News of FIBA of Group B From FIBA:
ISTANBUL (2010 FIBA World Championship) - The USA players are fully expecting a much harder game on Sunday against Slovenia at the FIBA World Championship after blowing out Croatia in their opener.
And one reason is because of the crowd.
Just like last year in Poland when the fans traveled en masse from Slovenia to back their national team and help them reach the EuroBasket Semi-Finals, the Abdi Ipecki was packed with people wearing green and white for Saturday's first game between the Slovenians and Tunisia.
Slovenia rolled to an 80-56 victory.
"Those guys (Slovenia) are tough," USA's Kevin Durant said after his side’s 106-78 romp over Croatia.
"They have a big crowd here, too.
"So, it’s going to be a tough environment for us.
"It’s something that we’re used to so far, playing in Spain and playing in Greece.
"We know what it takes to win in a tough environment.
"We got to come out there and play our game."
The USA's game is simple and straightforward.
They get after opponents on defense and hit them on the fastbreak.
While most observers would have said the USA executed well against Croatia, especially in the second quarter when they broke open a close game, the Americans' Andre Iguodala insists the team can play better.
"We got to play better defense," he said.
"We got to follow the mode of the second quarter for the first, third and fourth quarters … put teams away early and not let them really get their confidence up."
Slovenia do have players that can thrive in the open court and ones that have NBA connections.
Goran Dragic is a rising star with the Phoenix Suns and Boston Nachbar spent a lot of time with the New Jersey Nets.
"We have to stop them in transition because they are lethal and try to stay in the game as much as possible," Dragic said.
"They are a very strong team and we will just go out and do our best."
Tunisia lost on their debut at the FIBA World Championship but coach Adel Tlatli was encouraged by his team's effort.
Now he is fully focused on Sunday's game against Brazil.
"After the game against Slovenia," he said, "Brazil is more of the same for us.
"We are going to have problems in our interior play but we will have to come up with solutions in order to play more zone defense.
"For us it's important to play these type of games, to gain experience of playing at the highest level."
Brazil got off to a winning start against Iran, winning 81-65.
Anderson Varejao didn't play because of a sprained ankle for the Brazilians and could be out again on Sunday.
"It's hard to be here and not play but I expect to be back soon," he said.
The other Group B game will pit Iran against Croatia.
Hamed Ehadadi, the Iran center, will go up against Croatia's talented young frontcourt that includes Real Madrid's young center Ante Tomic.
