''Teams are gunning for us and want to beat us'' - Myles Turner of USA

SHANGHAI (China) - The USA had won 45 consecutive games in the preliminary round of the FIBA Basketball World Cup when leading at halftime. Make that 46.

A five-point halftime advantage fluctuated up and down until it finally disappeared. Down by one point with 9 seconds on the clock, Turkey failed to close out the game missing four free throws at the close of regulation time.

The only player who had seen previous World Cup action, Mason Plumlee in 2014, didn't see the court in this one. All eleven who did made the scoresheet, led by Khris Middleton's 15 off the bench.

His two free throws with 0.1 left in overtime would be the difference.

"It's going to give us confidence," said Middleton. "Guys made big plays down the stretch. Getting a rebound, making a steal, making a box-out, whatever. We're a new team, trying to figure it out on the fly."

"It was a competitive night from the get-go," explained Joe Harris, who finished with 11 points on 4 of 7 shooting. "We jumped out to a 12-point lead in the second quarter and Turkey closed the gap. From then, it was just back and forth. They have really good players across the board, guys who can really fill it up offensively and they gave us problems with their matchup zone. We battled. They hit big shots; we hit big shots."

"WE ARE TEAM USA. TEAMS ARE GUNNING FOR US AND WANT TO BEAT US." - Turner

Center Myles Turner also contributed 11 points as did Jayson Tatum who hit two of three free throws to push the game into overtime.

"I have to give a shoutout to everybody on the team," said Turner. "We stuck together and grinded this thing out. We know we are going to get every team's best shot. We are Team USA. Teams are gunning for us and want to beat us. They gave us a run for our money. Hats off to them for a great game."

Unlike many countries where much of their squads have played together for some time, the Americans can count their time together in weeks and are still learning each other's tendencies and preferences.

Turner believes this game will help that. "The chemistry is unbelievable right now and it can only go up from here. This was a great game, a battle. A game where we can say we were battle tested and we know we have to keep on building from. We have a lot of room for improvement."

"At the end of the day we won and that's the biggest thing we can take away. We can't look too far ahead. We have to take care of business and see where things stack up."

USA coach Gregg Popovich was humble in victory. "It was a heck of a game as we all know. It was anybody's game. We will accept the win, but it was anybody's to win. The team that we played tonight showed its experience and the improvement that we have to make execution-wise. We are not there yet. We are still trying to get better at that."

"Playing a fine team like that gives us another good example of how it can be when everybody knows what they are supposed to be doing on the court. I give them a lot of praise for what I saw."

FIBA