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20 November, 2017
26 February, 2019
Jeffrey William Van Gundy (USA)
20/02/2018
News
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Accurate outside shooting to continue being USA's winning card

LOS ANGELES (FIBA Basketball World Cup 2019 Americas Qualifiers) - The USA will feature a number of new faces during the second window of the World Cup Qualifiers, but the accurate outside shooting they displayed in November looks set to continue playing a key role.

Through the two games of the November Qualifiers, the Americans had the second-best shooting percentage among the 16 teams battling for seven tickets to the FIBA Basketball World Cup 2019 in China.

In their wins over Puerto Rico and Mexico, the team coached by Jeff Van Gundy hit 23 of 45 attempts (51.1 percent) from beyond the arc. Only Chile, with 22 makes out of 42 tries (52.4 percent) were more accurate.

For the second window, the veteran coach will have 10 new players. Despite this roster turnaround, he still expects three-point shooting as an important source of the offense.

On Sunday, in a friendly game against a group of players from the Mexico National League of Professional Basketball, the USA connected on 15 of 28 attempts from three-point range, for a phenomenal 53.6 percent shooting.

Van Gundy underlined the importance of his team being efficient from long range, but also recognised that other areas of the game must be mastered in the event that shots aren't falling.

"If you can make 15 threes in a FIBA game, you've done a great job shooting the ball but you also know that can ebb and flow and so you have to do some other things a little bit better in case you have one of those nights where you don't shoot it great," he told USA Basketball.

The USA, with a 2-0 mark in Group C, will play as hosts for both of their games during this window, when they welcome Cuba (0-2) on February 23, and face Puerto Rico (1-1) three days later.

FIBA