American dominance is on the line in this second week of September.
The U.S. women’s basketball team is among the predominant dynasties in modern international sports, and have won eight consecutive Olympic gold medals and four consecutive World Cups. They have not lost a game at either event since 2006, and three victories in Berlin have extended their World Cup winning streak to 33 games. Their Olympic win streak is at 61 games.
The U.S. has never lost a quarterfinal game in the FIBA Women’s World Cup, and they will look to keep that going on Thursday. But they will have to do it with their biggest star in an undefined role.
Caitlin Clark has come off the bench in all three group stage games for the US. She went from a record-setting 14-point, 11-assist debut against China to scoring just one point and missing every field goal in a career-low game against Italy, as the U.S. nearly suffered a devastating upset.
Clark rebounded with nine points and seven assists in a blowout win against Czechia to close the group stage.
But going into the knockout stage, as France and Belgium have looked more dominant than the U.S., Clark’s role will be a subject of higher consequence, both on the court and on social media. Many fans have called for other young stars like Paige Buecker and Angel Reese to start as well.
And as America will look to defend its Olympic dynasty in home soil in 2028, what happens with Clark, Bueckers and Reese in this next week will be the world’s last impression of how those three gel until LA28.
Clark’s chemistry with her World Cup teammates was on display in a viral video where three other players appeared to point and laugh as she bent her bare feet backward under a bench to hide them from a camera in the locker room. The players laughing included Reese and Fever teammate Aliyah Boston.
Team USA Coach Kara Lawson has used Clark as a change-of-pace guard off the bench. That strategy looked nearly perfect in the opener against China.
Clark entered the game and immediately accelerated the American offense. She finished with 14 points and 11 assists in 25 minutes as the U.S. won 94-61. She did not commit a turnover.
Her 11 assists were the most ever by an American in a Women’s World Cup debut. Clark also became the first player from any country to record at least 10 assists without a turnover in a World Cup game since FIBA began tracking the statistic in 1994.
Clark said that she was prepared to accept a different role than the one she holds with the Indiana Fever after the China game
“Being surrounded by five people who have won gold medals before at the highest level, I try to follow their lead and take every bit of wisdom they try to give me,” Clark said, according to FIBA.
Lawson kept Clark on the bench against Italy, but with more frustrating and frightening results for Americans.
Clark played 19 minutes and missed all six of her field-goal attempts. She finished with one point and one assist while committing two turnovers. It marked the first time in her college or WNBA career that she failed to make a field goal.
Lawson then kept Clark on the bench for the final seven minutes. The U.S. relied on its veteran guards as it erased a late deficit and escaped with a 55-52 victory.
The Americans shot 29% and made only two of their 24 attempts from 3-point range. Their 55 points were their fewest in a World Cup game since FIBA introduced the 3-point line in 1984, according to FIBA.
Clark responded against Czechia one day later. She recorded nine points and seven assists off the bench in a 105-64 victory that secured first place in Group D.
Through three games, Clark has produced 24 points and 19 assists.
That decision will carry more weight from this point forward, with higher stakes and tougher competition in the final round.
If the U.S. falls behind late in the quarterfinals, Lawson will have to decide whether to protect the dynasty with the veterans who built it or place the ball in the hands of the player expected to lead its next generation.
Bueckers and Reese have also come off the bench alongside Clark in every game.
The three stars have already spent years colliding in games that helped transform women’s basketball. Clark and Bueckers were teammates on the United States’ 2019 U19 gold-medal team before splitting two NCAA Tournament meetings. UConn won their 2021 Sweet 16 matchup, but Iowa answered with a 71-69 victory in the 2024 Final Four—a game that drew 14.2 million viewers.
Clark and Reese produced the more heated rivalry. Reese helped LSU defeat Clark and Iowa in the 2023 national championship, then celebrated with a hand gesture that sparked a nationwide debate about sportsmanship, race and double standards. Clark got her revenge in the 2024 Elite Eight, recording 41 points and 12 assists as Iowa defeated LSU despite Reese’s 17 points and 20 rebounds.
