USA to play for gold after trouncing Lithuania in FIBA World Cup semis

USA Basketball, led by James Harden's third-quarter outburst, defeated Lithuania 96-68 to earn a spot in the FIBA World Cup final where it will play either France or Serbia.

USA defeated Lithuania 96-68 in the FIBA World Cup semifinals on Thursday to advance to the gold medal game. France and Serbia will square off in a semifinal contest on Friday. The winner will go on to face USA in Sunday's championship game.  

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Team USA, depleted of its A-list stars and until recently seen as potentially vulnerable, now stands 40 minutes from a clean sweep of the FIBA World Cup competition. USA has beaten every one of its eight opponents by at least 21 points, and any hope the Lithuanians might treat their basketball-mad fans to a shocker was extinguished early in the third quarter.

"Tight" was the best word to describe the first half, in terms of the quick whistles from the officials, the tense nature of USA's play and the Americans' eight-point lead at the break. An 18-2 run to start the second half broke the game open for good, though, as James Harden shook off a scoreless first half to singlehandedly outscore Lithuania 16-14 in the third period. His three-pointer less than two minutes into the third drew a celebratory chest bump from Stephen Curry and forced Lithuania to take an early timeout to stop the bleeding. USA picked up right where it left off after the brief intermission, though, and the truth is Lithuania was done for, even if it were to have had another 10 momentum-stopping timeouts at its disposal.

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Renowned for its competitiveness, Lithuania refused to go down without a fight, or at least a few scattered physical altercations: Raptors center Jonas Valanciunas nailed DeMarcus Cousins in the throat with an elbow, prompting an angry response from the Kings center; Donatas Motiejunas delivered a hard foul to Harden, his Rockets teammate, in transition; Rudy Gay took a shot to the chops as he attacked the basket, pounding his fist on the floor in frustration afterwards; and USA coach Mike Krzyzewski had to intervene between the two teams after the game as Gay and his USA teammates appeared to take exception to that foul.   

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"I figured they wouldn't hit an old man," Krzyzewski deadpanned, when asked about his peacekeeping mission during his postgame press conference.

The physicality and heightened tensions never translated to a real push for Lithuania, which looked overwhelmed by USA's athleticism and length. The final damage: 21 Lithuanian turnovers, 30.4 percent shooting and 2-for-18 three-point shooting for Lithuania, and a 50-38 advantage for USA on the glass. This was no accidental blowout.

• Easy living

Despite a nightmare summer that saw Paul George go down to serious injury and Kevin Durant and Kevin Love withdraw from the roster, USA is putting together some dreamy -- although not quite Dream Team-like -- numbers. After its 28-point drubbing of Lithuania, USA's average margin of victory in the tournament stands at 32.5 points per game. Here's how that stacks up against other recent USA Basketball teams.

Year	Event	Margin of victory
2014	World Cup (Spain)	32.5
2012	Olympics (London)	32.1
2010	World Championship (Turkey)	24.6
2008	Olympics (Beijing)	27.9
2006	World Championship (Japan)	19.3
2004	Olympics (Greece)	4.6
2002	World Championship (USA)	17
2000	Olympics (Australia)	21.6
1998	World Championship (Greece)	11.7
1996	Olympics (USA)	31.8
1994	World Championship (Canada)	37.8
1992	Olympics (Spain)	43.8

By virtue of Spain's surprising loss to France in the quarterfinals, USA has a legitimate shot at blowing out France or Serbia in the gold-medal game. USA is on track to post its largest point differential in the World Cup/World Championship since 1994, when Dream Team II, led by Shaquille O'Neal, Reggie Miller, Shawn Kemp, Joe Dumars and others, smashed its competition en route to gold.

"I'm not surprised by anything in international competition," Krzyzewski said Thursday, when asked about Spain's loss to France. "All these teams are good."

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