U.S. trims final roster to 12

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Saturday, August 23, 2014

NEW YORK -- The U.S. national basketball team has kept Derrick Rose and cut Damian Lillard and three others, getting its roster down to 12 before the FIBA World Cup of Basketball.



Kyle Korver, Gordon Hayward and Chandler Parsons also were cut early Saturday morning, shortly after the Americans beat Puerto Rico 112-86 in their final exhibition game before leaving for Spain.



Team officials had previously said they might bring more than 12 players on the trip, but coach Mike Krzyzewski said after the game he wanted to get down to 12, the maximum allowable for the World Cup rosters.



Rose was expected to make the team if he was healthy enough after missing most of the last two seasons following two knee surgeries.



The rest of the roster is: Stephen Curry, Anthony Davis, James Harden, Kyrie Irving, DeMarcus Cousins, Klay Thompson, Andre Drummond, Rudy Gay, DeMar DeRozan, Kenneth Faried and Mason Plumlee.



"Since taking over the USA Basketball Men's National Team program in 2005, this was without doubt the most difficult selection process we've gone through," U.S. managing director Jerry Colangelo said in a statement. "I can't stress enough the outstanding effort and commitment that has been given by each finalist. I also want to make it clear that this is not just about talent -- each player is incredibly talented and each player offered us unique skills. In the end it was about assembling the best team, selecting guys who we felt would be able to best play the kind of style we envision this team playing."



Information from the Associated Press was used in this report.



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