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Chauncey Billups Leads Team USA in Rout of Angola
Filed under: Nuggets, USA Basketball, FIBA World Championship
ISTANBUL — Chauncey Billups had moved to shooting guard and forgot the shooting part.
But it all came back Monday.
Billups, who is Denver’s starting point guard but switched to starting shooting guard for Team USA, shot just 4-of-19 from three-point range in the World Championship in the group stage.
But Billups found his range Monday against Angola. He shot 5-of-7 from beyond the arc and scored a team-high 19 points to lead the Americans to a 121-66 rout in a round-of-16 game at the Sinan Erdem Dome.
Team USA, 6-0 in the tournament, advances to a quarterfinal game Thursday against the winner between Russia and New Zealand.
It marked the third straight game Team USA faced a hopelessly outclassed foe. But the Americans didn’t struggle at the start as they did against the previous two such opponents, leading both Iran and Tunisia 19-13 after the first quarter. Team USA made sure Monday’s game was over early, leading 33-13 after the first quarter and 65-38 at halftime.
