Nobody expected a Team USA roster loaded with stars to be pushed this close to the edge. But against Italy, the Americans endured 40 tense, chaotic, and deeply alarming minutes.
The final score was 55-52. Team USA won, its unbeaten streak survived, but the feeling after the final buzzer did not resemble a normal victory. It felt much more like an escape.
And right in the middle of the storm, two familiar names were immediately dragged back into the spotlight: Caitlin Clark and Angel Reese. One endured a brutal shooting night. The other scored eight points and stayed involved late.
That was all it took for a rivalry that never truly disappeared to explode again. Yet anyone focused only on Clark versus Reese risked missing the much more disturbing story.
Team USA had one of its ugliest offensive performances in recent memory.
The Americans scored just 55 points. According to the figures cited in the video, they made only 16 of 56 shots and connected on just one three-pointer in 12 attempts.
Look at the names on this roster: Breanna Stewart, Napheesa Collier, Chelsea Gray, Kahleah Copper, Jackie Young, Caitlin Clark, Paige Bueckers, and Angel Reese. Somehow, this group managed only 55 points.
That is what made the game so difficult to believe.
At first, everything seemed to be following the familiar script. Team USA finished the opening quarter with a 19-8 lead. An 11-point advantage suggested the American machine was beginning to warm up.
Italy would eventually fade. The United States would eventually accelerate. The gap would eventually become 20 points, perhaps even 30. That is what people expect when Team USA owns such an overwhelming talent advantage.
But that script never arrived.
Italy refused to collapse. They defended aggressively, disrupted passing lanes, slowed the Americans’ rhythm, and patiently dragged the game into dangerous territory. With every passing minute, Italy’s confidence seemed to grow.
Meanwhile, Team USA began to freeze.
The offense became heavy and predictable. The ball stopped moving quickly enough. On too many possessions, players stood and waited as the shot clock disappeared and the final attempt came under pressure.
At that point, the question was no longer how many points Team USA would win by.
The question had become whether Team USA would win at all.
Italy slowly cut into the deficit and transformed the fourth quarter into a genuine battle. With fewer than five minutes remaining, the nearly unthinkable suddenly became possible: Team USA was in danger of losing.
The team that has dominated international women’s basketball was now fighting simply to survive against an opponent it had been expected to control comfortably.
And in the middle of that tension, the cameras found Caitlin Clark.
Clark was sitting on the bench.
Angel Reese, meanwhile, was being used during important stretches, especially when Team USA needed energy and defensive physicality. That single visual was enough to pour gasoline on social media.
Angel Reese: eight points. Caitlin Clark: one point.
Clark failed to make a field goal on six attempts and missed all three of her three-point shots. She finished with four rebounds and one assist in a performance completely different from the one she had delivered earlier.
There is no reason to avoid the obvious truth: Clark had a terrible shooting day.
But the controversy began when one bad game started being treated like a final judgment on her entire value as a player.
Because only about 48 hours earlier, Clark had looked completely different. Against China, she scored 14 points, handed out 11 assists, and did not commit a single turnover.
That was the version of Caitlin Clark that forces opposing defenses to constantly adjust. She pushed the pace, found teammates before defenses could get organized, and created opportunities that seemed invisible to everyone else.
Two days later, the shots stopped falling.
Does that suddenly make Caitlin Clark a bad basketball player?
Of course not.
A 0-for-6 shooting night is awful. But six missed shots do not erase her passing ability, her court vision, or the pressure she creates when she is allowed to control the offense.
More importantly, Clark was nowhere close to being the only American star who struggled against Italy.
Breanna Stewart reportedly made just one of nine shots. Kahleah Copper failed to make a field goal on four attempts. Team USA missed its first 10 three-point shots.
Paige Bueckers finally ended the drought from beyond the arc late in the third quarter.
But that shot became Team USA’s only made three-pointer of the entire game.
A roster with that much offensive talent made one three in 40 minutes. So blaming the entire offensive collapse on Clark would be a massive oversimplification.
And that is where Angel Reese entered the center of the conversation.
Reese did not post an explosive stat line, but her eight points became extremely valuable in a game where every single basket seemed difficult to earn.
She attacked around the rim, played with physicality, and brought badly needed energy. On a night when several American stars looked sluggish, Reese at least gave the team some life.
She deserved credit for that performance.
But there is a huge difference between Reese having a better game than Clark on one afternoon and declaring that the entire balance between the two players has suddenly changed.
Sports always produce extreme reactions.
If Reese plays well, her supporters will talk. If Clark dominates the next game, her supporters will answer immediately. The debate will continue because the two players have been compared for years.
But the most important question after the Italy game probably should not be “Clark or Reese?”
It should be: What is Team USA doing with all this talent?
Clark is most dangerous when she is allowed to control tempo. When she gets the ball and immediately attacks, defenders are forced to make decisions before they are ready.
