perimeter. For the most part, he made great decisions with his shots and passing which led to the effective outing. He also had two nifty dimes without giving up a turnover.

It was exactly the kind of performance that Jazz fans have been hoping to see from their young star as ideally the FIBA World Cup will be the launchpad for a breakout third NBA season.

But Mitchell wasn’t the only one that was fantastic for Team USA. As I already mentioned, Kemba Walker had a great game with 13 points on 6-of-8 shooting from the floor which included making all five of his two-point attempts. He was also rock solid on defense, something he’s sometimes been criticized for. Walker was challenged by larger players down low and he held his own admirably on a number of occasions.

In whole, the defense was the most promising aspect of Team USA’s performance. As pointed out by The Athletic’s Joe Vardon (paid subscription required), this United States squad that is lacking so much of its usual stardom and firepower is one that can’t view defense as optional. Instead, it is absolutely essential and will likely provide their best shot at emerging victorious at the conclusion of the tournament. The aforementioned Turner and Walker set a tone on defense right off the bat and the rest of the team followed suit.

Harrison Barnes also had a nice game with 14 points on 6-of-9 shooting from the field, and despite less than optimal efficiency, Jayson Tatum had a solid 10 points including some well-timed makes.

Last of all, it should be mentioned that while Joe Harris and Khris Middleton have had some struggles in FIBA play thus far, both turned in nice outings on Sunday. Harris had nine points on 3-of-5 shooting including two made threes. Meanwhile, despite a slow start for Middleton, he righted the ship with some key shots and finished with eight points on 3-of-6 shooting.

In order for Team USA to overcome the lack of high-level talent that they’re accustomed to having, they will need their reserves and role players to step up in a big way. Middleton and Harris both did just that off the bench, which was an encouraging sign that will hopefully continue.

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In other Utah Jazz news as it pertains to FIBA, Joe Ingles had a brilliant game for Australia finishing with 13 points, five rebounds, nine assists and three steals while dropping four out of his seven field goal attempts. He set the tone for the Aussies in their 108-92 win over a talented Canada team and was arguably their most impactful player despite not leading the team in scoring. That distinction went to fellow NBA player Matthew Dellavedova who exploded for 24 points to lead all scorers.

Meanwhile, Rudy Gobert’s France team also managed to come out victorious, though the game was closer than it probably should have been. Despite taking a massive lead over Germany which included a 16-4 first quarter and a 16-point halftime lead, the Frenchmen appeared to get somewhat complacent and allowed their opponent to claw their way back. When all was said and done, France came away with a mere 78-74 win which was iced by two free throws from Evan Fournier.

Fournier led the France team in scoring with 26 points on 8-of-16 shooting from the field and three made threes, but Gobert left his fingerprints all over the game as well. Or more literally, left his fingerprints all over the ball as he swatted shot after shot hoisted by the German squad. The Stifle Tower finished with a whopping five blocks to go along with nine points on 3-of-5 shooting and nine rebounds on the night.

As such, the teams of all three Jazzmen remain undefeated thus far with one game under their belts. The excitement is just getting started, though, as FIBA World Cup action will continue through September 15th. Next up for Ingles and Australia is Senegal on Tuesday at 1:30 AM MT. For Gobert and France, they’ll face Jordan on Tuesday at 6:30 AM MT. And for Mitchell and Team USA, they’ll face Turkey on Tuesday at 6:30 AM MT.

Turkey is coming off a dominant 86-67 win over Japan, and with NBA players Ersan Ilyasova, Cedi Osman and Furkan Korkmaz on their squad, they’re highly confident in their odds of knocking off the favored USA squad. In order for the United States to come out on top, they’ll need to continue to focus on defense, get more reliable production out of their big men (the three centers combined for just six points on 3-of-12 shooting), and ideally benefit from another big night from rising star Donovan Mitchell.