Team USA's kids are all right as youth movement leads dominant effort to open FIBA World Cup

The U.S. women's national basketball team is no stranger to passing the torch at a high rate of success. Though a small sample size, the 2026 World Cup is merely another example of it working.

Team USA head coach Kara Lawson, making her own national tournament debut, gave the starting nod to the only five returning veterans in the first game of a World Cup that features seven players new to the senior national team. It was the youth core that finished it off, led by an enticing backcourt duo of Caitlin Clark and Paige Bueckers, who proved again they will be more than worthy carriers of the program's sustained accomplishments.

The U.S. is chasing a fifth consecutive World Cup title while the WNBA rests during an international break for the action. Here's what stood out from a 94-61 win over China , the team's biggest competition in Group D, to open the tournament in Germany on Friday.

Team USA starts veterans in youth-heavy World Cup

Chelsea Gray, Jackie Young, Kahleah Copper, Napheesa Collier and Breanna Stewart, making her USA record-tying fourth World Cup appearance, started the game with a 10-4 lead. At the 6:25 mark, Caitlin Clark and Aliyah Boston came in for Gray and Collier.

Rhyne Howard was the next in for Copper at 5:16, followed by Paige Bueckers for Young at 4:05. Collier also came back in to keep a veteran on the floor and key Stewart for a breath. Reese made her debut at 1:48 for Boston as the final player into the first quarter, with Team USA holding a 27-12 lead.

The starters returned to the floor together in the third quarter of a 49-29 game. By the 4:42 mark and leading 53-35, Lawson went full youth with Clark, Bueckers, Reese, Howard and Boston on the floor. The veterans didn't touch the floor again.

Young led all veterans with 12 points on 11 attempts. Stewart scored seven on six attempts with seven rebounds.

The Team USA kids are, as always, all right. They outscored China, 41-26, from the 3:53 mark of the third through to the final buzzer. Every player logged at least 11 minutes, and every player scored after late-add Sonia Citron laid in USA's final bucket in the final minute. The reverse layup came off a feed from Clark, who acquired the ball off a Reese block.

Lawson specifically cited a spark from Howard, who led Team USA with 4 3-pointers, when China dropped into a zone in the second half. It was the only extended drought of the game as the U.S. adjusted and China cut it to eight. Howard scored 14, tying a team-high with Clark and Bueckers.

The group games are the best time for Lawson to play with lineups and give the newbies a chance to acclimate. They had about three days in Germany following the final WNBA games on Sunday. The chemistry established by a few of them stateside, namely Fever duo Boston and Clark, helped key some runs.

Team USA is off on Saturday, and will play Italy on Sunday (2:45 p.m. ET) and close out with Czechia on Monday (2:45 p.m. ET). Expect to see deep playing time for the younger players against teams less likely than China to give USA trouble, and potentially even a swap in the starting lineup.

Clark-Bueckers backcourt future is bright

The final quarter showcased the (possibly immediate?) future of Team USA, and there's plenty to be excited about. The ball popped around the floor, led by a dangerous long-term tandem of Clark and Bueckers. The 24-year-olds won golds together at youth national team levels, and will be the backcourt faces of the 2028 Olympics in Los Angeles. They could also tie Stewart, Sue Bird and Diana Taurasi with four World Cup appearances apiece — they'll be 36 in 2038.

As is required of Team USA players, they're each lighting up in their own specific lane. While both can penetrate the paint and kick out, Clark is taking the role of facilitator as Bueckers eats in the mid-range.

Bueckers shot 5 of 6 from the edge or outside of the paint (she missed one shot inside). She was 6 of 9 overall for 14 points in 20 minutes, adding 4 assists, 2 steals and 2 turnovers.

Clark's historic day answers early questions

Lawson, a hard-nosed defensive coach, is known at Duke to have a short leash for mistakes. There were questions coming in about how patient she might be with Clark's high-risk, high-reward style. But Clark never quite pushed that issue in game 1, and instead earned the distinction of the most assists without a turnover in a World Cup game in Team USA history.

Clark's assists total is the most a Team USA player reached in her debut, cresting Alyssa Thomas' nine in Belgium in 2022. She is one of eight players to have more than 10 assists in a women's World Cup game since the stat was officially recorded in 1994, according to FIBA. And she is the first Team USA player to have at least 10 assists since Dawn Staley had 12 in 1998. That stretch includes World Cups played by Bird and Gray.

Clark opened with four assists in her first four minutes. She hit a trademark deep 3-pointer to open the third quarter as one of her three of the game. The TCL Player of the Game awardee finished with the team's only double-double, scoring 14 (4 of 9) with 11 assists, 3 rebounds and a team-high plus-30.

Clark could easily set the World Cup single-game assists record this year, as well as totals. Julie Allemand of Belgium had 13 in a game in 2018, as did Yuka Harada of Japan in 1994.

The term "cheat code," much like "GOAT," is becoming so overused it's losing meaning. But it is applicable to Chinese 7-foot-3 center Zhang Ziyu.

Zhang holds the ultimate advantage no coach can teach: height. Each time she received the ball in the post, it was akin to a guard mismatched onto a center. Aliyah Boston, at 6-5 the tallest on Team USA, tried her best to contain her, only for Zhang to shoot with ease above her head. The 6-3 Kiki Iriafen might as well have been a GIF of a toddler reaching for a lollipop above an adult's head.

"When she turns and shoots over you, there's nothing you can do," Lawson said in the halftime broadcast interview. "So we'll try and live with those."

Zhang scored 13 points in 18 minutes, tying the team high in points shooting 2 of 4 with two blocks. She was 9 of 10 from the free throw line, double the attempts of any other player in the game. Hinyu Luo had 13 (4 of 10, 3 of 5 from the line), while Han Xu scored 11 on a team-high 14 attempts with 10 rebounds. China missed 6-7 Li Yueru, who was unable to play after her passport was lost in the mail .

What the 19-year-old Zhang lacks is finesse and footwork, skillsets glaring against Team USA's crew but that can be practiced and improved. She is WNBA draft-eligible in the upcoming 2027 draft, and could follow a similar development pattern to national teammate and Liberty center Han (the tallest in the WNBA at 6-11). Zhang currently plays for Hebei Win Power, where she made her professional debut in January.