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The 2023 FIBA World Cup finally got to its exciting part and on Tuesday the first two of the quarterfinals were played. As it turned out both were blowout wins with one being a surprise and the other a logical one by the team that was expected to win. Here is all that happened as the first 2 semifinals were decided.
FIBA World Cup results today
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The first two quarterfinals produced some dominant displays from the teams that triumphed.
Friday Group Scores
Serbia def. Lithuania 87-68
USA def. Italy 100-63
FIBA World Cup results today – the most memorable displays
The start of the quarterfinals was always going to bring an even better level of basketball and two teams rose to the challenge as they booked their place in the last 4.
Lithuania vs Serbia
The day started with a titanic clash between two old foes from Europe. Lithuania came into the quarterfinals on the back of defeating Team USA in their last match and as one of only two teams yet to lose 5-0. They were considered the clear favourites as they took on Serbia without their best player Nikola Jokic. However, it seems the Serbs haven’t got the memo and from the start, they looked the hungrier, punchier and simply better team on the court.
Lithuania remained in touch in the first quarter but the Serbs took off in the second which they won 25-13 to enjoy an 11-point lead at halftime. The Serbs increased their lead to over 20 in the third quarter and really Lithuania never found an answer to the suffocating Serbian defence.
Bogdan Bogdanovic once again led all scorers with his 21 points, while Petrusev contributed 17 off the bench for the Serbians. Lithuania shot only 32.1% from beyond the arc and also committed 15 turnovers so once things started to go downhill for them they got really bad. The Serbs were excellent though and they will be full of confidence now.
USA vs Italy
In the other quarterfinal the big favourites Team USA cruised to a 100-63 win vs Italy. The Americans did it on the defensive end with their ball pressure forcing Italy into rushed shots. The Italians shot only 31% from the field and just 18% from distance (2 out of 19) so they never stood a chance.
Team USA started slow again but finished the opening quarter on a 20-8 run to turn a deficit into a lead. After that, it was easy with a dominant second quarter building an unassailable lead even before the match reached halftime.
Indiana Pacers guard Haliburton once again had some great impact off the bench. He finished with 18 points, 5 assists and 4 rebounds. Mikael Bridges led all scorers with his 24 points and Paolo Banchero was a beast in defence with 5 rebounds, 2 steals, 1 block and 7 deflections.
The Americans cruised for most of the second half but it was still alarming that early on they trailed by as many as 6. It’s now in three of their last four matches they allow early deficits. This hurt them already once when they lost to Lithuania so the focus early on needs to be much better.
Will there be more records broken and more blowout wins on day 2 of the quarterfinals on Wednesday? Well, we’ll have to watch and see.
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