Lakers News: Key Team USA Weakness Pinpointed By Austin Reaves

They just didn't get the job done.

Team USA failed to claim any medal in the 2023 FIBA Basketball World Cup. It was a disappointing effort by the Americans, and it left them feeling frustrated by the missed opportunities this summer.

This year's roster didn’t have any of the top players from the NBA, but they should have still won something in the tournament. This is now the second consecutive tournament that Team USA has failed to live up to expectations.

The rest of the world has caught up in terms of talent, but the United States still has the best collection of overall talent. This one stings and will sting for quite some time.

Los Angeles Lakers guard Austin Reaves spoke about what went wrong for Team USA. In is mind, it all came down to the defensive effort of the team.

“We had to be better today as a unit after the loss to Germany but we weren’t,” Reaves said simply.

In their defeats against both Germany and Canada, Team USA couldn’t stop anyone. They were lazy in their effort, and it led to them dropping both games. 

Austin Reaves after USA’s 118-127 loss to Canada:

“We lost. I mean, you could go down the line of things that you could do every basketball game, win or lose to critique yourself, we just didn’t do enough.”

Also said that defense was USA’s biggest issue:

“We had to be… pic.twitter.com/JraaYcCV7i

— Nicole Ganglani (@nicoleganglani) September 10, 2023

They didn’t do enough as a team to win the game, something that Reaves acknowledged as well.

“We lost. I mean, you could go down the line of things that you could do every basketball game, win or lose to critique yourself, we just didn’t do enough.”

Team USA now must wait until the Olympics to try and redeem themselves. Luckily, it seems that they will be getting some major reinforcements during that run, as Lakers star LeBron James seems to be interested in playing. He also has been reportedly recruiting others to come play as well.

Hopefully, things end differently in the Olympics for Team USA. But for now, this will be a stain of missed chances for this summer. 

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