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Dr. Casale: Health benefits of socialization

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Williams holds on for US Open win

<p>SHANGHAI &#8212; The first big celebratory reaction from the U.S. bench in this World Cup came just a couple of minutes after tipoff, when Myles Turner blocked a shot at the rim. And with that, the tone was set.</p><p>There is an emphasis on defense with this U.S. team, and it was evident from the outset of its Group E opener on Sunday. Donovan Mitchell scored 16 points to lead a balanced scoring night, and the Americans steadily pulled away to beat the Czech Republic 88-67 to begin their quest for a third consecutive World Cup title.</p><p>&#8220;That&#8217;s got to be our calling card,&#8221; U.S. coach Gregg Popovich said. &#8220;We&#8217;re going to try to execute better and better as time goes on, but defensively we&#8217;ve got to put our money there. It&#8217;s what we have to be about to have an opportunity.&#8221;</p><p>Harrison Barnes added 14 points, Kemba Walker scored 13 and Jayson Tatum finished with 10 for the Americans. Turner had seven rebounds and a pair of blocked shots.</p><p>&#8220;As long as we win, that&#8217;s all that matters,&#8221; Tatum said.</p><p>Tomas Satoransky, the former Washington forward who was traded to Chicago over the summer, led the Czechs with 17 points.</p><p>While the Americans&#8217; 78-game winning streak in international games with NBA players ended last month with a loss at Australia, their long winning streak in major tournaments continued. It&#8217;s now at 54 games, starting with the bronze-medal game of the 2006 world championships and continuing with gold-medal runs at the 2007 FIBA Americas, 2008 Olympics, 2010 world championships, 2012 Olympics, 2014 World Cup and 2016 Olympics.</p><p>&#8220;We did a lot of good things,&#8221; Mitchell said. &#8220;We guarded it well. We&#8217;ve got a lot of things we can definitely work on, and I think this is a good start to the tournament.&#8221;</p><p>The Czechs scored the first four points of the fourth quarter to get within 66-52, but the Americans weren&#8217;t threatened. Walker made a 3-pointer to stop the mini-run, found Mitchell in the corner for another 3-pointer that made it 72-52 about a minute later and the outcome was academic from there.</p><p>The Czechs had their highlight run early for a quick 11-7 lead, and the couple thousand of their fans in Shanghai &#8212; most of them wearing either white or blue team jerseys, with a few Wizards jerseys for Satoransky mixed in there &#8212; were roaring.</p><p>It didn&#8217;t last long.</p><p>After a 9-0 run by the Czechs, order was quickly restored. The Americans scored the next 10 points, kick-starting what became a 29-9 run in all, and led by as many as 16 before going into the half with a 43-29 edge.</p><p>And it was defense that carried the Americans. Over a 10-minute stretch of the half, the Czechs went 4 for 20 with seven turnovers.</p><p>&#8220;The chemistry is building,&#8221; Barnes said. &#8220;Looking forward to it continuing to build.&#8221;</p><p>TIP-INS</p><p>Czech Republic: This was the first World Cup game for the Czechs since 1982, when the tournament was called the world championship and the country was still Czechoslovakia. That nation went 0-3 against the U.S. in past world championship matchups. &#8230; Jaromir Bohacik and Vojtech Hruban each scored 13.</p><p>U.S.: The Americans started Walker, Mitchell, Tatum, Barnes and Turner. &#8230; Mason Plumlee, the only player back from the U.S. 2014 World Cup gold-medal team, was the only player not in U.S. coach Gregg Popovich&#8217;s initial 11-man rotation Sunday. Plumlee got his first action in the third quarter. &#8230; Walker made all five of his 2-point tries.