Basketball: Turkey to face USA in 2019 FIBA World Cup

By Emre Asikci

ANKARA (AA) - The Turkish National Basketball Team will face mighty Team USA in 2019 FIBA Basketball World Cup Group E game on Tuesday.

The match will be played at Shanghai Oriental Sports Center in Shanghai on Tuesday at 20:30 p.m. local time (1530GMT).

Taking on the reigning world champions, Turkey could not taste victory against Team USA in any of their previous five matches.

In the previous five matches, which also include a 2010 FIBA World Cup final match, Turkey scored a total of 358 points, while Team USA scored 452 points.

Team USA last defeated Turkey 98-77 in FIBA Basketball World Cup in 2014.

Turkey has three NBA stars; Ersan Ilyasova of Milwaukee Bucks, Philadelphia 76ers' shooting guard Furkan Korkmaz and Cleveland Cavaliers' promising young star Cedi Osman.

Turkish team faced Japan in their first match of tournament, Turkey's top two scorers were Ersan Ilyasova with 17 points, Cedi Osman with 12 points and Furkan Korkmaz helped his team with 10 points.

Team USA won the World Cup five times, they are also the winners of the last two World Cup editions and last three Olympics.

Team USA is unbeaten in the last 13 years in the World Cup and Olympics as it took first loss to Australia 98-94 in an exhibition match in August.

They defeated Czech Republic 88-67 in the first game of group E.

Utah Jazz guard Donovan Mitchell helped his team scoring 16 points and Harrison Barnes produced 14 points for the Team USA.

The team consists of NBA players, but Kemba Walker is the only All-Star guard for the Team USA in China. Many superstars, including Lebron James, Klay Thompson, DeMar DeRozan, Jimmy Butler, James Harden, Russell Westbrook, Kyrie Irving, Kevin Durant did not make it to the squad due to injury problems or they did not choose to play for Team USA to get ready for the 2019/2020 NBA season.

Group E: