After beating Jordan in the wee hours of the morning, Team USA has moved on to the second round of the World Cup. The second round, much like the first round, is a group play format with the two best teams moving on to a subsequent knockout stage.

Team USA and Greece, the winners of Group C, have merged with the winners of Group D, Lithuania and Montenegro. As anyone who has watched the NBA lately knows, the Baltic/Balkan nations are hooper hotbeds and both teams will pose a step up in the level of competition. Having said that, don't expect Team USA to blink.

First up is Montenegro which features a familiar foe in Nikola Vucevic, the only NBA-er on the roster. However, the Bulls big-man is backed up by Marko Simonovic, who until July 6th was... a Bulls big-man. A second round pick in 2020, Simonovic played the last two seasons in Chicago. Though Montenegro isn't heavy on NBA talent, expect them to play a scrappy, team oriented game that typifies FIBA competition.

As far as Team USA goes, Josh Hart replaced Brandon Ingram in the starting lineup against Jordan. The starters had been underperforming of late and it became apparent that the unit had too many score-first players. Steve Kerr opted against plucking out Haliburton or Reaves and thereby majorly disrupting the chemistry of his stellar bench. In theory, the move should give the starters a bit more balance and add firepower to the reserves.

With the Warriors Kerr is never married to a lineup. He's known to makes changes from game to game, all the way through the Finals. It will be interesting to see what other tweaks he has up his sleeve as the opponents get tougher.

How to Watch

Tipoff is at 4:30 AM ET and the game will air on ESPN2.

Tagged in:

Game Thread