FIBA WORLD CUP 2019 | SPAIN are new WORLD CHAMPIONS

[AK47MVP]

I

Yeah good game. We cannot grow any talent anymore, it's time for teams like Australia to take over.

I do not think it is lack of talent. This game was up for grabs but some of Lithuanias most solid performers were complete ass. Kalnietis with -18 despite scoring some pts... Maciulis and Sabonis missing easy bunnies near basket, Adomaitis with head scratching decision to start Butkevicius who was zero ( literally) all his 13 min on the floor, Jankunas beeing absolute disaster and of course JV disappearing against Baynes. Even with that Lithuania missed 3 ft in closing minutes, were punished by refs on that inbound call without the whistle and then foul which resulted in easy 2 pts for Australia, and couple crazy shots by Mills was needed for Australia to win it. This LT team is very decent and they are certainly capable of beating France and Dominican Republic and advancing to playoffs.

[a-French-Fan]

Is There an easy and a hard bracket?

Even if up set may happens we are almost sure that will be Serbia-Spain for first semi-final , but on the other part, one among France, Lithuania and Australia won't reach quarter-final. But, wich one ?

[mixerball]

Still, if the likes of Durant, Curry, Harden etc. were to participate and if this team had put a little more emphasis on adding some actual big men, there wouldn't be a squad that could beat us. There have been better teams than this Serbia who challenged us.

honestly, with the emergence of jokic and serbia having a full roster i dont think there has been a better team to chellenge team US

about mega stars you mentioned. you may be right. but everything is hypothetical until it happens.

Spain in '08 and '12 were much better than this current Serbian team. As was Argentina in '04, Yugoslavia in '02. Could make an argument for Lithuania too. Serbia looks like the best team in this tournament, Jokic is great, but I think they are not the most talented team and their performance thus far is a little overrated. Will see how things go when the competition intensifies.

as much as i love manu and a lot of those other teams i dont think they are better. i see something special in this team. time will tell.

[Mickey8]

2002 FR Yugoslavia
2002, 2004, 2006, 2008 Argentina
2004 Lithuania
2004, 2006, 2008 Greece
2006, 2008, 2012, 2016 Spain

All of them were better than this Serbian team. This Serbian team is excellent, and really stands out in this particular tournament. But it's not as good as those great international teams from those past years were.

Based on what were that better teams. I mean, how can we know that

They were just as deep, or deeper, they were better coached in some cases, they were more experienced, they were more clutch, they had higher basketball IQs, and in case of Lithuania and Greece they had much better guard play.

Jokic isn't as good as Pau was in those years for Spaib]n. Bogdanovic, for as good as he plays, he isn't comparable to what Manu, Jasikevicius were doing, or to what Spanoulis and Navarro were doing - just being able to single handed flat take over games and close and shut teams down.

And Serbia's mix of key players, as good as it is......it's not

Navarro / Pau / Rudy
Diamantidis / Papaloukas / Spanoulis
Manu / Scola / Nocioni
Peja/ Bodiroga / Divac

Jokic could easily be 20 plus point scorer here if Djordevic would use him as the number one option, still his impact is great on the team success , which says a lot about him as a player, he doesn't have to score a lot to make the difference for his team.

[mixerball]

2002 FR Yugoslavia
2002, 2004, 2006, 2008 Argentina
2004 Lithuania
2004, 2006, 2008 Greece
2006, 2008, 2012, 2016 Spain

All of them were better than this Serbian team. This Serbian team is excellent, and really stands out in this particular tournament. But it's not as good as those great international teams from those past years were.

Based on what were that better teams. I mean, how can we know that

They were just as deep, or deeper, they were better coached in some cases, they were more experienced, they were more clutch, they had higher basketball IQs, and in case of Lithuania and Greece they had much better guard play.

Jokic isn't as good as Pau was in those years for Spain. Bogdanovic, for as good as he plays, he isn't comparable to what Manu, Jasikevicius were doing, or to what Spanoulis and Navarro were doing - just being able to single handed flat take over games and close and shut teams down.

