How Team USA Survived France

(upbeat music) - Welcome to the Ringer's WNDA show. I am Sarah Sohee as always, and the Americans have survived against the French to take home the Phoebo World Cup gold medal. And let me tell you guys, as much as we talk about young interns today, it was all about the old heads. It was the aunts and the aunties, the longevity maxers. They might have not have been rested, but as Brianna Stewart said, they were well-regulated. The golden girls, their I say. And I'm not gonna lie. I kinda relate to where they're at right now because I actually evaded jet lag myself. I knew when to take the hydroxazine. I am what I lack now in agility and energy I make up for an experience. And so do these Americans. Jackie Young, 18.6 rebounds, five assists, one of the players of the game. Brianna Stewart, maybe the player of the tournament, certainly the player of the tournament for the Americans, 22 points, 10 rebounds. And Chelsea Gray, I got a handed to Sue Bird in her roster construction because we were all given her hell. We were all given the Americans hell. You guys are too obsessed with experience. You guys care too much about experience. Why isn't Olivia Miles on this team? And look, Olivia Miles could have very well been on this team, but Chelsea Gray comes through when it matters the most, her mid-range game. What an incredibly steadying force. And I think this was just a game too, where the Americans really just outlasted France. Gabby Williams had 16 points in the first half, makes only one bucket in the second. It really just felt like France ran out of gas. And I think the Americans really found an identity with, we've been talking about identity a lot, this American team. And I think for Carol Lawson's team, it's really always gonna be defense. And we can talk about Carol Lawson's future in a bit here, but with the Carol Lawson team, it's going to be defense. And I think that they started to get stops. I think that they started winning the hustle plays. I think Angel Reese was huge. I think Stewie with her offensive rebounding, her ability to break France's zone by getting to the paint and getting some second chance buckets was really, really huge. Ryan Howard was huge. She definitely is an unselling hero of this game. Four Steels has won on Marino Hanna's when she's driving. There's a couple of interceptions in transition. She's just so much bigger and more athletic and agile than the French bat court. She got one on Pauline Astier too. That was one of the fun matchups that we had in the first half when this was still a game. A lot of good matchups when this was still a game in the first half. I thought Dominique Malonga, even with France losing, she's gonna be a problem, man. That was one of my big WNBA takeaways for this game. You're watching Alia Boston, where I think actually, frankly, underrated had a really great game. She got some deep post seals and also France when they were trying to switch. Alia Boston wasn't having any of it. She blocked the Marino Hanna's jumper. She forced to pass out. She forced a bad drive by I think it was Gabby Williams. And then on the other end was just running really hard. But you know, who could run a little bit harder than her, Dominique Malonga. I think when we think about the future of the big position in the WNBA, I know that we already talk about Dominique Malonga, but this was just one of those games, especially after a more quiet game in the semi-final, where she made her impact felt in every possible way. But ultimately, France just didn't really have enough. I think that they went with this lineup, which I think is probably their best lineup. It's SDA, it was Carla, Carla or SDA, Marino Hanna's, Gabby Williams, Dominique Malonga, and Valerie Niai. So they're going super big in the front court and trying to get as much attacking on the court with Gabby Williams. And they played that lineup a ton in the third quarter. And I'm watching Gabby Williams miss two layups in a row in one drive where she could have gotten the foul, but what you're essentially seeing is her running out of gas, and I'm just wondering how much longer can they actually just run with this one lineup, which seems to be the only one that they can trust against the Americans. And the answer was really not that much longer. The fourth quarter, starting of the fourth quarter, they go and they try to play some of their bench and the Americans just extend their lead. And after that, it's just really not a game. America, I think, had a 32 and 10, third quarter after being down up to nine points in the second, I believe, it was 9 or 11. And it was just a really impressive second half for the Americans. I think they really saved their best for their last. But really, I think you've got to give a lot of credit to the older players on this team. So Jackie Young, I think it's really time that we start talking about Jackie Young, the way that we talk about Chelsea Gray, the way that we talk about Brianna Stewart. Now, a lot of what Jackie has done has basically been Chelsea Grayifying her game, to an extent. She leads the ACEs in assist to Asia Wilson, by the way. More