Nekias Duncan and Steve Jones Jr. preview Saturday’s semifinal on the FIBA Ladies’s Basketball World Cup and the way Crew USA must handle and cope with Spain’s expertise — plus why protection must cleared the path for the pink, white and blue. Try the total dialog on “The Dunker Spot and subscribe on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, YouTube or wherever you hear.
Video Transcript
What intrigues you essentially the most about this matchup with Spain?
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I imply, it is gonna be an interesting contest ‘trigger here is the factor about Spain, proper?
Crew USA has established, hey, we’ll get into the submit.
We really feel snug with this.
Spain has Megan Deleu.
Spain has Alafam.
So are we gonna keep at residence in these post-ups, and are you gonna have the ability to have the identical ingredient of success?
They’ve performed ver- very nicely.
Between Martin, Meg, and Alafam, Maria Con, it has been loads of belongings you gotta cope with, with this crew.
There’s been a confidence and a consolation they’ve showcased.
So are you gonna have the identical benefits offensively?
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Are you gonna have the ability to discover the identical gaps?
Are you gonna have the identical understanding of what you wanna assault?
Will the teachings you have realized into this sport repay on this sport?
Does Spain- Mm-hmm Spain, Spain’s presents a problem.
Like, you are gonna have to attain the basketball in opposition to them, as a result of in case you enable this to kinda be a forwards and backwards sort of tennis match, you get deep within the water, that is, there is a confidence this crew performs with.
There is a consolation this team- Mm-hmm this crew performs with.
They are not afraid to maneuver the ball.
They are not afraid to go inside.
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They are not afraid to shoot threes.
So how are you going to handle that, I feel is the most important factor when this specific matchup.
You recognize what I imply?
They’ve measurement, they’ve size.
You have seen this earlier than.
Are you able to apply the belongings you’ve realized to this one to get to the ultimate?
Is sort of my start line.
What do you suppose, Caris?
No, like I feel for me it begins with the protection for Crew USA, extra of a structural query for me, ‘trigger I’ve 4 in my notes.
However on the high of the record I actually have, is that this a sport Crew USA desires to lean into their unders and late switching?
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As a result of Spain will feed the block, however they might have the personnel to cope with it.
I wanna see how aggressive they’re gonna be in decide and roll.
Like, what’s, what do they land on to begin?
‘Trigger as you already talked about, Spain keen to shoot from deep.
Iana Martin has simply been incredible all through this complete match.
And like a number of the off the dribble juice she has showcased all through this run has been loads of enjoyable, has been loads, has been very efficient.
And so in case you are attempting to duck beneath, and he or she’s not afraid to drag that.
And in case you go into any of the rescreening stuff, she will get downhill in Spain, like just like Crew USA, excellent spacing group.
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Like past the three-point capturing, I feel they’re fourth in three-point proportion heading into the weekend.
However past the three-point capturing, they area so extremely nicely.
They arrange their actions nicely.
After which in case you attempt to overload any sort of method, they do not thoughts screening off the ball.
Superb slicing group.
Maria Kanda has hit groups all through this complete match, both as a join passer or simply getting busy on cuts herself.
Each of the bigs excellent at respacing, flashing to the center, organising excessive lows.
Crew USA has to determine what they need to do initially.
Are we simply switching this and flattening issues out to take away a few of that slicing and motion, or are we going extra conventional or extra aggressive?
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And if it’s the latter, how good is the off-ball protection gonna be?
‘Trigger once more, they simply gained by what, 52.
So there’s solely a lot to nitpick.
However even you hit on like, hey, once they did get aggressive, there have been some shaky possessions on the again finish.
In opposition to Spain, they’re slicing, they’re relocating.
As much as them to make the photographs from there, however like conceptually and process-wise, oh, we all know what the gaps are and we’re gonna hit them in a well timed vogue.
So in the event that they do ramp it up, off-ball protection needs to be sound on this one.
So I, I’m fascinated with Crew USA’s protection heading into this matchup in opposition to Spain.
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I imply it is fascinating as a result of the protection most likely feels just like the factor they, Crew USA needs to be the, essentially the most assured about so far as that being their base- Mm-hmm and we really feel like we will guard you in numerous methods.
And so I do not know in the event that they’re gonna have the ability to velocity them up.
I do not know if it, they’re gonna have, discover a consolation within the half courtroom.
However they’re gonna have to ascertain what they need to do early on this sport or else this shall be just like Italy