And Serbia's mix of key players, as good as it is......it's not

Navarro / Pau / Rudy
Diamantidis / Papaloukas / Spanoulis
Manu / Scola / Nocioni
Peja/ Bodiroga / Divac

this is the deepest team of them all. jokic right now is just as good as pau ever was. and claim that bogdan is not comparable to mentioned players while he is doing exactly what those guys did. putting points on the board and doing it in clutch if neccesary.

time for these guys to prove themselves and in the future you will include
jokic/ bogdanovic/ bjelica
in the mix

[The Rodzilla]

By making second round, Australia already qualified for Olympics... always hated the fact Australia has such an easy way compared to European countries.

why are you acting like australia didnt beat serbia, france and lithuania at the last olympics and could have easily beaten spain

then they beat lithuania again here so they would qualify in any format you want to produce for us

their home record if they had to qualify against Europe would be excellent simply because all the european players arent used to standing and playing basketball upside down

[Catchall]

I'm glad Jaylen Brown played well for USA today. The team needs their athletic and defensive advantage, and Brown can be a real two-way player. Team USA has always had better athleticism at just about every position, but this year the athleticism is down a notch at several positions, especially wings and bigs.

[limbo]

Yeah, Brown needs to stop relying on finesse and outside shooting. If he's left wide open, fine, take it, but otherwise just keep it fundamental and attack the basket. Dude, you're 6'7'', 220 lbs with elite athleticism playing SG... just bully these guys, make the game easy for yourself. I'd rather see him attack the paint and play for contact, even if he doesn't get the whistle every time, then just chucking jumpers any chance he gets.

Although rebounding and points in the paint will get progressively harder from here on out for the US... Will be interesting to see how this develops. Greece has a lot of size in the frontcourt, Brazil has Felicio, Varejao, Caboclo, France will have Gobert and elite athleticism, Australia has Baynes and Bogut, Serbia with Jokic, Boban, Milutinov... it's gonna be tough getting easy ones.

[UcanUwill]

By making second round, Australia already qualified for Olympics... always hated the fact Australia has such an easy way compared to European countries.

why are you acting like australia didnt beat serbia, france and lithuania at the last olympics and could have easily beaten spain

then they beat lithuania again here so they would qualify in any format you want to produce for us

their home record if they had to qualify against Europe would be excellent simply because all the european players arent used to standing and playing basketball upside down

I didnt say they dont deserve the spot, but in the past many Euro teams that deserve it too didnt qualify. Australias road to olympics is so easy its sad.

[stoo]

Based on what were that better teams. I mean, how can we know that

They were just as deep, or deeper, they were better coached in some cases, they were more experienced, they were more clutch, they had higher basketball IQs, and in case of Lithuania and Greece they had much better guard play.

Jokic isn't as good as Pau was in those years for Spaib]n. Bogdanovic, for as good as he plays, he isn't comparable to what Manu, Jasikevicius were doing, or to what Spanoulis and Navarro were doing - just being able to single handed flat take over games and close and shut teams down.

And Serbia's mix of key players, as good as it is......it's not

Navarro / Pau / Rudy
Diamantidis / Papaloukas / Spanoulis
Manu / Scola / Nocioni
Peja/ Bodiroga / Divac

Jokic could easily be 20 plus point scorer here if Djordevic would use him as the number one option, still his impact is great on the team success , which says a lot about him as a player, he doesn't have to score a lot to make the difference for his team.

Well exactly depth of the team is the main reason he is not scoring more

[The Rodzilla]

By making second round, Australia already qualified for Olympics... always hated the fact Australia has such an easy way compared to European countries.

why are you acting like australia didnt beat serbia, france and lithuania at the last olympics and could have easily beaten spain

then they beat lithuania again here so they would qualify in any format you want to produce for us

their home record if they had to qualify against Europe would be excellent simply because all the european players arent used to standing and playing basketball upside down

I didnt say they dont deserve the spot, but in the past many Euro teams that deserve it too didnt qualify. Australias road to olympics is so easy its sad.

also the europe road is easy because they avoid Australia

[Beorn]

Man can you believe that?!? We **** beat Turkey and advanced!!! Man I am gonna get really drunk today.

never met a czech who needed an excuse to get ****

[THE J0KER]

By making second round, Australia already qualified for Olympics... always hated the fact Australia has such an easy way compared to European countries.

why are you acting like australia didnt beat serbia, france and lithuania at the last olympics and could have easily beaten spain

then they beat lithuania again here so they would qualify in any format you want to produce for us

their home record if they had to qualify against Europe would be excellent simply because all the european players arent used to standing and playing basketball upside down

To be fair, Serbia calculated in the group stages of World Cup 2014 and Rio Olympics 2016 to escape USA team before final, and both times finished 4th in their 6-teams group (the last place to qualify for the final round). In WC2014 Serbia lose in the group phase vs Brasil, but in the quarterfinal destroyed them +28. In Rio 2016 Serbia loses vs Australia in the group but trashed them +26 in the semifinal.