assist to Asia Wilson this season than Chelsea Gray has. This is Pearl Alexa, Philopoe. Jackie Young is a first basketball player to win a high school state championship, NCAA title, a WNBA title, a five on five Olympic gold medal, a three on three Olympic gold medal, and a feeble World Cup gold medal. All of which is to say, she is just a winner. Jackie or Stewie were really the two most important players in this tournament. And I would give the slight edge to Stewie. However, I just think some of the things that Jackie Young has done in this tournament really need some appreciation. After the Italy game, or even during the Italy game, really, like going into that fourth quarter, I kept asking myself, who's the alpha on this team? And I understand that that's a little bit reductive. However, if it's not going to be a night where your defense wins or you're not going to be so overpoweringly good, that it doesn't really matter who your alpha is, these questions do matter. Your best five, those questions, they do matter. The best five question, I think the Americans didn't necessarily have to answer as much. However, they did know who they were going to rely on when it mattered the most. And I think Jackie Young in the back court was that player. She sort of, she's through the other courses tournament been the ultimate stabilizer. That Italy game, she's the only one who really has a guts to say, OK, it's going to be me. Like, I'm going to be the one that snakes these picking rules. I'm going to get some mid-range jumpers off. It doesn't matter if they're tough shots. I trust my shot. She did the same thing in this game. Hit some really tough shots over Janossalon, over Gabi Williams. And I think that she has something in common with Brianna Stewart in that she doesn't necessarily need to dominate the ball to find her way in the game. And I think that pays dividends in a setting like this with American basketball, where you are going to be playing alongside some of the best players in the game. And you contrast that, even with a Clea Copper, who I think was really great in moments in this game, I think that she has too long of a leash for Cara Lawson. I think that she's not necessarily doing the things defensively that we're expected of her. But look, USA won. So it's really not here there until 2028. We'll see if she's on that team. But I think that Jackie, she does so many little things. She makes the extra pass. She makes a great extra pass to Katelyn Clark at the end of-- I think it was the third quarter where she hits a-- she hits a buzzer beating three. One of those buzzer beaters came off of a Jackie pass, I believe. She takes the difficult defensive assignments. And when everything breaks down, she's a truly elite, tough, shot maker. And she's someone that you trust with the ball in her hands. And there are so many parts of her development that have become a little bit underrated. She's always been a sturdy, versatile two-way player, but there are just little things. Like the growth of the handle and the footwork to give her the comfort to be able to get to her spot, see ability to create things late in the clock. And I think really, I think the question with Jackie, if you want to take it all the way back to maybe even, I think 2024 was sort of this moment where not with the Olympics necessarily, but with the aces where you kind of want to Jackie to be that player. And she wasn't always ready to step up to it. And Kelsey Plum was on the team too. And there was this sort of deferential nature that she had. And I think the biggest issue with her game was that she was an overthinker. She's not overthinking anymore. And it just allows her to flow into all the things that make her so great. That said. That said, I'm going to pull the rope. out from underneath her a little bit here. Even after giving her all this praise, I do think that Brianna Stewart should be the rightful MVP of this tournament for Team USA. She was definitely in my mind the MVP of this game. She leads the game in minutes and points at 22, which she gets to incredibly efficiently with 7 for 10 shooting. She makes 8 free throws. She leads a team in rebounds. She's second in assists. That's the only category where Jackie was ahead of her. She had five assists. But I think Brianna Stewart was just everywhere in this game. And I think even in her lowest point, her lowest moment was probably only hitting one shot against Italy. She still led that game in rebounds. She still had the closing rebounds of that game and one of the most important closing shots assisted by Jackie Young. By the way, only feeds the idea that these two are the kind of the most important players on this team for this fever run. But I think that she's just one of those players, you know, I talked about this with Jackie Powell. A lot of goat Jackie's, but Jackie Powell was on the pod last week. And we talked a lot about Brianna Stewart. And I think one of the coolest things with Brianna Stewart is that her leadership, it's never really theatrical. She doesn't really need to give you a big speech, but she just has this unspoken confidence. And you could, you could feel it