Basketball action continues to heat up as we are approaching the latter stages of the FIBA World Cup in China.
Now that the dust has settled, these 32 teams are now divided to either playing in the classification stage or in the advancing rounds where they take on a perilous path towards winning the championship.
Unfortunately for Asian teams, none of them advanced further to the second round as they didn’t fare well in the preliminaries. On the other hand, representatives from Europe and from the Americas moved on.
Certain rivalries are to be rekindled as we go along. Fans all over the world — including this writer — are definitely in for a huge treat.
SBOBET takes you into some of the storylines that we should be looking out for.
Familiar faces from the Americas
By winning in all of their games so far, Argentina and Brazil are two teams in the Americas that are primed to advance further in the tournament.
Led by the duo of Facundo Campazzo and Luis Scola, the Argentinians took the top spot in Group B by defeating the likes of Russia, Nigeria, and Korea in their respective matches.
Speaking of Luis Scola, the 39-year-old veteran doesn’t look to have lost a step as he continues to make history. A few days ago, he climbed up to second place in the all-time FIBA World Cup scoring list, overtaking Australian icon Andrew Gaze.
Other than Argentina, Brazil have found their stride in the ongoing tournament. They have been undefeated so far three games in – including their statement win against the Giannis Antetokounmpo-led Greece squad in the group phase.
Former NBA vets Anderson Varejao and Leandro Barbosa continue to lead the way for the Aleksandar Petrovic-mentored squad, while young guns in Bruno Caboclo and Cristiano Felicio have largely contributed as well to their campaign.
They are set to face Czech Republic later to vie for a spot in the quarterfinals as they try to keep up with Argentina.
European teams up for colossal clashes
It’s no secret that Europe is a hotbed for basketball talent as majority of their teams made their way to the second round. And boy, do we want to see them go up against each other.
Serbia and Spain are set to clash in what will be a testy affair. These two squads are loaded with NBA-calibre players and for sure this upcoming game will produce some of the best FIBA World Cup 2019 highlights.
The top-ranked team in the world will boast the trio of Nikola Jokic, Bogdan Bogdanovic, and Boban Marjanovic, while the veteran-laden Spain club will have the likes of Marc Gasol, Ricky Rubio, and the Hernangomez brothers.
On the other hand, the matchup between France and Australia won’t disappoint as well given their oozing talent. The Les Bleus currently have the likes of Rudy Gobert, Nicolas Batum, and Evan Fournier while the Boomers have Patty Mills, Matthew Dellavedova, and Aron Baynes.
Lastly, let’s not overlook Poland in this tournament as they have been undefeated as well four games in. Even with low FIBA World Cup 2019 odds of making it to the second round, the Poles dominated all comers in Group A and their Cinderella run continues as they’ll face Argentina later.
Perhaps the Argentinians should watch out for the backcourt combo of Mateusz Ponitka and AJ Slaughter. Despite having no current NBA cagers on their roster, head coach Mike Taylor has done a tremendous job in leading them to their unprecedented run.
The Greek Freak vs. Team USA
This is the matchup that we all wanted to see – it’s the ever-talented Team USA going up against the reigning NBA MVP plus his trusty teammates.
Giannis Antetokounmpo has been on a tear since Greece’s defeat against Brazil and perhaps that awakened him after shots were fired toward his direction.
We all know what he can bring to the table, which is why his teammates like Thanasis Antetokounmpo, Nick Calathes, and Georgios Papagiannis are going to be the x-factors in their game against the Americans.
On the other side of the fence, Team USA are back to its dangerous form especially after surviving a scare against Turkey a few days ago. Right after that game, the star-spangled squad pummeled the hapless Japanese team which sent Rui Hachimura packing.
Antetokounmpo’s Milwaukee Bucks teammates said it best when asked about this upcoming encounter.
“Oh, he’s going to come out to kill us. There’s no question. He’ll try to tear our heads off. I wouldn’t expect anything otherwise,” said Lopez.
“We’re not backing down from anything or anybody. I know he’s going to take that game very personally. I’m sure if he sees me on the fast break, he’s going to try to run me through the wall. And it’s the same for me,” added Middleton.
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