Both teams qualified to the tournament automatically,
the United States by winning the gold medal at
the Olympics in Beijing, and
Turkey as hosts. Historically, the teams were polar opposites. America had 16
Summer Olympics medals and 10
FIBA World Cup medals, while Turkey's only previous international medal of any kind was a silver at the
EuroBasket 2001. The US brought the top scoring offense into the final, averaging 94.3 points and 18.5 assists per game. Nevertheless, Turkey's vaunted 2–1–2 zone made it the top defensive team (64 points per game) in the tournament heading into the final, and a commentator on NBA.com wrote that the European crowd would "be the most hostile crowd most of these [U.S.] players, with the exception of maybe
Chauncey Billups and
Lamar Odom, have ever seen." The U.S. had an easier route to the final, winning all of their games in runaway fashion, with the sole exception of their preliminary round game against
Brazil. Turkey, on the other hand, had close games against
Puerto Rico in the preliminary round, and against
Serbia in the semifinals, in which
Kerem Tunçeri scored the go-ahead basket, with less than a second left, after picking up
Hedo Türkoğlu's fumble, to give Turkey the 83–82 win. Both teams were undefeated going into the final. ==Match details==