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The Americans have survived their brief warning game

Turkey got a +5 lead at half-time against the States, but the second half put things into their place. The Americans are dominant here and New Zealand are yet to play their most important games and they will not go into this game with 100% dedication

After the crushing of Finland, no one understood what happened to the mighty American machine against Turkey. USA were down by 5 points at half-time and the first doubts loomed over a team that was an unstoppable force up to recently. Turkey's match-up zone created huge problems for the States, especially as their shot didn't function at all. But the good thing for them is that they didn't panic and didn't try to solve everything with crazy shooting, but they settled their problems with their tactics.

- We didn't play as a team in the first half and we faced that in the dressing room. Our coaches explained what we had to do and we stopped relying on perimeter shot and used more of our penetration and tall players to turn the game around - said point guard Irving.

He has so far been their most concrete player, even though more was expected from Curry, Harden and Rose. Irving is that one pulling all the strings and with him in the game, all centers (primarily Faried and Davis) seem to be doing much better. The most important thing proved to be Coach K's decision to take these 12 players as they cover everything - penetration (Rose, Harden), organization (Irving), perimeter shot (Curry, Thompson), rebounds and transition of tall players (Faried, Davis) and power for games against physically stronger teams (Cousins).

One could say they might not need any of that in the upcoming game as it's supposed to be a walk in the park for the US. New Zealand don't have the height or power in the paint to stir up some trouble for the American like the Turks did, so this will be a run and gun game and that is something you can't beat the Americans in. However, Coach K respects everyone as usual, or at least he claims so:

- I've watched New Zealand against Turkey and even though I was focused on Turkey at the time, I saw that NZ had a chance to win and that shows they're a good team. I remember Penney from previous tournaments and I know he's a hell of a player.

All respect, honest or fake, aside, Krzyzewski knows that a team in which Tranbzonspor's shooting guard is the main player cannot match USA. The States will use their defense to kill their opponents and we can expect a fast pace and a lot of points on both ends.

New Zealand had a disappointing start of the tournament. The expectations were much higher but the defeats against Turkey and the Dominican Republic put their progress into the second round into a huge doubt. An even worse thing for them is that the atmosphere in the team is poor as the New Zealand media state: "This can get only worse". A win today would be a science fiction material and the journalists have confirmed that USA will make about 111 million dollars in contracts the next year while New Zealand would be happy with just one million.

However, coach Vučinić doesn't seem like someone who will take a casual approach to the game in which he doesn't have a chance:

- We're competitors and we have to fight. We won't change our players because we have given up but because we have to include more players. They're terrific athletes, they have an amazing pace and I will need all 12 players to try to keep up with then.

However, this statement clearly indicates that Vučinić will preserve his main men for the crucial games against Ukraine and Finland in which a win would secure the following round. They have zero chance against the States and only a fool would use his best squad here. Considering that even their first squad would not have an easy day against the States, one can see that the subs will have an even more difficult game today.

Turkey was a good warning for the US yesterday and even had the half time lead. But the Americans then got serious and scored 63 points in the second half, for the final point-difference of 26. If they managed to do that against slow and tough Turkey, what will they do to fast-pace and much less tough New Zealand. This game is not important for them, and they have two games coming up that they have to win to get through to the next round. I expect the top players at New Zealand to rest today, and the Americans to take this very seriously. They don't want to be losing at half time two days in a row. In that case, this game cannot end with a point difference less than 50 points, and Americans with less than 120 point scored.