Balanced effort leads US previous Slovenia in World Cup warm-up sport

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All 12 United States gamers scored, and 5 completed with between seven and 9 factors.

United States’ Anthony Edwards dunks. John Locher/AP Picture

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MALAGA, Spain (AP) — Anthony Edwards led a balanced effort with 15 factors, Jalen Brunson added 11 factors and eight assists, and the U.S. World Cup group beat Slovenia 92-62 on Saturday in an exhibition sport.

Austin Reaves and Tyrese Haliburton every scored 10 for the Individuals, who improved to 2-0 on their five-game slate of exhibitions earlier than attending to the Philippines for the World Cup. It opened exhibition play Monday with a 117-74 win over Puerto Rico in Las Vegas.

All-NBA guard Luka Doncic of the Dallas Mavericks was held out of Saturday’s sport as a precaution. He scored 17 factors in Slovenia’s 99-79 loss to Spain on Friday and missed a few of that sport after a little bit of a clumsy touchdown on a drive.

All 12 U.S. gamers scored, and 5 completed with between seven and 9 factors. Mikal Bridges scored 9, Cam Johnson, Paolo Banchero and Bobby Portis every had eight, and Brandon Ingram had seven for the winners.

The U.S. performs Spain — a matchup of the world’s two top-ranked nations in keeping with FIBA, which has Spain atop that checklist — in one other exhibition on Sunday.

“Yet one more stage of our preparation in opposition to the strongest rival on the planet,” Spain coach Sergio Scariolo stated.

After Sunday, the U.S. group flies to the United Arab Emirates for video games in Abu Dhabi in opposition to Greece (Aug. 18) and Germany (Aug. 20).

From there, it’s on to Manila. The World Cup will likely be held within the Philippines, Japan and Indonesia; the U.S. will likely be in Manila for everything of the match, and opens in opposition to New Zealand on Aug. 26, adopted by Greece on Aug. 28 and Jordan on Aug. 30.

TIP-INS

Slovenia: Even with Doncic out, Slovenia had eight gamers from its group that completed fourth on the Tokyo Olympics two summers in the past — Aleksej Nikolic, Klemen Prepelic, former Virginia middle Mike Tobey, Jaka Blazic, Gregor Hrovat, Ziga Dimec, Zoran Dragic and Jakob Cebasek. … The group was planning to have Denver Nuggets ahead Vlatko Cancar, however he suffered a knee harm earlier this month and can miss important time.

USA: Josh Hart made his USA Basketball debut. He missed Monday’s sport whereas ending his four-year extension with the New York Knicks. … With U.S. assistant coach Erik Spoelstra of Miami out this weekend as a result of he’s attending the Basketball Corridor of Fame enshrinement ceremony — Warmth nice Dwyane Wade was a part of the category — Jeff Van Gundy helped out on coach Steve Kerr’s employees alongside assistants Tyronn Lue and Mark Few.

SAME FIVE

The starters for the U.S. have been the identical for the second consecutive sport: Brunson, Edwards, Mikal Bridges, Brandon Ingram and Jaren Jackson Jr.

BACK TO BACK

If all goes proper, this weekend may very well be the one occasion of back-to-back video games for the U.S. on its World Cup journey. Subsequent week’s video games in Abu Dhabi are separated by an off day, and no group stage video games on the World Cup are back-to-backs. The quarterfinals, semifinals and medal video games all are preceded by off days as properly.

UP NEXT

Slovenia: Play at Japan on Aug. 19.

USA: Play Spain in Malaga on Sunday.