Reese left college with LSU’s 2023 national title, while Bueckers won her championship with UConn in 2025. Clark never captured the trophy, but she reached consecutive championship games and helped drive the sport to record television audiences. Now the three players who became famous under the brightest lights are trying to win together—and doing so from Team USA’s bench.
So far in the World Cup, Bueckers has been a more consistent scorer than Clark. She matched Clark with 14 points in the opener against China and added four assists and two steals.
She then produced one of the strongest all-around performances for the U.S. during its scare against Italy. Bueckers finished with seven points, five rebounds, two assists, two steals and two blocks in 19 minutes. She also made the Americans’ first 3-pointer after the team missed its first 10 attempts.
Bueckers followed that performance with 10 points and five assists against Czechia. She has made 13 of her 22 field-goal attempts through three games while committing only three turnovers.
Meanwhile, Reese collected nine rebounds in 17 minutes against China, including five on the offensive glass. That effort became especially valuable against a Chinese roster built around one of the tallest frontcourts in the tournament.
Reese then made her biggest impact when the rest of the American offense struggled against Italy. She scored eight points in 15 minutes, made all four of her free throws and recorded two blocks.
Reese added 13 points and six rebounds in the victory over Czechia. Through three games, she has produced 26 points and 18 rebounds despite playing fewer than 20 minutes in each appearance.
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The U.S. earned a direct trip to the quarterfinals by winning Group D. It will face the winner of Hungary and Japan on Thursday.
Neither team would enter that game as a favorite. Hungary has not reached the World Cup quarterfinals in 40 years, while Japan has not made it that far since 1979. But the Americans’ three-point escape against Italy showed how quickly a heavy favorite can find itself in danger during a single-elimination game.
The road could become much harder in the semifinals. The U.S. would face Spain or the winner of the qualifying game between Italy and Australia.
Italy has already shown it can threaten the Americans. The Italians held the U.S. to 55 points—its lowest total in a major international tournament in decades—and had a chance to tie the game in the final seconds.
Australia has reached the podium at each of the last three World Cups. Spain finished second at the 2025 European championship and opened this tournament by beating host Germany by 30 points. However, Spain also suffered one of the tournament’s biggest upsets when it lost to Mali during group play.
The two most serious threats sit on the other side of the bracket.
France looked like the tournament’s most dominant team during the opening round. The French went 3-0 and outscored their opponents 305-178. They defeated Hungary by 46 points, Korea by 26 and Nigeria by 55. France also made a World Cup-record 22 three-pointers against Nigeria.
A potential U.S.-France championship game would carry recent history. France came within one point of ending the American Olympic dynasty in the 2024 gold-medal game. Gabby Williams made a shot at the buzzer, but her foot was inside the three-point line, allowing the U.S. to escape with a 67-66 victory.
Belgium may present an equally difficult challenge. The Belgians also finished group play 3-0 and closed it with an 80-68 victory over Australia. Emma Meesseman recorded 22 points and 10 rebounds in that game, while Julie Allemand became the World Cup’s all-time assists leader.
Belgium has also won consecutive European championships. It defeated Spain in the 2023 and 2025 finals, including a dramatic 14-0 closing run to erase a 12-point deficit in the final minutes of last year’s title game.
France and Belgium are positioned to meet in the semifinals, meaning the U.S. could face only one of them in the championship game. That may be the best news the Americans received from the bracket.
The U.S. still has the deepest collection of talent in Berlin. But France has been more dominant, Belgium has more continuity and Italy has already exposed how vulnerable the Americans can look on a poor shooting night. Three more victories would preserve the dynasty.
One bad game could mark the end of the dynasty, send the WNBA discourse back home into further chaosl and set an uncertain precedent ahead of the 2028 Olympics.
