The United States women's basketball team is 2-0 at the FIBA Women's World Cup, but the scoreboard is flattering. A 55-52 squeaker over Italy on Sunday exposed cracks that France — fresh off a record-breaking shooting display — could turn into a full-blown collapse.
Head coach Kara Lawson didn't sugarcoat the performance. Her squad looked disjointed, passive, and alarmingly reliant on talent that never showed up. Caitlin Clark, the team's biggest star, sat on the bench during crunch time, and no one else stepped into the void.
“Let this be the last time that a team plays with more passion than us throughout the course of the game,” Lawson said after the game. “Let this be the last time that all 12 don’t show up to compete at a high level. And then let this be the last time that we lack a resilient mindset, because we’re so upset that we’re not scoring the way we’re normally scoring. That to me is what we’ve gotta grow and mature in moving forward.”
Lawson's message was clear: effort and energy matter more than points. “Your contribution is not limited to how well you score the ball. Your contribution has to be your effort, your passion, your energy, your intensity that you play with, all right? We gotta be the hardest playing team in this tournament. We will not win on our talent, even though our talent is awesome. But we will not win on it.”
The warning signs are impossible to ignore. France, the Olympic finalist, just lit up Nigeria 111-56 while drilling a FIBA Women's World Cup record 22 three-pointers. Gabby Williams led the charge with 25 points and six rebounds, and the French offense looked unstoppable from beyond the arc.
That's a nightmare matchup for a U.S. team that struggled to contain Italy's perimeter shooters and looked lost on offense. If the Americans don't find a spark soon, France could run them off the floor.
Fans and analysts are already calling for lineup changes. One fan on social media suggested that the best five might not even include Clark, asking, “Can you stomach that for the sake of the country?” Others pointed out that Clark wasn't getting the ball in key moments, even when she was open — a sign of poor ball movement and chemistry.
“They’ll get exposed by France if they don’t [adjust],” another fan warned.
Lawson has tough decisions ahead. She needs to find combinations that play with pace, share the ball, and defend the three-point line. The talent is there, but as the coach admitted, talent alone won't win this tournament. France is lurking, and the margin for error is shrinking.
The U.S. still has time to fix things before the quarterfinals, but the clock is ticking. If they don't, the world will watch France expose every flaw — and send the Americans home early.
