Team USA was able to handle Mexico in the Round of 16 in the 2014 FIBA World Cup on Saturday with a great effort from start to finish in an 86-63 win. They received big efforts from Stephen Curry, Kenneth Faried, Anthony Davis, DeMarcus Cousins, and others as they advanced to the quarterfinals and extended Mike Krzyzewski's winning streak as coach of USA Basketball to 60 games.
There were some fun highlights in the game, as the US dominated the first three quarters with mostly defense, before allowing a little bit of breathing room on offense for Mexico in the fourth. The game was already decided at that point. Probably the biggest single highlight in the game was Anthony Davis shooting the passing lane on a dish to Gustavo Ayon and taking it the length of the floor before stretching out for the two-handed dunk.
He wasn't the only big man contributing highlights and stellar play for the US. DeMarcus Cousins may have had his best game during his short tenure for Team USA by playing well on both ends of the floor. With Marco Ramos cutting down the lane, Cousins was able to get back into position to throw the shot the other way.
Stephen Curry was the top scorer for Team USA, dropping 20 points on 7-of-10 shooting from the field. Six of those makes came on 3-pointers, including this play in which he tried to draw the foul, flopped a bit to sell the contact that was there, and still buried the shot to extend the lead to 23 points. He didn't get the call but he got three points out of it.
Then in the final minutes of the game, Klay Thompson pushed the ball up the floor in transition, found Andre Drummond who can conveniently jump over anybody in his way, and threw the lob for the alley-oop.
USA plays Slovenia in the quarterfinals on Tuesday in a rematch of their friendly exhibition prior to the start of the World Cup.
