Lithuania just handed Team USA their first loss in the FIBA World Cup 2023 at the Mall of Asia Arena, and there was one man who couldn’t escape Anthony Edwards’ memory of the stinging loss.
“He hit two big threes in the fourth when we were making our run, off-balance or falling out of bounds. One of them was with two seconds left. I stripped the ball, he picked it up and threw it,” said Edwards, who himself tallied 35 points in the game, of the shooter he only remembers by the jersey number.
“Shout out to him. It was his night.”
It was Mindaugus Kuzminskas whom the Minnesota Timberwolves forward was referring to.
The Lithuanian forward finished with 14 points on 5-of-8 shooting from the field, including two treys, one that is forever etched in Edwards’ memory.
With less than four minutes left in the fourth quarter and the USA trailing 91-85, the Americans clamped down on defense and denied Lithuania’s offense, with Edwards tapping the ball away from Kuzminskas off an inbound pass with less than three seconds left on their shot clock.
Kuzminskas scrambled for the ball and knocked down an off-balance hail mary three as the shot clock expired to extend Lithuania’s lead back to nine, 94-85.
Lithuania’s clutch threes doused multiple Team USA runs in the payoff period after trailing by as much as 21 late in the second quarter.
The Lithuanian squad shot a blistering 56% from deep, converting a total of fourteen threes.
Even Team USA coach Steve Kerr couldn’t help but be impressed with the way Lithuania responded to their comeback attempts.
“We had our chances, but they made several really tough off-balanced threes that allowed them to stay ahead. When a team does that, you’ve got to give them credit,” he said.
