Canada will try to put USA Basketball in a position that the national team hasn’t experienced in 56 years on Sunday.
There’s been only one instance — 1963 and 1967 — when the Americans failed to medal in consecutive World Cups (or the FIBA world championship, as the event used to be called). The U.S. needs to beat Canada on Sunday to avoid having that happen again.
The U.S. was seventh at the World Cup four years ago. It’ll finish either third or fourth this year, after Germany beat the Americans to earn a spot in the gold-medal game against Serbia.SCHEDULE
Saturday — Slovenia vs. Italy, seventh-place game, 4:45 a.m. EDT; Latvia vs. Lithuania, fifth-place game, 8:30 a.m. EDT.
Sunday — U.S. vs. Canada, bronze-medal game, 4:40 a.m. EDT; Germany vs. Serbia, gold-medal game, 8:40 a.m. EDT.HOW TO WATCH THE BASKETBALL WORLD CUP
—In the U.S.: American television details for the U.S.-Canada bronze-medal matchup (Sunday, 4:40 a.m. EDT) have not been announced.
— There are streaming options for all games.BETTING GUIDE
The U.S. had been the favorite all tournament, according to FanDuel Sportsbook. And now it’ll be Germany in that position, installed as 1.5-point favorites over Serbia in the gold-medal game. The U.S. is a 6.5-point favorite over Canada in the bronze-medal matchup.
Germany was the longest shot on the board, in terms of money line, entering Friday. A $100 wager placed on the Germans to win the tournament before the semifinal game would return $900, if they beat Serbia on Sunday.WHAT TO KNOW
What you need to know about the Basketball World Cup, and the U.S. road to getting here:
— Serbia tops Canada, Germany tops the U.S. in semifinals
— The World Cup semifinals are here
— U.S. rolls past Italy to make World Cup semifinals
—A preview of the World Cup quarterfinals
— U.S. falls to Lithuania to close second-round play
— Anthony Edwards talks the talk, and more than backs it up for the U.S.
— U.S. rallies past Montenegro to open play in Round 2
—Early U.S. wins: U.S. runs past Jordan to finish perfect in opening group play, U.S. beats Greece in second game, U.S. tops New Zealand in opening game
— The Americans are using lots of depth to their advantage
— For Erik Spoelstra, this trip to Manila is very much like a homecomingBOGI RISING
With 23 points in Serbia’s semifinal win over Canada, Bogdan Bogdanovic now has 427 points all-time in World Cup play.
And he just passed a legend.
Bogdanovic is 16th on the World Cup scoring list, after passing newly enshrined Basketball Hall of Famer Dirk Nowitzki (425). If Bogdanovic scores at least 11 points in Sunday’s gold-medal game, he’s assured of rising at least three more spots on the list to 13th.
Bogdanovic is in his third World Cup. He started this summer 52nd on the tournament’s all-time list.
He’s still a long, long way from making the top three: Brazil’s Oscar Schmidt (904) is No. 1, followed by Argentina’s Luis Scola (716) and Australia’s Andrew Gaze (594).STAT OF THE DAY
The U.S. scored 100 points in a World Cup or Olympic game for the 100th time in program history Friday night. The Americans are now 98-2 in those games — and the other loss was also in this tournament, to Lithuania.QUOTE OF THE DAY
“I want to dedicate this win to him. Hopefully, we’re going to see him soon with us, with the team. Just want to say that hopefully he feels a little bit better when he knows he has a medal. I know it’s not important, but I hope we made him happy tonight.” — Serbia’s Marko Gaduric, on teammate Borisa Simanic, who remains hospitalized in Manila after losing a kidney following a freak injury in the World Cup.
Copyright 2021 Associated Press. All rights reserved.
