The group stage of the FIBA World Cup concluded on Wednesday with 16 teams in action, all vying for the final few spots in the second round of the tournament.
Georgia, Brazil, Puerto Rico and Greece all stayed alive with tournament-saving wins, securing the No. 2 seed in their groups, while Serbia, Slovenia and the United States — who made an important change to their starting lineup — all finished the day with perfect 3-0 records and the top seeds in their respective groups.
Here’s everything you need to know from Day 6 of the FIBA World Cup:
RESULTS
Group B:
Puerto Rico def. China 107-89
Serbia def. South Sudan 115-83
Group C:
USA def. Jordan 110-62
Greece def. New Zealand 83-74
Group F:
Slovenia def. Cape Verde 92-77
Georgia def. Venezuela 70-59
Group G:
Brazil def. Côte d’Ivoire 89-77
Spain def. Iran 85-65
MAIN TALKING POINTS
Brazil beats Cote d’Ivoire, will play Canada in next round
The game between Brazil and Cote d’Ivoire was a rollercoaster, with Brazil controlling the action for most of the contest until starting point guard Yago Santos went down with a knee injury midway through the third quarter, up 65-50. Cote d’Ivoire stormed back with a 15-5 run to be down just five by the end of the quarter after Brazil stopped moving the ball without their star guard.
But after returning from the injury in the fourth quarter, it was Santos who put on the cape for Brazil, with the five-foot-ten point guard scoring 19 of his 24 points in the first half while racking up nine of his 12 assists in the second half, hitting his sixth three of the game with less than two minutes left to put his team up 11. He finished with 24 points, 12 assists and just one turnover in the 89-77 win — the fifth most assists in a single game in World Cup history.
Within the last year-plus, Santos has led Brazil to an Under-23 Championship at GLOBL JAM, a silver medal at the FIBA Americup and now the second round of the World Cup, while also playing for the Chicago Bulls at NBA Summer League in Las Vegas. He is the future of Brazilian hoops.
Team USA changes starting lineup in blowout win over Jordan
The Americans ran away with a dominant 110-62 win over Jordan to clinch the No. 1 seed in Group C this morning, but the most important storyline coming out of their final group game was the change head coach Steve Kerr made to his starting lineup. After getting off to slow starts in each of their first two games, relying on their bench to give them a spark, Kerr replaced New Orleans Pelican forward Brandon Ingram with New York Knicks wing Josh Hart in the starting group.
It worked like a charm, with Team USA getting off to a quick 20-4 lead and finishing the first quarter up 31-12. Hart was a hand-in-glove fit with the starters, doing the dirty work as a defender, rebounder and connective playmaker in transition, finishing with 12 rebounds and three assists. Meanwhile, Ingram should get slightly more freedom to create in a bench role, telling Yahoo Sports: “They just talked about it being a better fit, and I agreed with them.”
Greece storms back to eliminate New Zealand
The other two teams from Group C, Greece and New Zealand, fought it out for the final spot in the second round after both teams lost to the U.S. and beat Jordan. New Zealand got off to a quick start, entering the halftime break up 43-32 behind an incredible effort from guards Reuben Te Rangi and Shea Ili, who combined for 46 points in the game. But Greece immediately went on a 6-0 run to start the half and were down just four by the end of the third quarter, getting a huge defensive boost from Thanasis Antetokounmpo as the team forced 21 turnovers in the game.
It was all Greece from there, outscoring the Tall Blacks 33-20 in the fourth quarter to run away with a 83-74 win, securing a spot in the second round. Greece was led by an incredible scoring display from wings Giannoulis Larentzakis and Ioannis Papapetrou, who combined to score 47 of Greece’s 87 points after making seven of Greece’s 11 three-point shots in the game.