In new FIBA World Cup 32-teams formula, no place for calculating in the group phase - one single loss in five games, and you are in danger to not qualify for quarterfinal. In WC2014 and OG2016 Serbia finished group phase with 2-3 record beating only underdogs, but once playoff started, the team stormed to the final.

[The Rodzilla]

By making second round, Australia already qualified for Olympics... always hated the fact Australia has such an easy way compared to European countries.

why are you acting like australia didnt beat serbia, france and lithuania at the last olympics and could have easily beaten spain

then they beat lithuania again here so they would qualify in any format you want to produce for us

their home record if they had to qualify against Europe would be excellent simply because all the european players arent used to standing and playing basketball upside down

To be fair, Serbia calculated in the group stages of World Cup 2014 and Rio Olympics 2016 to escape USA team before final, and both times finished 4th in their 6-teams group (the last place to qualify for the final round). In WC2014 Serbia lose in the group phase vs Brasil, but in the quarterfinal destroyed them +28. In Rio 2016 Serbia loses vs Australia in the group but trashed them +26 in the semifinal.

In new FIBA World Cup 32-teams formula, no place for calculating in the group phase - one single loss in five games, and you are in danger to not qualify for quarterfinal. In WC2014 and OG2016 Serbia finished group phase with 2-3 record beating only underdogs, but once playoff started, the team stormed to the final.

sorry they just got crushed by delly in that game fair and square, it was just the 2nd game and you are coming up with revisionist theories to increase the reputation of Serbia, my guess is you are Serbian

your incredible calculation plan to get 4th instead of fight for 2nd could have produced you with a spain match an another spanking from them, not a good plan

[stoo]

why are you acting like australia didnt beat serbia, france and lithuania at the last olympics and could have easily beaten spain

then they beat lithuania again here so they would qualify in any format you want to produce for us

their home record if they had to qualify against Europe would be excellent simply because all the european players arent used to standing and playing basketball upside down

To be fair, Serbia calculated in the group stages of World Cup 2014 and Rio Olympics 2016 to escape USA team before final, and both times finished 4th in their 6-teams group (the last place to qualify for the final round). In WC2014 Serbia lose in the group phase vs Brasil, but in the quarterfinal destroyed them +28. In Rio 2016 Serbia loses vs Australia in the group but trashed them +26 in the semifinal.

In new FIBA World Cup 32-teams formula, no place for calculating in the group phase - one single loss in five games, and you are in danger to not qualify for quarterfinal. In WC2014 and OG2016 Serbia finished group phase with 2-3 record beating only underdogs, but once playoff started, the team stormed to the final.

sorry they just got crushed by delly in that game fair and square, it was just the 2nd game and you are coming up with revisionist theories to increase the reputation of Serbia, my guess is you are Serbian

your incredible calculation plan to get 4th instead of fight for 2nd could have produced you with a spain match an another spanking from them, not a good plan

To be honest, calculating is common thing in this kind of competitions. Revisioning or not, beating Australia by almost 30 in elimination game should say something

[mcmurphy]

why are you acting like australia didnt beat serbia, france and lithuania at the last olympics and could have easily beaten spain

then they beat lithuania again here so they would qualify in any format you want to produce for us

their home record if they had to qualify against Europe would be excellent simply because all the european players arent used to standing and playing basketball upside down

To be fair, Serbia calculated in the group stages of World Cup 2014 and Rio Olympics 2016 to escape USA team before final, and both times finished 4th in their 6-teams group (the last place to qualify for the final round). In WC2014 Serbia lose in the group phase vs Brasil, but in the quarterfinal destroyed them +28. In Rio 2016 Serbia loses vs Australia in the group but trashed them +26 in the semifinal.

In new FIBA World Cup 32-teams formula, no place for calculating in the group phase - one single loss in five games, and you are in danger to not qualify for quarterfinal. In WC2014 and OG2016 Serbia finished group phase with 2-3 record beating only underdogs, but once playoff started, the team stormed to the final.

sorry they just got crushed by delly in that game fair and square, it was just the 2nd game and you are coming up with revisionist theories to increase the reputation of Serbia, my guess is you are Serbian

your incredible calculation plan to get 4th instead of fight for 2nd could have produced you with a spain match an another spanking from them, not a good plan

No revisionist theories.
The Joker tells the thruth.

[The Rodzilla]

To be fair, Serbia calculated in the group stages of World Cup 2014 and Rio Olympics 2016 to escape USA team before final, and both times finished 4th in their 6-teams group (the last place to qualify for the final round). In WC2014 Serbia lose in the group phase vs Brasil, but in the quarterfinal destroyed them +28. In Rio 2016 Serbia loses vs Australia in the group but trashed them +26 in the semifinal.

