Even though the United States will head to the 2010 FIBA World Championship without LeBron James, Dwayne Wade and Kobe Bryant, coach Mike Krzyzewski will send a highly competitive squad to Turkey nonetheless. Thus, Derrick Rose and the United States will face Croatia in the opening game of Group B on Saturday at 4 p.m. GMT.

After a rather disappointing semi-final exit in the 2006 FIBA World Championship, the United States appear to be dedicated to bounce back at this year's tournament and are hoping to win it all. After more than a month of training camp and exhibition games, Kevin Durant and company appear to be well prepared and can rightfully be considered favorites to clinch a gold medal. Featuring NBA All-Stars such as Derrick Rose from the Chicago Bulls, Chauncey Billups from the Denver Nuggets, Rajon Rondo from the Boston Celtics and Kevin Durant from the Oklahoma City Thunder, there is no doubt that the U.S. will be an extremely tough opponent for every team in the competition.

Croatia on the other hand will have to compete without its NBA legionnaires, yet, coach Josip Vrankovic can still count on a solid group of players. Most importantly, forward Zoran Planinic from BC Khimki and point guard Davor Kus from Bennetton Pallacanestro Treviso are expected to lead the team past the group stage. Likewise, Rokko Ukic who recently left the Milwaukee Bucks to play in Turkey is one of the faster players in the tournament and might cause problems for opposing guards. That said, Croatia's losses versus Lithuania and Greece earlier this month also showed that there are a few issues that might have to be addressed in order to make the team from Adriatic Sea a real medal contender. As of now, it looks like Chauncey Billups and the United States might simply be too dominant at both ends of the court.

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