By Marcus Shockley

Kevin Durant and the rest of the USA basketball team, much maligned for their early lack of cohesive play, have reached the FIBA World Basketball Championship finals and will take on Turkey later today. Turkey, led by NBA star Hedo Turkoglu, are playing in front of a home crowd, as the games are being played in Istanbul.

Breaking down the game, the USA team should not lose to Turkey; although Turkoglu is by all rights an NBA star, one NBA player is not enough to beat another team with an entire roster of NBA players. But what the US team has to be wary of is that the international game is not like the NBA, and that means that Turkey does not just hand the ball to Turkoglu every time down the court and clear out. They play a motion team offense, with Turkoglu working within the offense to find his shot. Occasionally, Turkoglu will bring the ball up court, but he’s not actually running the point.

The US team should use Kevin Durant in the same manner, because there is a lot more scoring on the the USA team than Turkey’s team, and even if Turkey tries to stop Durant, the US team should be able to find buckets in other places.

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