after, you know, a close call against Spain. And she tells ESPN's Alexa Phillipu, who was by, by the way, on the podcast, a lot earlier this week. Just having a great run of guests, by the way, the guests are really given lately. But she tells Alexa Phillipu, look like in this game against France, whoever handles the emotions of the game is going to win the game. And my team, we're going to be locked in. And she was locked in her ability to run the floor, her ability to just outstamina everybody else, even at 32, being one of the oldest players in this tournament with everything that she's had to do for the Liberty this year, leading them in minutes, leading them in points, the stocks that she's getting for them. I think she's second in rebounding for them. She's doing everything for them. She is second in possessions guarded as well as a primary defender. She's doing everything for them this year. And she's doing, and she went and did everything for Team USA today as well, like attacking the mismatches early, pressuring the ball. I think something that was to France's advantage early in the game is that the FIBA court is just a little bit smaller than the WNBA court. And you saw, especially with Domalonga out there, it felt like France was shrinking the court. And then the second half, especially when Angel Reese was in the game, but Stewie as well, the ball pressure and just making yourself big, it felt like they then became the ones that were shrinking the court. They kind of turned France's game plan against them and just surely by having more attitude and more intensity about them in the third quarter, I think it was just sort of like you go into half time and you realize that they're not just going to give it to you. And I think once the Americans realize that they put their best foot forward and they won all the hustle plays, they won all the boards, they won defensively. And I think honestly, like I don't know if this is luck, I don't know if this is defense. I don't know if this is just stamina and you know six games or five games, 10 days, but France, the three-point magic just ran out. And the three-point magic's working for them pretty much until this game. So that was probably a big part of it as well. But honestly, it just feels like America, they outlasted France. And I think Stuart was just such a huge part of that. Some of the rebounds, you know, I think when you play defense for 22 seconds, you come out in his own and you think, oh, this is a right game plan. We got them with this. And then because she's unaccounted for it, to have Brianna Stewart fly in for rebounds, not once, but twice, but three times. It's just such a backbreaker in these big important games. And I think those things that they just can't be understated. She's just huge when it comes to stuff like that. And then, you know, I think Brianna already mentioned, but some of the steals there for her were amazing. Some of the drives going full-core after the steals. Angel Reese was fantastic. Caitlin Clark at the end of the clock was awesome. Just had the three-pointer and the long two as well. Chelsea with her amities. Alia Boston, kind of an unsung hero as well. This was really a team win. It was really a team win. There are definitely some WNBA questions going in. Pagebacker's unfortunately is dealing with an e-issue. And then the old Paul is losing Alanna Smith, who also had her own health issues. You kind of wonder how that's going to impact Dallas going into the playoffs as well. They're already down, easy fud. So they're going to be dealing with potentially even more injuries as well. With Stewie going back to New York after having to basically do everything for New York, you kind of wonder how that's going to impact her. Caitlin played some pretty heavy minutes for Indiana. Atlanta might be the winner in all of this because Reinhardt and Angel Reese both had excellent tournaments, but didn't play heavy minutes. So that'll be awesome. And also meant there's one player I have to talk about is second half of the piece of Collier as well. Like she was really struggling with the physicality of the game. She looked like a shell of herself. And she comes out in the third quarter. She makes this really difficult catch in traffic. Kind of has to fight for it. And then goes up for a layup really strong. She has a great block on the other end as well. Just kind of insinuated herself into the game after a really tough first half in a way that you know, kind of like it's going to sound like a cliche, but it kind of speaks to just being a vet. And knowing that, you know, you got to just forget what happened before. Like you got to just go in and be like, I'm the piece of Collier. I feel like she definitely did that in the second half. She was really great as well. And then, you know, France, I just think, you know, maybe if they, I'm kind of curious, like for France, like when they go back to the drawing board with all of this, how they're going to feel about their starters versus their second unit because they have, they had the young intern squad that was actually ready to take the belt. Like I would argue that the young intern