Anthony Edwards impresses with 34 points in USA’s comeback win against Germany in its final warmup game before the FIBA World Cup
- Haliburton and Bridges also played important roles in the USA’s comeback winÂ
- An 18-0 run in the final minutes saved the Americans in their last warmup game
- DailyMail.com provides all the latest international sports newsÂ
Anthony Edwards scored 34 points, Austin Reaves and Tyrese Haliburton each added 16 off the bench as USA basketball rallied from a 16-point second-half deficit to beat Germany 99-91 on Sunday in its final warmup game before heading to the Philippines for the World Cup.
An 18-0 run in the final minutes saved the Americans, who finished the exhibition season 5-0.
‘What I like is that we know now they’ve got guts,’ U.S. coach Steve Kerr said. ‘But we can get a lot better because we have a higher ceiling than a lot of teams – because most of these teams have been together.
‘(Germany) has been together. They´re really good. We feel like we´ve got more room for growth. And we´ve got to keep working and getting better as we head to Manila.’
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Edwards was outstanding and made 11 of 21 shots and going 8 of 8 from the line. The rest of the U.S. starters scored a combined 25 points. The Timberwolves superstar had nine more than that by himself.
Minnesota Timberwolves guard Anthony Edwards led team USA’s comeback with 34 points
Tyrese Haliburton and Mikal Bridges also played important roles in the USA comeback win
‘That was the best game I’ve had in a minute,’ Edwards said.
Kerr added: ‘He’s unquestionably the guy. He knows it. Now the rest of the team knows it.’
Edwards’ performance even caught the eye of Lakers superstar LeBron James, who tweeted: ‘Ant man cooking!! That boy.’Â
The specular thing is that Edwards didn’t do it alone. The comeback really started late in the third quarter, when Haliburton scored 11 points in less than 3 minutes to bring the U.S. back from 16 down to within three and spark serious hope.
Germany didn’t go away. Moritz Wagner´s 3-pointer with 6:58 left put Germany up 86-77.Â
The Germans missed their next eight shots as the Americans scored the game´s next 18 points before taking the lead back for good on Mikal Bridges’ 3-pointer with 2:15 left.
‘It just comes down to buckling down and getting stops,’ Haliburton said.
Franz Wagner scored 17 points for Germany, which got 16 points and 10 assists from Dennis Schroder, and 14 points from Moritz Wagner.Â
It became the first team this summer to take more than a four-point lead on the U.S. but couldn’t finish the win off.
The U.S. team has been together for only 2 1/2 weeks yet has had very little trouble clicking to this point.Â
Edwards’ performance even caught the eye of Lakers superstar LeBron James on TwitterÂ
They opened the exhibition schedule with a 117-74 win in Las Vegas over Puerto Rico, then headed to Spain for wins over Slovenia (92-62, though the Slovenians played without Luka Doncic) and Spain (98-88).Â
From Spain, they headed to Abu Dhabi to finish preparations, beating Greece 108-86 on Friday and then capping it all off by topping the Germans.
Next up: The stuff that matters – the World Cup, which will take place in the Philippines, Japan and Indonesia. The U.S. is the heavy betting favorite to win the tournament, according to FanDuel Sportsbook, and will face New Zealand, Greece and Jordan in group play that starts Saturday in Manila.
‘I don’t think that we really ever feel like we’re out of a game,’ Reaves said.