</p><p>FAST STARTERS</p><p>This is the 18th FIBA World Cup or world championship &#8212; and for the 18th consecutive time, the U.S. has started 1-0. All but four of those opening wins were by double digits; the closest ones were a 37-33 win over Chile in the inaugural event in 1950, an 81-73 victory over Argentina in 1959, a 77-75 win over Australia in 1978 and a 103-95 victory over Greece in 1990. The average margin of victory: 22.6 points.</p><p>FASHION STATEMENT</p><p>Popovich and the U.S. staff wore red polos &#8212; Popovich and assistant coach Steve Kerr went untucked &#8212; and blue pants. The Czech coaches all had on dark suits, unusual for polo-preferring FIBA coaches (Canada&#8217;s Nick Nurse went with a gray crewneck sweatshirt earlier Sunday), but ditched the dress shoes for sneakers.</p><p>MORE TALENT</p><p>It&#8217;s the biggest World Cup ever &#8212; 32 teams &#8212; and that means there&#8217;s more NBA representation in the tournament than ever before as well. There are 54 NBA players from 17 countries in the World Cup. At the last World Cup in 2014, a 24-team event, there were 45 NBA players.</p><p>UP NEXT</p><p>Czech Republic: Faces Japan (0-1) on Tuesday in Shanghai.</p><p>U.S.: Faces Turkey (1-0) on Tuesday in Shanghai.</p><style>
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<div class="neCaption">United States' Donovan Mitchell dunks during a Group E match against Czech Republic for the FIBA Basketball World Cup at the Shanghai Oriental Sports Center in Shanghai on Sunday, Sept. 1, 2019. U.S. defeats Czech Republic 88-67. (AP Photo/Ng Han Guan)</div></div><div class="metaInfo"><photo0>https://www.timesleader.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/09/web1_123496386-dec6557cf6ce4822a3513ea5daffa76c.jpg</photo0><caption0>United States' Donovan Mitchell dunks during a Group E match against Czech Republic for the FIBA Basketball World Cup at the Shanghai Oriental Sports Center in Shanghai on Sunday, Sept. 1, 2019. U.S. defeats Czech Republic 88-67. (AP Photo/Ng Han Guan)</caption0><photoCredit0></photoCredit0></div><div class="neFile"><img class="neImage" src="https://www.timesleader.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/09/web1_123496386-17fb3f9360e44290b02a4d679f386424.jpg">
<div class="neCaption">Czech Republic's Ondrej Balvin, left and United States' Myles Turner fight for the ball during a Group E match for the FIBA Basketball World Cup at the Shanghai Oriental Sports Center in Shanghai on Sunday, Sept. 1, 2019. U.S. defeats Czech Republic 88-67. (AP Photo/Ng Han Guan)</div></div><div class="metaInfo"><photo1>https://www.timesleader.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/09/web1_123496386-17fb3f9360e44290b02a4d679f386424.jpg</photo1><caption1>Czech Republic's Ondrej Balvin, left and United States' Myles Turner fight for the ball during a Group E match for the FIBA Basketball World Cup at the Shanghai Oriental Sports Center in Shanghai on Sunday, Sept. 1, 2019. U.S. defeats Czech Republic 88-67. (AP Photo/Ng Han Guan)</caption1><photoCredit1></photoCredit1></div><div class="neFile"><img class="neImage" src="https://www.timesleader.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/09/web1_123496386-3e33358807c848adbab77860d9059b76.jpg">
<div class="neCaption">United States' Harrison Barnes, left keeps the ball from Czech Republic's Ondrej Balvin during a Group E match for the FIBA Basketball World Cup at the Shanghai Oriental Sports Center in Shanghai on Sunday, Sept. 1, 2019. U.S. defeats Czech Republic 88-67. (AP Photo/Ng Han Guan)</div></div><div class="metaInfo"><photo2>https://www.timesleader.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/09/web1_123496386-3e33358807c848adbab77860d9059b76.jpg</photo2><caption2>United States' Harrison Barnes, left keeps the ball from Czech Republic's Ondrej Balvin during a Group E match for the FIBA Basketball World Cup at the Shanghai Oriental Sports Center in Shanghai on Sunday, Sept. 1, 2019. U.S. defeats Czech Republic 88-67. (AP Photo/Ng Han Guan)</caption2><photoCredit2></photoCredit2></div></div>
<div class="metaInfo"><bylineMeta><p>The Associated Press</p></bylineMeta></div>

USA tops Czechs 88-67 to open World Cup