Additional Quotes >> USA 94, Israel 84

Aug. 18, 2011 • Shenzhen, China

Matt Painter, USA head coach
On tonight’s game:
Matt Painter, USA head coach (Purdue University)
On today’s game:
Israel played a lot harder than we did. They were quicker to the basketball and made a lot of 50-50 plays and that’s something we’d really prided ourselves on in the previous games, really being quick to the ball, dominating the glass and getting all those loose balls. I thought Israel did a great job of dominating the effort category.

Was it good to get a game like this under your belt before the medal round, especially after all the blowouts?
Anytime you can get into a close game and win it, it really helps your team. The game of basketball will humble you at times. I thought there was no difference between the team we beat by 60 and the one we beat by 10. It shows that on any given day, you’d better be ready and you’d better have that focus. Hopefully this close game will help our guys going into the medal round.

What did you talk to them about at halftime?
There really weren’t a whole lot of adjustments, it was more about getting guys to play a little bit harder, to be a little bit tougher and to get those loose balls. They were beating us to every single basketball when it got loose. There wasn’t too much from a strategy standpoint that we really had to go through. Our guys rushed some shots, our shot selection wasn’t great. We just had to get on the glass and do a better job defending.

On the difference in the USA’s energy in the second half versus the first half:
Early on we didn’t have much of a sense of urgency and I thought we did a better job in the second half, having that sense of urgency with our backs up against the wall a little bit. Our guys stepped up and made plays. It’s always a good sign when you don’t play your best basketball and you still get a win.

Tim Abromaitis (University of Notre Dame)
On today’s game:
Israel came out and played really hard in the first half. They hit some shots and were able to lock us down a little bit more than other teams have been able to. That helped put them ahead in the first half. Luckily we were able to turn it around in the second half.

On the USA’s foul trouble:
It’s obviously something we weren’t trying to do, giving them so many free throws, but that’s just the way the flow of the game went. They were pounding it inside in the second half and getting those calls. We can learn from that, try not to reach as much, but also try to get it into the post ourselves. It seems whenever we do that (get into the post), good things happen.

On the difference in the USA’s energy in the second half:
I don’t think there was anything in particular that made us play differently. It was just a couple of guys kind of took it upon themselves to pick up the energy and play good defense. Marcus (Denmon) got a couple steals that were huge for us in the second half. Maybe that was something that sparked us, but I think it was a little bit of everyone stepping up and trying to play a little bit harder to get it done.

What else do you need to tighten up before the quarterfinals?
I don’t know because so much of it comes down to us executing and us working hard as a team. If those two things happen, the rest really should take care of itself.

What have you been doing off the court?
We went to the market a couple days ago and did some damage over there. Around the village we’ve really just been hanging out, trying to meet different people, hang out with different countries, different sports and really just take in the whole experience.

Marcus Denmon (University of Missouri)
On today’s game:
Israel was out there playing hard. They made their shots early and we weren’t making shots. They capitalized off of our missed shots and got out in transitions. I felt we made the adjustment in the second half and came out with the win.

Do you think their halftime lead gave them confidence?
Definitely. I’m sure with them coming in as the underdog, they wanted to come out and compete with us and they did. Give credit to them, they came out and played hard. At the end we got the most important stat and that was the win.

Was it good to get a game like this under your belt before the medal round, especially after all the blowouts?
I thought it was good for us. We even said at halftime that it was something we needed. Winning by 40 points can be good, but it’s not always the kinds of games you want to have because then you’re never really tested. I felt we responded in the second half.

On life off the court in China:
We’ve been doing a lot of things as a team. We went to a market for shopping. We’ve been mingling around the village and meeting different people. As a team we’re doing different things around the dorm, hanging out.

John Jenkins (Vanderbilt University)
On today’s game:
Israel was a really tough team. They came out aggressive and we weren’t ready for it from the start. We had to make some adjustments at halftime. Coach told us to pick it up on the defensive end and we picked it up, got the lead and stuck with it.

You didn’t seem to be playing with much urgency in the first half. What changed in the second half?
I guess just wanting to win it so bad. In the beginning you could tell that we didn’t want the win as much as they did. In the second half coach got into us a little bit and we took that challenge. We hadn’t really had any adversity since we’ve been here, so we got that first taste of adversity and I think we did well getting through it.

Were you looking past Israel a little bit, after having had four straight blow-outs?
Maybe so. I don’t really know what it was. We came out a little sluggish and we weren’t really ready to play. We woke up really quick, thought.

Is a game like this good for you to refocus heading into the medal round?
It was probably the best thing we could have had because we were down and we had to come back. That’s probably going to happen sometime in the next three games and we have to be ready for us. So, that was a good challenge for us.

Darius Miller (University of Kentucky)

Darius Miller (University of Kentucky)
On today’s game:
In the second half we came out with more energy. In the first half we played kind of sluggish, kind of slow. We didn’t get off to a really good start, but in the second half we picked it up, especially on the defensive end. I think that’s what made the difference.

Is this a good type of game to get you refocused heading into the medal round?
I definitely think we needed a game like this to get us prepared, make sure we’re still on the edge. It’s a good thing to see how it’s going to be in the medal rounds, because there won’t be any easy games in the medal round.

On Israel:
They did a great job of staying disciplined with everything they needed to do. They did a great job with helping each other on the defensive end and they executed every time on offense. We didn’t do a good job of staying disciplined and playing with a lot of energy.

What’s life like in the village?
It’s really fun, especially with these guys. We’ve grown pretty close. Having guys to spend it with like this, they’re all great teammates and I’m just having fun with it all.