When FIBA went fo expanding number of counries to the World Cup they added the same amount of berths to the continents which was obviously a mistake. Europe had to get more berths. Combined with their brilliant qulifying system we're now having teams losing by 100pts in two games and teams like Slovenia, Latvia or Croatia sitting out.
Not many competitive matches in this first round, even "group of death" won't be cause Canada is really now underdog in matches with AUS and LTU.
Nigeria is a bad coached team, Russia is very beatable which we saw today vs Korea, Nigeria should've won that game but their coach who has his son playing big role in his team really let them off the hook. They jacked up too many shots like poorly skilled US team and Russia which really doesn't have a go to guy beat them at the end with players like Fridzon and Vorontsevich being key players even though they're both well past their best. So i wasn't surprised how Argentina which is the best team in the gropu easily beat them today. Argentina will play Russia for the first place and probably ARG will finish first both in this group and in a second round group because group A is even worse than this group.
Poland will finish first in the group A, again China blew this game. 3 times China in crucial posessions wasn't able to inbound the ball in a proper way. First two time in the 4th quarter when they were up 1. First time ref bailed them out calling a phantom foul on Slaughter, but second time Ponitka stole it and it got into overtime after he missed 2nd free throw. And in the overtime they got 5sec violation while down 2. Very bad execution there and all of those plays came after timeouts which makes it even worse cause timeouts were used to draw up just that one play and it failed 3 times in a row which is a travesty at this level of basketball. They'll probably beat Venezuela. Kudos to them because the halls are full with fans even when China isn't playing which we never see at the big tournaments any more.
Serbia and Italy obviously will fight for that crucial win, essentialy a second round is starting wednesday for these two teams. Both Angola and Phillipines are too bad, but Italians are playing in full strength now it isn't going to be an easy matchup. Looking forward because we really look like team to beat here and Italy match will be the first real matchup to see us against solid team. I expect a win because even if Italy shoots lights out which are capable to do, we're too big for them. It will also be very interesting to see how we respond to them playing small ball, cause teams will try to beat us that way that's for sure, even teams who have good big guys like Spain and USA will try something like playing without traditional center and attempt to put our big guys on the heels defensively. We can score, that's sure but how good we can defend will determine the tournament in my opinion.
Finaly, in group C, Spain really didn't look comfortable in wins vs Puerto Rico and Tunisia. And PR vs TUN should be good match for the second spot in the group. But Spain looks vulnerable, they have issues with rebounding which shows how much they miss Pau and Ibaka/Mirotić. I could hardly remember Spanish team having issues boxing out, which this team does have, and coming into match with Serbia with those problems isn't a good look for them.