World Cup Play: Things Get Real Saturday

The US faces a major challenge Saturday morning when Team USA faces Greece and superstar - and current NBA MVP - Giannis Antetokounmpo.

This is particularly a problem since the US has gone small so far and we’re not sure anyone matches up particularly well with Antetokounmpo.

On the bright side, Brook Lopez and Khris Middleton see Antetokounmpo every day with the Bucks and in the playoffs last spring, Boston had to compete against Milwaukee so Jaylen Brown, Marcus Smart and Jayson Tatum, who is not expected to play, not only have seen him recently but have a bit of score to settle.

There’s no denying his talent though. He’s become one of the very best players in the world.

The rest of his team is not as good obviously so the way to attack them may be to attack the others. Duke did this with Len Bias back in the day, assuming the Maryland star was going to get his.

If Greece wins, the irony would be obvious: the last team to beat the US in international competition (not counting exhibitions) was Greece, in the very beginning of Mike Krzyzewski’s tenure as coach in 2006.