FIBA World Cup 2023: USA bounce back from shock defeat to Lithuania to dominate quarter-final against Italy

USA's basketball team has a clear message for their opponents at the 2023 FIBA World Cup: If you expose our weaknesses, we will come back even stronger.

Two days after their shock loss to Lithuania, Team USA looked more united than ever as they recorded their second-biggest victory of the tournament with a 100-63 quarter-final win over Italy.

The match-up in Manila on Tuesday, 5 September saw USA lead all but two minutes in the first quarter, and also finish in the lead in terms of assists, turnovers and blocks.

With a spot at Paris 2024 already secured, USA will next continue their campaign for the world title in a semi-final game against Germany or Latvia on Friday, 8 September.

Serbia advanced to the semi-final stage earlier in the day, where they will face Canada or Slovenia.

Italy's loss in Manila means they will not be able to secure a Paris 2024 quota as one of the two highest-ranked European teams at the FIBA World Cup. The Italians will now have to fight for one of the four spots available through the FIBA Men's Olympic Qualifying Tournaments, to be held in 2024.

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Both USA and Italy came into the quarter-final with one loss on their record. Italy suffered a narrow 82-87 defeat against the Dominican Republic in the first round, while USA was undefeated until Sunday’s 110-104 loss to Lithuania.

With 45 years since Italy last beat USA at a world championship tournament, the Italians were eager to turn the tables and almost managed to do so in the first quarter.

The gap remained narrow as the two teams vied for the lead with Italy managing to overtake their opponents, briefly, on two occasions. But after USA made a swoop of four substitutions with less than five minutes to go, Italy succumbed to the pressure and fell 10 points.

The second quarter saw that gap increase to 22 points, although for the first two minutes neither team could get on the board. USA deployed the same tactic as in the first quarter with its round of five substitutions breaking through this stalemate and forcing Italy to call their second timeout as they dropped further behind.

From that point on it was USA's game to lose and they marched ahead with confidence, staying at least 30 points ahead until the final whistle.