crew was cool. And you could argue that because of Kara starting lineups, because of who she chose to trust down the stretch in these games that maybe she didn't give the, give the young intern crew enough rope to really take the torch. But I don't think that anybody in the young intern crew, other than maybe, I don't know, maybe Angel Reese. And look, I know who my audience is. I know that, you know, I'm a Katelyn fan. There's a lot of Katelyn fans in my audience. Ultimately, I tell it like I see it. And I think Angel and maybe Alia were probably the two players out of the young group that stuck out the most. And I think that going into this tournament, we had this huge narrative of, like, is it going to be the guard generation that takes over? Is Team USA going to have to change your identity? And ultimately, neither page nor Katelyn really forced Kara's hand on that. If anything, it was the other, it was, it was the other way around. So you can make the argument that Kara's system doesn't necessarily lend itself towards that. Maybe if it was Nate Tibbets, who was at the helm of, at the helm of Team USA and his small lineups, maybe that would have, maybe lent itself more to the guards taking over. But ultimately, like, looking at the final result, looking at who played well in this game, you kind of understand why Kara chose to trust who she trusted. And why Subaru chose a roster that she chose as well. And for the Americans, frankly, to be able to beat, beat friends and do it this decisively without Asia Wilson, who, you know, scored 21 points in the 2024 Olympic win against France, which was a much closer game. It was really a Gabby Williams toe on the line away from going to overtime. I think this is a pretty decisive victory for the Americans in shows that as much as we've talked about, there are missteps in the moments in the tournament where they haven't looked as strong as in the ways in which the rest of the world is catching up that this team is still ultimately on top and they're in really good shape. I do think that for the continuity of the program, it would have been nice to see one of the young guns kind of step up a little bit and see what they could do late in the game, but you'll take the win and maybe go to the drawing board as far as figuring out why exactly that didn't happen. And ultimately, maybe this is just a rep that they needed and you watch a studio, you watch a show, so you watch a jack, you see what they do, you watch a fee, you watch that bounce back in a second half and you see the things that they were able to do behind the scenes to allow themselves to integrate themselves into games that might not necessarily be suited towards their skill set, but still be able to find a way to succeed. And you try to integrate that into your game and maybe 2028 really is your turn, whether you're a Caitlyn or a page, but right now it's really, look, the present of Team USA is the players that are in their prime right now. It's Brianna Stewart, it's Jackie Young, it's partially Nefesa Collier. Yeah, that's ultimately, I think that's ultimately the story of this game and the story of this run. For team USA, and then I think just looking at France's side of all this Gabby will aim 16 points and the first half only one made back bucket in the second I do think that the Americans started to shrink the driving lanes a little bit and they took their chances on France Not making their threes and ultimately that bet paid off But I also think that Gabby kind of ran out of steam She's been on a heater this entire tournament and you looked at that first half where it didn't matter Who is guarding her from three she hits a three point over feet. She hits one over Stewie. She has this Gusting crossover on Stewie as well. She gets to the rim with the reverse She's getting there with her left like she's doing all the things that you would imagine would be necessary for like a magical France comeback, but ultimately I think that the Americans just had a little bit more depth I think they had a few more players that they could throw at her and I just don't think that she was able to replicate that first half and then it came down to Okay, we'll let Dominique Malanga try to be the one But if the three pointers aren't falling then we're gonna be able to find a way to outscore you And I think that's ultimately what happened to France in this game I think this was a fantastic tournament for them. I think for most this tournament. They were the best team But the Americans Oh played them when it mattered the most they won the athleticism battle. They won the loose balls battle They won the rebounding battle in the second half They won all of the important bits that matter at the at the end of games and look if you could Fast forward like fast forward to 2028 we might be Talking about a different story here because I think Dom will be older Carla late will be older little a Ken will be older Janelle Salon will be older I think Janelle Salon is someone they could have gone to more in the second half especially as they needed to get some shots Falling to maybe set set up some players for her and that gets to