Team USA narrowly beat world champions Germany 92:88 on Monday. Coach Steve Kerr now remarked that he was anything but satisfied with his team’s performance
“I didn’t like the way we played against Germany at all,” he told the New York Times. “We carried the ball forward at a walking pace. It was really hard to watch that game again.”
Ultimately, it was LeBron James who saved the day for the USA with 11 points in the final four minutes, ensuring the Americans won all five of their pre-season games. Nevertheless, the two games in London against South Sudan (101:100) and Germany were not convincing for Kerr.
“We know we have to play better at both ends of the court and I’m confident we will. But we will have to make adjustments, both strategically and mentally.” The main thing is to play with more pace, which is one of the reasons why Kerr kept changing the block to keep the players fresh.
When Devin Booker was asked about his coach’s comments a little later, he remarked: “It’s difficult to keep up the pace when you get the ball out of the net. Germany took 20 or 30 more threes than we did. That’s actually a style we want to play, so it was a good test for us.”