Round 2 taking shape
Classification games begin tomorrow before the second group stage begins on Friday. Results carry over from the first group stage to the second, where the top-two teams of each of the following groups will move on to the knockout stage in Manila, Philippines to play for a medal. Here are the groups for Round 2:
Group I: Serbia, Dominican Republic, Puerto Rico, Italy,
Group J: USA, Lithuania, Montenegro, Greece
Group K: Slovenia, Germany, Australia, Georgia
Group L: Canada, Spain, Latvia, Brazil,
PLAY OF THE DAY
We got a rare basketball nutmeg in the game between Puerto Rico and China, as 5-foot-11 Puerto Rican point guard Tremont Waters threw the ball between the legs of 6-foot-11 big man Qi Zhou before setting up his teammate for an easy dunk.
But it was once again Luka Doncic who made the most difficult stuff look easy on Wednesday. While it wasn’t his best showing of the World Cup, struggling to make shots as he went 5-for-17 from the floor in the Slovenia win, Doncic had a number of highlight plays that left the Cape Verde defenders looking for answers, including this incredible dribble and pump-fake combo:
And this behind-the-head pass that we might as well start calling “The Doncic”:
MOMENT OF THE DAY
If you’re looking for comedy, the third quarter of the game between Georgia and Venezuela saw both teams miss back-to-back dunks as well as a wide-open layup before Georgia went on to get the win:
QUOTE OF THE DAY
“We just wanted to look at some of the lineups. The tricky part with FIBA is that you only have a few weeks to figure out your team as opposed to an NBA season where you have six or seven or eight months. We just felt like it was important to have a look at Josh (Hart) with the starting group and Brandon (Ingram) with the next group and see if the combinations fit. I liked what I saw.” – Steve Kerr, USA head coach
“Congratulations to my players. They did an amazing job all these days here, trying to do their best. It’s our first appearance but I believe we have shown to everybody that we deserve to be here, and we’re a team that, every time, competes. Never quitting. This is the Georgian soul. This is the heart of the Georgians. Today, the country is happy.” – Ilias Zouros, head coach of Georgia
“Yago is a great player, obviously. He’s been growing in his game as well. For me, it makes my life easier. He does a very good job of penetrating, finding open shots when we need to take them and then also sharing the ball when it’s needed. I think he’s a very important piece of our team now and has always been. But for me, it makes my life a lot easier and everybody else is on the team. So, it’s good to have somebody like that on your team for sure.” – Tim Soares, Brazil
THREE STARS OF THE DAY
1. Yago Santos, Brazil: Santos battled through what looked to be a serious knee injury to help Brazil get a much-needed win against a competitive Cote d’Ivoire team, finishing with 24 points on 8-of-11 shooting, 6-of-7 from three, to go along with four rebounds, 12 assists and just one turnover. He was unstoppable in a game where the Brazilians needed him to be.
2. Bogdan Bogdanovic, Serbia: Bogdanovic had 23 points on 8-of-13 shooting, 6-of-9 from three, leading the Serbians to a dominant 115-83 win over South Sudan and a perfect 3-0 record. But what set Bogdanovic apart from his countryman and fellow NBA player Nikola Jovic, who had 25 points on a perfect 9-for-9 shooting today, was the fact that Bogdanovic had nine assists and three steals as well.
3. Ioannis Papapetrou, Greece: Papapetrou was the beneficiary of a little luck on Wednesday as he had five points in the fourth quarter as the direct result of his own team missing free throws and getting the offensive rebounds, as well as some hot shooting. Papapetrou put up a team-high 27 points in the win, shooting 8-of-15 from the field and 4-of-7 from three, finishing the day a team-high plus-26.
LOOKING AHEAD
Classification games begin tomorrow among the losing teams in order to establish the final ranking of the World Cup, which helps determine which teams will qualify for the 2024 Olympic Games. New Zealand and Mexico (4:45 a.m. E.T.) should be a good clash between two of the better teams on that side of the bracket, while co-hosts Japan take on Venezuela (7:10 a.m. E.T.) in Okinawa before co-hosts the Philippines take on South Sudan (8:00 a.m. E.T.) in Manila.
