Popovich defends team, USA beat Poland for 7th at World Cup

Their final game at the World Cup had been over for several minutes, and every member of the U.S. team and coaching staff were still lingering together on the court.

They were ready to go home. They just weren't ready to go their separate ways.

For USA Basketball, summer ended Saturday with an 87-74 win over Poland in the seventhplace game at the World Cup, the lowest finish ever by a U.S. team in a major international tournament. Donovan Mitchell finished with 16 points and 10 assists, Joe Harris scored 14 and the U.S. wrapped up its stay in China with a 6-2 record.

And when it was over, as his players signed each other's jerseys in the locker room as souvenirs, U.S. coach Gregg Popovich insisted this team has nothing to be ashamed about.

Khris Middleton had 13 points, six rebounds and six assists for the Americans. Derrick White scored 12 and Harrison Barnes added 10 for the U.S., which led by 17 at the half but had to stave off a Poland rally in the final minutes.

The mantra the Americans carried into Saturday was to finish the trip the right way, and they got it done.

There was little to play for except pride — and the Americans were playing with the realization that for some of them, it easily could be their last time wearing the red, white and blue uniforms with "USA" across the chest. The roster for the U.S. trip to the Tokyo Olympics next summer is likely to look considerably different than this one.

Poland coach Mike Taylor also found the World Cup most worthwhile — especially Saturday.

He's an American, lives in Florida, is proud of how far he's taken Poland's program, knows many of the words to the Polish national anthem — but mouthed along with the words to "The Star-Spangled Banner" when it played pregame.

Mateusz Ponitka scored 18 points, Adam Waczynski had 17 and Louisville-born A.J. Slaughter finished with 15 for Poland (4-4), which was in the World Cup for the first time since 1967.

Popovich said it's too early to think about what USA Basketball needs to do before getting ready for the Tokyo Games. But he warned — just as two-time gold medalist Kobe Bryant did on Friday — that the days of American romps to gold are done.

When it's time for that Tokyo team to get assembled, Mitchell made it clear that he wants to be part of the squad.

TIP-INS

U.S.: Kemba Walker (neck) didn't play, joining Boston Celtics teammates Jayson Tatum (left ankle) and Marcus Smart (left hand) on the U.S. injured list. White started in Walker's place at point guard. ... Timing is everything — the 6-2 record for the U.S. here was better than silver-medalist Serbia (5-4) and bronze-medalist France (6-3) at the last World Cup. But losing in the quarterfinals doomed the U.S. medal hopes.

Poland: The team had three players who played at the Division I level — Slaughter was a four-year player at Western Kentucky, guard Karol Gruszecki spent two years at Texas-Arlington and center Dominik Olejniczak started his career at Drake, then played two seasons at Ole Miss and will play this year at Florida State as a graduate transfer. ... Poland started 4-0 in China, then dropped its last four games.

SERBIA FIFTH

Serbia rallied from a nine-point halftime deficit to beat the Czech Republic 90-81 for fifth place Saturday. Bogdan Bogdanovic scored 31 for Serbia, and Nikola Jokic finished with seven points, 14 rebounds and seven assists. Patrick Auda scored 16 for the Czechs.