The USA and Canada will meet for the bronze.
The semifinals of the 2023 FIBA World Cup were yesterday. Here are the results.
- Serbia beat Canada, 95-86 — The Canadians are a team that is full of NBA talent, But the Serbians have a longer tradition of success on the world stage. Bogdan Bogdanovic scored 23 points and the Serbs out rebounded the Canadians, 33-22 to be in control of this game from start to finish. Canada only led for 2:47 in the game, which was in the first quarter.
- Germany beat USA, 113-111 — The Germans came into this tournament as the 11th best team in men’s basketball. They were in an offensive shootout with the Americans as both teams ultimately were in the highest scoring game in World Cup history. Though the Americans led 60-59 at halftime, Germany controlled the game and were leading by as many as 12 points in the fourth quarter. Andreas Obst scored 24 points to lead the Germans while Anthony Edwards scored 23 to lead Team USA.
The medal games
The semifinalists in the 2023 FIBA World Cup happened to earn their 2024 Olympic berths simply by making this round. That’s because this tournament allows the top two FIBA Europe teams and top two FIBA Americas teams to earn an Olympic berth.
So to some Team USA fans, they may think, “Ahhh, KD, Steph and LeBron will show up next year in Paris, why bother caring for the bronze medal game?” But the thing is that every place matters for the FIBA rankings, which then affect the seeding of each team in the Olympics next year.
There were also other rounds of games we didn’t cover, like the classification games for the teams that didn’t make the second round, or the teams that lost in the quarterfinals. Every point matters, especially for FIBA Europe teams because their continent is the best in the world from top to bottom. There’s always a European team that gets left out of the World Cup or the Olympics due to a bad finish in EuroBasket, among other things.
I don’t want to hear about the “Team USA is still the best with their D team” comment. Team USA has the most talent, but FIBA Americas isn’t that strong outside of the Americans, Argentines (who disappointed in this tournament) and now the Canadians.
Here is the schedule for the medal games:
- Bronze Medal Game: USA vs. Canada at 4:30 a.m. ET
- Gold Medal Game: Serbia vs. Germany at 8:40 a.m. ET