Defeated the day before by France in the quarterfinals, the United States succumbed for the second time in two days in the Basketball World Cup held in China, by losing to Serbia (94-89) on Thursday, in one of the matches to claim fifth place.
The USA Team, which had been eliminated in the quarterfinals by France on Wednesday (89-79), losing the possibility of achieving a third consecutive title, suffered the Serbian dominance from the beginning of the match (32-7 after the first quarter), to only react at the end and avoid a wide defeat.
Deprived of the podium, the Serbian team, led by Bogdan Bogdanovic (28 points), can still aspire to fifth place against the Czech Republic, which defeated Poland on Thursday by 94-84.
The Americans of Gregg Popovich will fight against Poland, loser of that match, on Saturday, in the battle for seventh position.
This second North American defeat came one day after their undefeated streak of thirteen years in a major competition was broken, since they fell to Greece in the semifinals of the 2006 World Cup.
Harrison Barnes, of the Sacramento Kings, the only member of the team who won gold in the 2016 Rio Olympics, stated that "we cannot regret anything in terms of what we have given in this group and what we have sacrificed."
"We have all shown commitment, being away from our families, our teams, our organizations," he added.
There will be no medals for the Americans, who are already qualified for the 2020 Tokyo Olympics.
Barnes scored 22 points and said that the Americans will give their all in their last game of the tournament against Poland.
"On Saturday we have the opportunity to represent our country. For some of us, it could be the last game wearing the United States jersey or the first of many. We must savor that," added Barnes.
In the semifinals on Friday, Spain will face Australia and France will play against Argentina. AFP