2023 FIBA World Cup thread.

[PaKii94]

Can anybody please geve me an advice on how to watch Cup games?

One way is to rewatch highly condensed versions of games here at the FIBA basketball website below. Scroll down to Full Games:
https://www.fiba.basketball/basketballworldcup/2023/videos

You supposedly can sign up for a Courtside 1891 World Cup Event Pass for free and watch the games live:
https://www.courtside1891.basketball/plans

I think most of the games are on ESPN+.

Court side is $10 for the cup. And ESPN+ is $10/month.

[Crunch 99]

It hasn't been a great World Cup for Jazz players other than Kelly Olynyk. Olynyk is averaging an efficient 15 ppg on 7.5 fga, with 6 rebs and 3.5 ast in 20.3 mpg. Canada is 2-0.

The Philippines just suffered another loss --- this time versus Angola. Clarkson had 21 pts on 22 fga. It is probably tough for Clarkson to be offensive option number 1, 2 and 3. Philippines gets another chance to go for a win in front of the home crowd on Tuesday versus Italy.
https://www.fiba.basketball/basketballworldcup/2023/game/2708/Philippines-Angola#|tab=boxscore

Fontecchio had 13 pts on 15 fga in Italy's loss to the Dominican Republic. Karl Anthony Towns dominated the game with 24 pts on 15 fga. Italy is 1-1.
https://www.fiba.basketball/basketballworldcup/2023/game/2708/Italy-Dominican-Republic#|tab=boxscore

Markkanen had 27 pts on 21 fga last game, but it still wasn't enough to beat Japan. Finland is 0-2 with next game against Germany.

Ex Jazz player Gobert is taking a lot of criticism on the General Board over France's 0-2 record.

[Inigo Montoya]

Yeah, not the best showing for Jazz players. But it could be worse, at least they're not in Gobert's shoes, he's getting hammered.

[Jiipee84]

Watch on YouTube

Watch on YouTube

[PaKii94]

Team Finland was so bad outside of Lauri. Felt even worse than the rebuilding bulls team. No playmakers and no scorers either. Just a straight mess. From the games I watched, the ball handlers couldn't get the ball to Lauri cleanly. Maybe only 1/10 passes. 5/10 of those were TOs

[Crunch 99]

Kelly Olynyk is drawing positive mentions on the General Board in their FIBA thread. After three games, Olynyk is number two player for Canada in four categories: efficiency, pts, rebs and ast/game. SGA is #1 for those categories.
viewtopic.php?f=6&t=2316615&start=580

[Crunch 99]

Markannen had 34 points on 19 fga in a 100-77 Finland win over Cape Verde. Correct me if I am wrong, but Finland and the teams that failed to advance to the second round are still playing for the opportunity to compete in an Olympic qualifying tournament next year. The next opponent for Finland is Venezuela.

https://www.fiba.basketball/basketballworldcup/2023/game/3108/Cape-Verde-Finland#tab=videos

Watch on YouTube

[Crunch 99]

Fontecchio got it going in a 78-76 Italy win over Serbia, scoring 30 pts on 15 fga with 7 rebs and 3 ast. The announcers were calling Fontecchio "The Italian Superman".

Italy is is in the second round with 16 teams. The next opponent for Italy is Puerto Rico on Sunday.

https://www.fiba.basketball/basketballworldcup/2023/game/0109/Serbia-Italy#tab=videos

Watch on YouTube

[Crunch 99]

Walker Kessler went in to the game in the latter part of Q2 in USA's 85-73 win over Montenegro. In 5:15 mins, Kessler had 4 pts on 4 fga, 1 reb and a block on Nikola Vucevic. Vucevic didn't score on Kessler, and USA was plus 2 while Kessler was in the game.
https://www.fiba.basketball/basketballworldcup/2023/game/0109/USA-Montenegro#tab=boxscore

Hopefully Kessler will get a few meaningful minutes to compete against big man Valanciunas in Sunday's game against Lithuania.

[SoCalJazzFan]

Walker Kessler went in to the game in the latter part of Q2 in USA's 85-73 win over Montenegro. In 5:15 mins, Kessler had 4 pts on 4 fga, 1 reb and a block on Nikola Vucevic. Vucevic didn't score on Kessler, and USA was plus 2 while Kessler was in the game.
https://www.fiba.basketball/basketballworldcup/2023/game/0109/USA-Montenegro#tab=boxscore

Hopefully Kessler will get a few meaningful minutes to compete against big man Valanciunas in Sunday's game against Lithuania.

