ISTANBUL (FIBA World Championship) – Immediately after the USA’s impressive demolition of an under-strength Angola, quietly spoken guard Eric Gordon showed his team is not blindly advancing through this tournament.

Asked about his team’s next opponent, which at that stage was either Russia or New Zealand – both without any NBA players – Gordon answered: “Both of them are pretty good teams, they play well together. 

As he spoke he showed knowledge of how these teams play, backing up coach Mike Krzyzewski’s repeated statements that he and his team respect world basketball. Many people would doubt the USA players had given any thought to, let alone watched, lowly ranked opponents such as Russia and New Zealand.

Krzyzewski also said earlier in the tournament that Gordon had to work harder than any other teammates to get to the FIBA World Championship, and maybe the 191cm sharp shooter’s attention to detail is a result of this.

Whatever the reason, Gordon comes across as a young man very serious about the job at hand, and focused on learning something new from each varying style of play he comes up against. “This is a whole different game for us,” he said.

“So we are just trying to adjust to it and we are getting better, and hopefully we can keep continuing to get better as the games go on.”

But while he is mindful of the team’s the USA face, like his teammates Gordon is full of belief that it is what the US do that will determine how far they go in the tournament. “To win these games we just have to keep on playing like we did today,” he said.

“Really tough defence and being unselfish on the offensive end. (Today) we really got after it and created a lot of turnovers, (because) we just really wanted to have a good start.”

One game where the USA didn’t have a good start was against Brazil, who behind the composure point guard Marcello Huertas, led 28-22 at quarter time, and forced their Americas rivals into a half court grind down the stretch.

While the US escaped with a win, their nine point final quarter showed that the final rounds will be a real challenge for this inexperienced US team.

But as Krzyzewski pointed out after that game, defence held firm when the offence stagnated, and that will be the key to his team achieving their lofty goal for the tournament. As Gordon pointed out, that is something largely in their control.

You can see Team USA's game with Russia, Thursday live on FIBATV.com.

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