‘He’s taking a leap’: Anthony Edwards explodes to put USA ‘on his back’ in World Cup warning

Anthony Edwards, Austin Reaves and Tyrese Haliburton impressed a exceptional United States comeback towards Germany in Abu Dhabi on Sunday, to make sure the Americans wrapped up their five-game sequence of World Cup tune-ups with an ideal profitable document.

USA trailed the Germans by 16 factors late within the third quarter earlier than LA Lakers’ Reaves and Indiana Pacers’ Haliburton got here off the bench to assist launch a much-needed fightback, scoring essential threes and organising Edwards for a monster end to the sport.

The Minnesota Timberwolves guard top-scored with 34 factors and it was an Edwards three-pointer midway by the fourth quarter that levelled the conflict earlier than the Americans secured a 99-91 victory.

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USA and Golden State Warriors head coach Steve Kerr paid tribute to Edwards and believes this nationwide group call-up may present a springboard for the 22-year-old.

“He is unquestionably ‘the guy’. He knows it, but now the team knows it and I think the fans see it, but we see it in practice every day,” mentioned Kerr.

“He genuinely believes he is the best player in the gym every single night and he’s such a dynamic young player but I think he’s taking a leap.

“And if you think about USA basketball over the years, a lot of young players have taken a leap in these World Cup, Olympic competitions and it feels to me like Anthony is taking that leap.”

Edwards might want to take that leap after Minnesota put its religion in him, extending the All-Star swingman on a five-year contract that would attain $260 million ($A406m).

Toronto Raptors’ Dennis Schroeder spearheaded Germany’s offence, tallying up 16 factors and 10 assists, whereas Franz Wagner of the Orlando Magic top-scored with 17 factors and 10 rebounds.

“Germany was great, they were so physical,” mentioned Kerr.

“Schroeder is such a tough match-up and gets penetration and they did a good job on the glass, they beat us up rebounding-wise, so we were trying to make decisions during the game, do we go bigger or do we try to get more playmaking on the floor?

“They forced us into a lot of difficult decisions.”

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With exhibition sport wins over Puerto Rico in Las Vegas, Slovenia and Spain in Malaga, and Greece and Germany in Abu Dhabi, USA now head to the World Cup in Manila, the place they tip off their marketing campaign towards New Zealand on August 26.

They need to enhance on their poor seventh-place efficiency within the competitors 4 years in the past.

“The hard part is when you don’t know your team quite well enough yet, you’ve got a lot of options but no clear decisions, no clear moves,” defined Kerr, who has the difficult job of placing collectively a gaggle with no nationwide group expertise within the span of some weeks.

“And so, right now, tonight, was definitely sort of, let’s try to find a group that clicks and stay with them.

“We have 12 great players and every night could be different, we just got to find a group that can click.

“We still go to Manila feeling like we have a lot of room for growth but we also go there with a lot of confidence in ourselves in the group, in the fibre of the group, the connection, they really like each other, they play well together, and they fight.

“So that’s a huge step.”