On Sunday, Italy, Puerto Rico, Brazil, Latvia, the Dominican Republic, Serbia, Spain, and Canada will fight for a crucial win and a ticket to the FIBA World Cup 2023 quarterfinals.
The FIBA Basketball World Cup 2023 reached a critical point, where several teams had to secure a victory on Sunday to reserve a spot in the playoffs.
Italy booked their ticket to the next stage of the competition with an easy win against Puerto Rico. Later in the day, Latvia provided a surprise once again, blowing out Brazil on their way to the playoffs in their first-ever World Cup appearance.
Almost two hours later, Germany took on Luka Doncic’s Slovenia. Even though the superstar guard’s squad controlled the game in the first quarter, Germany outplayed the Slovenians in the remaining 30 minutes.
Germany won the second half by 25 points and blew out Slovenia by 29. Doncic was kept to 23 inefficient points (9/22 FG), while Dennis Schroder registered a double-double of 24 points (8/11 FG) and 10 assists.
Bogdan Bogdanovic had a nearly perfect game (7/7 FG, 3/3 3PT, 3/4 FT, 5 AST) against Karl-Anthony Towns’ Dominican Republic and blew away the underdogs by a whopping 33 points.
Team USA met the toughest opponent in the World Cup yet – Lithuania. The Lithuanians had an outstanding first half, making their first 9 threes and outscoring the US by 17 points in the first half.
The favorites could not come back and suffered their first loss in the World Cup.
Spain had a lead throughout the majority of the game, but Canada, led by Shai Gilgeous-Alexander and Dillon Brooks, managed to survive and avoid elimination.
Every game of the World Cup can be streamed live or on-demand via the official Courtside 1891 platform. (Streaming restrictions apply)
Source : Basket News