USA Team Head Coach Kara Lawson kept her starting five players the same as her opening five for the FIBA Women’s World Cup match against France, the same starting five she had throughout the first five matches of the competition.

The consistency intensifies the confusion during the final, as the lineup change fans noticed didn't happen at tip-off but occurred through a positional adjustment during the game.

Lawson changed to a Horns set that saw Napheesa Collier, the Minnesota Lynx forward, playing point guard and Caitlin Clark, the Indiana Fever guard, moving up to power forward, differing from their tournament-long positions.

The difference was important to highlight, because during the World Cup, Collier had played as a scoring frontcourt player with averages of 9.6 points and 4.6 rebounds per game, whereas Clark had developed a facilitator role for herself as a reserve player with 5.8 assists per game.

Moving Collier to handle the ball at the top of the key and assigning Clark screening duties at the elbow essentially swapped their primary roles, which is what made the change feel so surprising when it was seen on the court.

The timing certainly added fuel to the fire since Team USA had just managed to scrape their way to a 76-66 victory in the semi-final match against Spain, after which Clark had managed just one point from his 1 of 3 free throws.

With a French team that averaged 96.2 points per game and shot 44.2 percent from the three-point line, any sort of indecision or hesitation in the execution of their plays would not have gone unnoticed, and the abrupt change in position certainly provided them with that opportunity.

Fans React to Team USA's Lineup Shake-Up

The backlash came quickly after the Horns set made an appearance on TV, with fans focusing on why Lawson switched her trusted rotation for an unproven lineup against the tournament's most prolific offensive team.

"TAKE PHEE OUT!!!! Why all of a sudden are they playing her with the younger players? That was Breanna Stewart's position," wrote a fan.

Collier's 4.6 rebounds a game had made her one of the frontcourt leaders throughout the tournament, and changing her from that spot seemed unnecessary to the fan.

One other fan commented, "Phee playing point while Caitlin is playing at the 4 in a horns set???? What the hell is going on????”

This response reflected the uniqueness of the strategy, since Clark averaged 5.8 assists per game because she ran the offense, not because she set screens at the elbow.

A third fan pushed for a different personnel change entirely, writing, "Get Phee out and get Angel Reese in. Why the F is Angel out? U need her grit, u need her defense and speed!" 

Angel Reese had been the tournament's best scorer by field-goal percentage and had provided 13 points and six rebounds to the US team in their clash against Czechia.

"Why is Phee playing PG??" read another comment.

The question further demonstrated how far it was from Collier’s usual position, as she was a scorer and rebounder, not a primary ball handler.

Another fan softened the criticism with worry instead of fury, stating, “I absolutely LOVE Phee, but she’s not having a great game; she’s gotta sit for now, I fear.”

This criticism was focused on the game being played and not the principle of putting that player into the lineup.

Team USA reached the final aiming for a fifth consecutive World Cup title, but the lineup change captured fans' attention no matter how the rest of the game unfolded.

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Written by

Utsav Gupta

Edited by

Utsav Gupta