2010 FIBA World Championship Final

2010 FIBA World Championship Final

USA's Billups and Odom holding the trophy
Turkey United States 64 81
1 2 3 4 Total United States 22 20 19 20 81 Turkey 17 15 16 16 64
Date	September 12, 2010
Venue	Sinan Erdem Dome, Istanbul
Referees	Cristiano Jesus Maranho, Luigi Lamonica, Juan Arteaga
Attendance	15,000

The 2010 FIBA World Championship Final was a basketball game between the men's national teams of Turkey and the United States that took place on September 12, 2010, at Sinan Erdem Dome in Istanbul, Turkey, to determine the winner of the 2010 FIBA World Championship. The US team won the world title after defeating Turkey 81–64.^[1]

This was the first match-up in any major international competition between the United States and Turkey. The last time the two teams faced each other in a match was at an exhibition game before the 2008 Summer Olympics. At that meeting, the U.S. dominated the game and won 114–82,^[2] with the Turkish side playing without the services of its star, Hedo Türkoğlu.

Route to the final

Both teams qualified to the tournament automatically, the U.S. by winning the gold medal at the Olympics in Beijing, and Turkey as hosts.^[3] Historically, the teams were polar opposites. America had 16 Summer Olympics medals and 10 FIBA World Championship medals, while Turkey's only previous international medal of any kind was a silver at the EuroBasket 2001. The US brought the top scoring offense into the final, averaging 94.3 points and 18.5 assists per game. Nevertheless, Turkey's vaunted 2-1-2 zone made it the top defensive team (64 points per game) in the tournament heading into the final,^[4] and a commentator on NBA.com wrote that the European crowd would "be the most hostile crowd most of these [U.S.] players, with the exception of maybe Chauncey Billups and Lamar Odom, have ever seen."^[4]

The U.S. had an easier route to the final, winning all of their games in runaway fashion, with the sole exception of their preliminary round game against Brazil. Turkey, on the other hand, had close games against Puerto Rico in the preliminary round, and against Serbia in the semifinals in which Kerem Tunçeri scored the go-ahead basket with less than a second left after picking up Hedo Türkoğlu's fumble to give Turkey the 83–82 win. Both teams were undefeated going into the final.^[3]

Turkey		Round	USA
Opponent	Result	Group stage	Opponent	Result
Ivory Coast	86–47	Match 1	Croatia	106–78
Russia	65–56	Match 2	Slovenia	99–77
Greece	76–65	Match 3	Brazil	70–68
Puerto Rico	79–77	Match 4	Iran	88–51
China	87–40	Match 5	Tunisia	92–57
Team Pld W L PF PA PD Pts Turkey 5 5 0 393 285 +108 10 Russia 5 4 1 365 346 +19 9 Greece 5 3 2 403 370 +33 8 China 5 1 4 360 422 −62 6 Puerto Rico 5 1 4 386 401 −15 6 Côte d'Ivoire 5 1 4 334 417 −83 6		Final standing	Team Pld W L PF PA PD Pts USA 5 5 0 455 331 +124 10 Slovenia 5 4 1 393 376 +17 9 Brazil 5 3 2 398 354 +44 8 Croatia 5 2 3 395 407 −12 7 Iran 5 1 4 301 367 −66 6 Tunisia 5 0 5 300 407 −107 5
Opponent	Result	Knockout stage	Opponent	Result
France	95–77	Round of 16	Angola	121–66
Slovenia	95–68	Quarter-finals	Russia	89–79
Serbia	83–82	Semifinals	Lithuania	89–74

Match details

The game was close for the first half—Turkey even led at one point during the first quarter—but the American athleticism was too much for the Turks, and the U.S. was able to pull away on easy baskets.^[5]

Kevin Durant was the game's leading scorer with 28 points, including seven three-point field goals. Durant scored 20 of his points in the first half. Lamar Odom came up big when it mattered most, scoring all fifteen of his points in the second half, and grabbing eleven rebounds overall. Hedo Türkoğlu was Turkey's leading scorer with 16 points, despite suffering a knee injury during the first half.^[6] Ersan İlyasova had seven points and eleven rebounds.^[5]

With the win, Mike Krzyzewski became the first U.S. national basketball coach to win an Olympic Gold Medal and a FIBA World Championship.^[5] The U.S. also clinched an automatic berth in the 2012 Olympic tournament.^[5]

September 12 21:30

Report

Turkey	64–81	United States
Scoring by quarter: 17–22, 15–20, 16–19, 16–20
Pts: Türkoğlu 16 Rebs: İlyasova 11 Asts: Tunçeri 5		Pts: Durant 28 Rebs: Odom 11 Asts: Rose 6

Sinan Erdem Dome, Istanbul Attendance: 15,000 Referees: Cristiano Jesus Maranho (BRA), Luigi Lamonica (ITA), Juan Arteaga (ESP)

Turkey

United States

Starters Pts Reb Ast PG 10 Kerem Tunçeri 7 2 5 SG 7 Ömer Onan 7 0 1 SF 15 Hidayet Türkoğlu 16 7 1 PF 8 Ersan İlyasova 7 11 0 C 14 Ömer Aşık 5 4 0 Reserves: G 4 Cenk Akyol 0 0 0 G 5 Sinan Güler 0 0 0 G 6 Barış Ermiş 0 0 0 C 9 Semih Erden 9 0 0 C 11 Oğuz Savaş 0 2 0 F 12 Kerem Gönlüm 4 6 1 G 13 Ender Arslan 6 0 1 Head coach: Bogdan Tanjević

Game rules Game was played under FIBA rules. Sinan Erdem Dome 2010 World Champions United States 5th title

Starters Pts Reb Ast PG 4 Chauncey Billups 4 3 2 SG 6 Derrick Rose 8 1 6 SF 9 Andre Iguodala 4 5 3 PF 5 Kevin Durant 28 5 0 C 14 Lamar Odom 15 11 0 Reserves: G 7 Russell Westbrook 13 6 3 F 8 Rudy Gay 6 4 0 F 10 Danny Granger 0 0 0 G 11 Stephen Curry 3 0 0 G 12 Eric Gordon   DNP F 13 Kevin Love 0 1 0 C 15 Tyson Chandler 0 0 0 Head coach: Mike Krzyzewski

References

1. "USA beat hosts Turkey to land first World Championship title since 1994". The Telegraph. 2010-08-13. Archived from the original on 14 September 2010. Retrieved 2010-09-13.
2. "U.S. Olympic basketball team beats Turkey by 32 points". Full Court Press – A Detroit Pistons Blog. 2008-07-31. Retrieved 2010-09-12.
3. "Last Day Preview". FIBA. 2010-09-12. Archived from the original on 15 September 2010. Retrieved 2010-09-12.
4. "Americans face difficult challenge as Turkey thinks upset". NBA.com. 2010-09-11. Archived from the original on 15 September 2010. Retrieved 2010-09-12.
5. "FIBA World Championships: USA-Turkey Live Blog". SI.com. 2010-09-12. Archived from the original on 14 September 2010. Retrieved 2010-09-13.
6. "FIBA world championship final: USA defeats Turkey". USA Today. September 12, 2010. Retrieved September 12, 2010.