The US almost lost to Montefreakingnegro because Kerr is set in his ways. Maybe he isn't such a brilliant coach afterall.

[TNJazz]

Fontecchio got it going in a 78-76 Italy win over Serbia, scoring 30 pts on 15 fga with 7 rebs and 3 ast. The announcers were calling Fontecchio "The Italian Superman".

Italy is is in the second round with 16 teams. The next opponent for Italy is Puerto Rico on Sunday.

https://www.fiba.basketball/basketballworldcup/2023/game/0109/Serbia-Italy#tab=videos

Watch on YouTube

Player of the game award, nice job Simone!

[Crunch 99]

The Philippines finally got a win on their home court against China. Clarkson erupted for 20 points in 4 minutes! (Aside from plain basketball, it is great to see the Philippines get a victory over China, considering China's ongoing efforts to expand China's territorial claims in the South China Sea.)

ESPN video of Clarkson's 20 points in 4 minutes:
https://www.espn.com/video/clip?id=38312242

FIBA Player of the Game highlights:

Watch on YouTube

[Jiipee84]

Watch on YouTube

[Jiipee84]

2023 Fiba World cup is done to Team Finland.
As expected Finland didn't have real chances to even challenge Australia and Germany in this tournament.

Lauri did his best but he was away of that level where he was last years Eurobasket.
It really showed in Lauri's game he hasn't had much time to prepare and practice to Fiba world cup due to his military service.

Also Team Finland's playmaking and PG's didn't do any favors for Lauri
and lack real leading primary PG is huge after Petteri Koponen's retirement.

Finland made 2024 summer Olympic games qualification round winning their last 2 games ( Cape Verde and Venezuela ).
2024 Summer Olympic qualification round is supposed to play some point next summer but when that's still wide open.

There was some speculation in Finnish media if Finland wants to play next summer's
Olympic games they should win at least 4 or 5 games in qualification round hopefully
those games Lauri is better shape and better prepared what he was in Fiba world cup.

[Crunch 99]

I jinxed Kelly Olynyk. He hasn't had a good game since I praised him. Lol. Next up for Canada is Slovenia in the quarterfinals on Wednesday.

Fontecchio faces the USA in the quarterfinals tomorrow. Fontecchio is Italy's leading scorer at 18.4 pts/game, but his TS% hasn't been as good as it was in the 2022 Fiba tournament.

[ForeverRDjazz]

I jinxed Kelly Olynyk. He hasn't had a good game since I praised him. Lol. Next up for Canada is Slovenia in the quarterfinals on Wednesday.

Fontecchio faces the USA in the quarterfinals tomorrow. Fontecchio is Italy's leading scorer at 18.4 pts/game, but his TS% hasn't been as good as it was in the 2022 Fiba tournament.

Olynyk will need to learn how to play threw Crunch's high praise if he's gonna be a great player with Utah!

[Crunch 99]

I tuned in to the USA v Italy blowout game just in time to see Font foul out. He led Italy in scoring again with an efficient 18 pts on 13 fga, but he struggled to hit threes again. He is only at 23.9% on threes this tournament versus 45.1% on threes for the 2022 tournament.

Kessler got to play all of Q4 after game was already decided, and he had pretty good productivity with 4 pts on 2 fga, 5 rebs and 1 block in 10 minutes.

[Crunch 99]

Fontecchio made the All Tournament Second Team, notwithstanding being cold on threes, while Olynyk comes back with a Bronze medal.

TCL Player of the Game in the Final - Franz Wagner
MVP of the tournament - Dennis Schröder
Wanda Rising Star - Josh Giddey
Best Defensive Player - Dillon Brooks
Best Coach - Luca Banchi
All Tournament First Team - Dennis Schröder, Luka Doncić, Anthony Edwards, Bogdan Bogdanović, Shai Gilgeous-Alexander
All Tournament Second Team - Simone Fontecchio, Arturs Zagars, Jonas Valančiūnas, Nikola Milutinov, Franz Wagner[