Curry not focusing on absent stars

stephencurry

Two of the sport's biggest names, LeBron James and Kevin Durant, will both be missing for the tournament starting in Spain on Saturday, with the latter citing mental and physical exhaustion from a gruelling NBA season.

Carmelo Anthony, Blake Griffin and Kevin Love are other notable exclusions, as head coach Mike Krzyzewski attempts to lead his side to a successful defence of the title they won four years ago in Turkey.

Durant and Love were both included in the 2010 squad, as was point guard Curry, and the 26-year-old urged his team-mates to focus on the task at hand.

"We can't worry about experience and front line right now," he said. "We'll worry about that on September 12, if we get through the semi-finals. 

"We have a young centre, we got a young power forward that can definitely play at a high level. If we get to that point, we'll have to adjust to what Spain is, if they get there as well. We just have to take it one step at a time.

"I've been here before: Rudy [Gay], Derrick [Rose] and I were on the World Championship team. The three of us have experience and we understand what the job is and how hard it is, but we are very focused and working very hard."

Krzyzewski, meanwhile, believes he has reached a good balance in his final 12-man selection.

"What we try to do is have a good core of eight or nine guys, and then the last three kind of fit in with what you need and how you complement the other players on the team," he said.

"We feel good about the 12. We've had a lot of different things go on with our team with injury and with some guys not being able to play, so we feel good about finally getting to the stability of having the 12 guys."

USA and Spain have been tipped as favourites to contest the final on September 14, and have been kept apart in the seeded draw.

The hosts have been drawn in Group A, the so-called "group of death", which also features European champions France and traditionally strong contenders Serbia.

The States, meanwhile, have been pitted in Group C against Turkey, whom they defeated in the final four years ago.

Group B contains Senegal, cleared to play in February after FIBA had initially suspended them "due to their inability to properly function as the governing body for basketball in their respective countries."

The favourites to progress as Group D winners will be Lithuania, ranked fourth in the world and bronze medalists four years ago.

The competition is split into four groups of six, with the top four from each pool advancing to the knockout stages, eventually leading to the showpiece final n Madrid.

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