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Some good analysis by Hollinger in The Athletic:
about how the FIBA game is just enough different than the NBA that a lot of instincts the USA players have honed over a decade don't quite translate with only 3 weeks to adapt, while teams like Lithuania have played FIBA ball for years and understand what works. A few examples:
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Alas, something gets lost in translation between the NBA and FIBA, and it’s not something that gets eliminated with a two-week training camp. Size and continuity combine to close the talent gap for European sides, especially against teams loaded with players who are used to NBA rules and lack much time for cohesion. The U.S., especially, checks all those boxes, which is why a Lithuania side with only one current NBA player — but years of spending summers together on the national team — was able to run circles around the Americans for the first 15 minutes on Sunday in their 110-104 upset win. Similarly, Canada barely survived elimination after losing to Brazil on Friday and needed a late rally to beat Spain on Sunday.
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Lithuania’s offensive strategy showcased one of many areas of FIBA ball that makes it harder for players who are unfamiliar. With no illegal defense rules, the defense can be way more aggressive against isos on the block, but the U.S. seemed reluctant to try this after Lithuania’s Steph Curry impersonation in the first quarter. Typically international teams will have a second, bigger defender waiting inside the charge circle on a post-up, meaning they can force a pass out and, with less area to cover on the international floor, hopefully rotate effectively. That’s usually preferable to letting post players work freely with no help.
We’ve also seen the FIBA familiarity tax at times at the offensive end, where American players drive into the paint and see an unexpected help defender but no great angle for a kickout. At both ends, reprogramming in three weeks after years spent playing another way is really hard. It’s less of an issue for the European NBA players simply because many of them A) grew up with these rules before shifting to the NBA and B) have been repping their international teams nearly every summer.
Other subtle rules differences sometimes trip up the North American sides at random times too. For instance, the U.S. seemed to completely forget that the shot clock is only 14 seconds on possessions that begin on the opposite side of half court, leading to a costly second-half turnover as they tried to come back against Lithuania. I talked about post-ups and illegal defense above, but in the end, it’s never one big thing as much as 100 little things that tend to level the playing field in international basketball, combined with the element of randomness that a tournament can add.
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Of course, talent still matters, and the U.S. and Canada still have more of it than anyone else. Of the other six quarterfinalists, Lithuania, Latvia, Italy and Slovenia each have just one active NBA player on their roster; Germany has four, and Serbia has three. The U.S. and Canada should be favored; that’s just not the same thing as saying they’ll automatically win. In a sign of how relatively even this tournament looks at the top, only two teams have made it to the quarterfinals unbeaten, and those two (Lithuania and Germany) are just fourth and fifth in point differential, respectively.
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Or, you can just say Kerr sucks and should be fired from every job, and Kerr-ball is a failure and clearly everyone else has passed it by (uh, I guess in the last 15 months since their previous championship, things change quick). After all, sports fandom is all about us being able to take whatever position we want, that's where the fun is.