In new FIBA World Cup 32-teams formula, no place for calculating in the group phase - one single loss in five games, and you are in danger to not qualify for quarterfinal. In WC2014 and OG2016 Serbia finished group phase with 2-3 record beating only underdogs, but once playoff started, the team stormed to the final.

sorry they just got crushed by delly in that game fair and square, it was just the 2nd game and you are coming up with revisionist theories to increase the reputation of Serbia, my guess is you are Serbian

your incredible calculation plan to get 4th instead of fight for 2nd could have produced you with a spain match an another spanking from them, not a good plan

To be honest, calculating is common thing in this kind of competitions. Revisioning or not, beating Australia by almost 30 in elimination game should say something

delly just had an off game, its difficult being delly all the time so sometimes it doesn't happen

like im sure serbia looks at the final and doesnt count it as the real situation, they think the group game was a better demonstration of what serbia can do, btw does that theory also include trying to lose against usa in the group stage because they almost won and improved themselves to 3rd place

whatever the case we might have another example of serbia vs australia basketball at this tournament, im looking forward to it

[Alatan]

why are you acting like australia didnt beat serbia, france and lithuania at the last olympics and could have easily beaten spain

then they beat lithuania again here so they would qualify in any format you want to produce for us

their home record if they had to qualify against Europe would be excellent simply because all the european players arent used to standing and playing basketball upside down

To be fair, Serbia calculated in the group stages of World Cup 2014 and Rio Olympics 2016 to escape USA team before final, and both times finished 4th in their 6-teams group (the last place to qualify for the final round). In WC2014 Serbia lose in the group phase vs Brasil, but in the quarterfinal destroyed them +28. In Rio 2016 Serbia loses vs Australia in the group but trashed them +26 in the semifinal.

In new FIBA World Cup 32-teams formula, no place for calculating in the group phase - one single loss in five games, and you are in danger to not qualify for quarterfinal. In WC2014 and OG2016 Serbia finished group phase with 2-3 record beating only underdogs, but once playoff started, the team stormed to the final.

sorry they just got crushed by delly in that game fair and square, it was just the 2nd game and you are coming up with revisionist theories to increase the reputation of Serbia, my guess is you are Serbian

your incredible calculation plan to get 4th instead of fight for 2nd could have produced you with a spain match an another spanking from them, not a good plan

Sorry but you just got crushed in the game that actually mattered and lost an Olympic medal.

[The Rodzilla]

To be fair, Serbia calculated in the group stages of World Cup 2014 and Rio Olympics 2016 to escape USA team before final, and both times finished 4th in their 6-teams group (the last place to qualify for the final round). In WC2014 Serbia lose in the group phase vs Brasil, but in the quarterfinal destroyed them +28. In Rio 2016 Serbia loses vs Australia in the group but trashed them +26 in the semifinal.

In new FIBA World Cup 32-teams formula, no place for calculating in the group phase - one single loss in five games, and you are in danger to not qualify for quarterfinal. In WC2014 and OG2016 Serbia finished group phase with 2-3 record beating only underdogs, but once playoff started, the team stormed to the final.

sorry they just got crushed by delly in that game fair and square, it was just the 2nd game and you are coming up with revisionist theories to increase the reputation of Serbia, my guess is you are Serbian

your incredible calculation plan to get 4th instead of fight for 2nd could have produced you with a spain match an another spanking from them, not a good plan

Sorry but you just got crushed in the game that actually mattered and lost an Olympic medal.

i have a feeling australia calculated that they didnt want to get embarrassed by usa in the final which is watched by everyone so they lost and invited serbia to get embarrassed instead, thats the story im going with

Australia doesn't care about the medals as much as Serbia, we average over 40 each Olympics this century so its ok, but Serbia need to get their medals anytime they can, they've got like 15 total

[rale93lfc]

sorry they just got crushed by delly in that game fair and square, it was just the 2nd game and you are coming up with revisionist theories to increase the reputation of Serbia, my guess is you are Serbian

your incredible calculation plan to get 4th instead of fight for 2nd could have produced you with a spain match an another spanking from them, not a good plan

To be honest, calculating is common thing in this kind of competitions. Revisioning or not, beating Australia by almost 30 in elimination game should say something

delly just had an off game, its difficult being delly all the time so sometimes it doesn't happen

like im sure serbia looks at the final and doesnt count it as the real situation, they think the group game was a better demonstration of what serbia can do, btw does that theory also include trying to lose against usa in the group stage because they almost won and improved themselves to 3rd place

whatever the case we might have another example of serbia vs australia basketball at this tournament, im looking forward to it