One defender steps toward her, and somebody else becomes open. The defense overplays the perimeter, and Clark finds a cutter. A big comes too high, and she slips the pass behind the coverage.
That is Caitlin Clark basketball.
Against Italy, however, there were too many possessions where she looked like just another guard waiting for the offense to eventually find her instead of the player controlling it.
That is why head coach Kara Lawson will inevitably face serious questions about rotations and offensive structure.
And Clark is not the only young player involved.
Paige Bueckers scored seven points, grabbed five rebounds, added two assists, two steals, and two blocks according to the numbers cited in the video. Reese scored eight points and provided valuable energy.
Meanwhile, some of the veteran-heavy combinations failed to produce enough offense to justify how heavily they were used.
That raises one of the most fascinating questions for the rest of the tournament: Should Team USA give the younger generation more responsibility?
In particular, what would happen if Caitlin Clark and Paige Bueckers shared the backcourt for longer stretches?
Clark brings passing, range, and transition pressure. Bueckers brings ball-handling, scoring touch, versatility, and the ability to impact the game in several different ways.
For a team that managed only 55 points against Italy, experimenting with combinations that could increase the pace seems like a very reasonable idea.
But Italy also deserves real credit.
They did not make the game close because of luck. They defended with discipline, pressured passing lanes, and, most importantly, never panicked after falling behind by 11 points in the first quarter.
The longer the game continued, the more Italy appeared to believe that an upset was possible.
Then came the moment that should have sent a chill through everyone associated with Team USA.
Italy had a chance to force overtime.
Cecilia Zandalasini had a look from three-point range in the final seconds. Imagine if that shot had gone in.
55-55.
Overtime.
Team USA, with a roster full of WNBA stars, would have been forced into five more minutes of survival basketball against Italy in a game it had been expected to control.
One missed shot prevented that scenario from becoming reality.
Jackie Young also played a major role in the escape. She finished with 10 points, including six in the fourth quarter, delivering exactly when the Americans needed somebody to stop Italy’s momentum.
Stewart eventually hit a field goal to put Team USA ahead 51-50. Young followed with another basket. Chelsea Gray added an important jumper.
And somehow, Team USA survived.
55-52.
Three points.
Only three points separated an ugly victory from what could have become one of the most shocking losses in recent Team USA history.
The final buzzer ended the game, but it did not end the questions.
Because the stronger teams were watching.
France, Australia, Belgium, Spain, and any other serious contender will study what Italy managed to do. They saw how Team USA could be slowed down and forced into stagnant half-court possessions.
They also saw a roster loaded with stars shoot below 30 percent, according to the figures referenced in the video.
And they saw Caitlin Clark sitting during some of the most important possessions of the afternoon.
That is what makes the next game so fascinating.
How will Clark respond?
If she comes out aggressively, starts throwing long transition passes, pushes the tempo, and begins knocking down threes again, the entire conversation could change within hours.
That is the brutal nature of elite sports.
Today, Clark is being criticized for going 0-for-6. Reese is being praised for eight points and energetic minutes. Tomorrow, everything could look completely different.
But Team USA cannot simply wait for its stars to fix everything on their own.
Kara Lawson needs to find the right formula before a stronger opponent makes the Americans pay.
A team with this much talent cannot regularly become as stagnant as it did against Italy. It needs more movement, more pace, and a clearer understanding of how to maximize each player’s strengths.
And if Clark is one of the most dangerous playmakers on the roster, the answer after one poor shooting game does not necessarily have to be reducing her influence.
The answer might actually be the opposite.
Put the ball in Clark’s hands. Let her dictate the tempo. Allow Bueckers to run alongside her. Use Reese’s physicality and energy. Make opponents chase Team USA instead of letting Team USA become trapped in someone else’s style.
Because this time, Italy missed the final chance.
Next time, the opponent might not.
And then this will no longer be a story about an alarming 55-52 victory. It could become the story of a historic defeat.
That is why this game did not prove that Caitlin Clark had suddenly lost her status. It also did not prove that Angel Reese had somehow “defeated” Clark in a rivalry manufactured and magnified by social media.
It proved something much more uncomfortable.
Team USA has enormous star power, but having stars does not automatically create a perfect basketball team.
Clark needs to find her shot again. Reese needs to continue bringing the same energy she showed against Italy. Bueckers is proving that she deserves opportunities. The veterans must show that experience still translates into production.
And Lawson must figure out how to make all of those pieces work together.
Because after this breathtaking escape, the rest of the tournament has now seen something few people expected before the competition began.
Team USA can be vulnerable.
Italy pushed them to within three points of disaster.
Now the entire basketball world will be waiting to see whether this was simply one terrible afternoon, or the first warning sign that the supposedly unstoppable machine of American women’s basketball has a much bigger problem.
Caitlin Clark just endured one of the worst shooting performances of her career. Angel Reese had the better numbers and remained involved during important moments.
But the real battle is only beginning.
One game can create controversy. The next game will decide who turns that controversy into an answer on the court.