attention with France as far as like They're collectivist ideals But also having these French players that have been so influenced by the American game I think in a game that involved so much switching you do need players that are gonna be able to play an individual Game style and I think Carla late was graded that in the first half right like she has that three on angel reset leads to some free throws And then she gets one on Caitlyn as well. She gets the the midi on Caitlyn She's really good at just attacking players individually Janelle Salon is as well And and I think that you know, it's just one of those things where I think Gabby needed a little bit more help And maybe she'll get that in 2028 this this French program does slowly seem to be just sort of Seating the reality of that, but maybe not fast enough and then you know, you'll get Syracuse and you'll get I know a Reese's Shay two players that are going to be in the 2027 draft like that that France talent play blind is not going anywhere Inseps has has just poured so many resources into basketball and it's all starting to pay off and and you know what you have this You've had this Gabby Williams generation now too, right where players Young players, you're going to look at this program and they're going to want to be part of it as well Like that's one of the big things with with Phoebo And just all international play like it is about the results But it's also about the long-term reverberations and you've seen this French program Put so much into its talent into its development. You've also seen them be Influenced by just watching highlights like Carla Lay grew up watching Kyrie Irving Janelle Salon grew up watching Kevin Durant and Anthony Edwards just just three players whose games are built on individualistic flair and scoring And you're seeing that insinuate itself into the French game and that's that's good for the French game the French game needs that You know, you want to have balance like anytime you can add a contrast to what you already have You are going to gain dividends from doing that. So that that's great for their game And I don't think they're going anywhere frankly. I don't think Spain is going anywhere Ultimately, it's very interesting that Spain is a team that also that that gave the USA Way more to have to handle then Then then the French team did and you know like it's a game-to-game thing There's a stamina thing to that as well, but they have two 20 year olds And Iina Martín who is showing that she's going to be fantastic in the WNBA just her ability to read the pick and roll Her now now she's going to be going to a system and in the Portland fire that runs more pick and roll more spread pick and roll than anybody else In the WNBA for her to have 17 points Against the Americans against frankly the top end of the competition that she is going to be going up against is is is amazing You know and and they still have like they have obviously they have all of them But they've got some young players like Alicia Flores who I think had some good minutes as well as well against the Americans as well like the The floor for international basketball has never been hired When it comes to the players at the Americans are going to have to face and ultimately look Team USA knew this they sent their big guns Their biggest gun asia Wilson was at home because she was dealing with a back injury I imagine she will be available for the 2028 Olympics and she is the skeleton key she is the answer to every possible question That could be posed so the Americans as long as she's around and as long as this program you know just keeps producing the level of talent that it has Um and in these players that are continually gaining experience and and learning from each other they are going to be on top but The world is is getting closer and closer to catching up at it and I think that America which was going through simultaneously well while dealing with more talent in the feeble world cup And they ever have before also going through an identity transition They absolutely felt that they absolutely felt that I don't think there's any doubt about that and They ultimately found a way to persevere so I think that's all for me from now and I think You know everybody will fly home and we will turn the page to WNBA playoff basketball and the seating Of the playoffs very very soon And so then I hope everybody has a fantastic weekend And we will talk to you guys Well, I'm gonna be I'm gonna be taking a little bit of vacation here So I will actually talk to you guys next week um until then stay safe if you're American celebrate this one Well if you're if you're French if you're Spanish if you're German, especially if you're German I just think I just think that there were so many teams ahead such incredible showings And I think it just shows where women's basketball is at this point Internationally and I think you're gonna start to you are you already see those reverberations in the WNBA Especially now that the new CBA is here and these players that would traditionally play in Europe or now playing In America you're already seeing it and it's pretty amazing , so