Kerr: “We had a lot of players sick, not just the three who didn’t play”

THE Steve Kerr congratulate Canada on victory in the minor final of the World Cupbut he did dwell on the health issues that existed on his team and weren’t just limited to the absences of Bankero, Jackson and Ingram.

“Congratulations to Canada, you played great. I feel bad for my players, they are an amazing group. We missed three guys who are important, but those who were here fought. There are a lot of guys that are sick on the team, besides the three that didn’t compete“, emphasized the coach of Team USA.

“Bridges made an improbable shot for overtime. We could have played better defense, with these percentages of the opponent you cannot win. Hart was sent off for a foul and we had to go with a low shape. We decided to go five short because we were losing by six points. Bridges opened the field, unfortunately we didn’t have a good combination of defense and attack, we conceded 6-0 at the start of extra time which proved to be crucial“, he added.

As for whether he now finds that the NBA’s gap with the rest of the world isn’t as great as it once was, he said:I didn’t need any reminding, I was on staff in 2019. FIBA ​​teams are really good, they have been playing for years, they are well coached. What impressed me was how much my players fought under certain conditions. It’s hard for us to keep up. We studied everything about FIBA ​​basketball, about our history, about what we won. For what we lost. We studied everything. We were in a good position, we got into the semi-final and we didn’t defend well enough either against Lithuania or against Canada. When you build a team you want it to have balance on both sides of the floor. We tried everything with Dillon Brooks, we trapped him, but he was impressive. NBA is very different from FIBA ​​basketball. This is a long discussion, but to answer, there is much we can learn from each other».