The message was delivered loud and clear: the Americans are back at the worlds for another shot at glory.

After playing a team that doesn’t seem to threaten their goal of winning back the title they last won more than a decade ago, the United States basketball squad will go into a last minute fine tuning before taking on the Russians on Thursday at the start of the quarterfinal round of the 2010 FIBA-World Basketball Championships in Turkey.
Needing three more wins to snatch the gold against a very stellar cast of competitors, Team USA may see itself heading on to the semifinals against either Brazil or Argentina, in case they stand as victors against the Russians on Thursday.
A tough road awaits for Durant and company starting Thursday, where they face a very tough field of squads in the quarterfinals. Into the next round are Serbia and Argentina (Group A), USA and Slovenia (Group B), Turkey and Russia (Group C), and Lithuania and Spain (Group D.)