The USA Women’s National Team’s outing at the 2026 FIBA World Cup Qualifying Tournament has been nothing short of poetic. Caitlin Clark has gotten her long-awaited senior national team debut. Two emphatic wins are already in the bag. And Paige Bueckers is back in a USA jersey for the first time in 2,418 days, reintroducing herself with a Player of the Game award. 

But beyond the poetry and the feel-good narrative of generational talents like Paige Bueckers finally getting their moment, WNBA analyst Robin Lundberg has pointed to an uglier reality lurking beneath the wins. As he put it, the second game against Puerto Rico was “almost completely in the other direction as far as how ugly it was.” The wins are there. The talent is undeniable. But the performance, according to Lundberg, told a very different story.

Lundberg described the team as “just out of sync top to bottom.” This is a stark contrast to the crisp, exciting performance that had everyone buzzing after the opening game against Senegal. The Puerto Rico outing, by his own admission, was “a little bit of a rough watch.”

The talent gap between the two sides was never in question. Team USA was also never in any real danger of losing. But coming off the high of that first game, the drop in quality was jarring enough to notice.

Lundberg’s assessment and analysis, however, were not all negative. He also acknowledged the bright spots like Paige Bueckers and Angel Reese. He described Bueckers as a born scorer, and despite his criticisms of Reese’s ball movement, he acknowledged that her work on the boards was something else entirely. As he puts it, “Boy oh boy is she relentless on the boards. It’s just something you can’t teach.”

And perhaps, in the grand scheme of things, the drop in performance is not that much of a big deal after all. Team USA is vastly more talented than any opponent they will face in this qualifying tournament. A few rough patches in San Juan are hardly cause for alarm. As Lundberg himself conceded: “This was just one of those ones where there was never quite a rhythm for Team USA. It’s not worth losing any sleep over.” 

Up next for Team USA are clashes against Italy on Saturday, New Zealand on Sunday, and Spain on Tuesday. Nobody is expecting them to lose any of those games, and they almost certainly will not. But maybe the wins should come with a little more polish this time around. Because if the disjointed showing against Puerto Rico becomes a pattern, what is currently being brushed off as a rough watch may start looking like a real problem. Berlin is still months away, but the time to find that rhythm is now.

Paige Bueckers Reveals What Team USA’s Real Mission Is in San Juan

Team USA’s World Cup Qualifying Tournament outing in San Juan is, on paper, little more than a formality. The team had already secured automatic qualification after winning the 2025 FIBA Women’s AmeriCup.

But that does not mean San Juan is without purpose. Beyond just points on the board, these qualifying games are the foundation on which whatever the team puts together in Berlin will be built. As Paige Bueckers put it: “Just to build the foundation of what we want the senior national team to look like.” 

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The setup has done well to incorporate five new faces into the team. And names like Paige Bueckers, Angel Reese, and Caitlin Clark are already making their presence felt at the senior level. But the work of blending this group together is still very much ongoing. When it is done, this team will have every ingredient to make something special in Berlin.