FIBA World Cup: Cold Turkey FTs allow Team USA to escape; Day 4 takeaways

Brazil surprises Greece to secure a spot from Group F

At Nanjing, it was a pair of Brazil’s old soldiers who combined to push them past Greece for a 79-78 victory on Tuesday to clinch a berth in the second round of the FIBA World Cup.

In their Group F meeting, Leandro Barbosa and Anderson Varejao, both 36, turned back time, or ripped apart the whole space-time continuum … thing …, altogether to carry Brazil to a bit of a surprising win against the Greeks, a sexy pre-tournament pick to make a deep run.

Greece led by as much as 17 points and appeared to have things well in hand before the Brazilians charged back to take a 56-53 lead into the final period.

Brazil went up 76-71 when Barbosa split a pair of free throws with 1:15 left, but the game swung dramatically when NBA MVP Giannis Antetokounmpo of the Bucks made a steal and Kostas Papanikolaou was fouled by Rafa Luz.

The play was ruled an unsportsmanlike foul and Papanikolau made both free throws.

Having also kept the ball on the unsportsmanlike foul, Georgios Printezis canned a 3-pointer with 35 seconds to go to tie the game.

But with 14 seconds left, Varejao dropped in a floater to put Brazil up 78-76 and Barbosa was fouled with four seconds to go after Bruno Caboclo of the Memphis Grizzlies intercepted a pass from Nick Calathes that was intended to go to Antetokounmpo.

Barbosa left the door open for Greece by missing the first foul shot, but gave Brazil a 79-76 edge by making the second. With two seconds to go, Didi Louzada of Brazil fouled Kostas Sloukas on a potential game-tying 3-pointer, giving Greece a chance to tie it up.

But Sloukas was short on his third attempt after making the first two and Cristiano Felicio of the Chicago Bulls pulled down the rebound to seal the win.

Varejao finished with 22 points and nine rebounds for Brazil, while Marquinhos Sousa added 15 and Barbosa had 13. Caboclo scored eight points to go with 10 rebounds, Luz had six assists and three steals and Alex Garcia checked in with 13 points and six dimes.

Printezis paced Greece with 20 points, going 4-for-5 from deep, and Calathes added 16 points. Antetokounmpo only took seven shots in 29 minutes, finishing with 13 points and three steals before fouling out. Sloukas notched 11 assists.

So Brazil will face New Zealand in a do-or-die game on Thursday. The Tall Blacks picked up their first win, pulling away from stubborn Montenegro in the fourth period for a 93-83 victory.

Corey Webster led New Zealand with 25 points, going 6-for-8 from 3-point range to go with seven assists, while Isaac Fotu checked in with 20 points and seven boards. New Zealand shot 11-for-25 (44 percent) from deep and had a 26-19 edge in made free throws (the attempts were 33-22).

Nikola Ivanovic scored 18 points with seven assists and three steals for Montenegro, while Orlando Magic All-Star Nikola Vucevic had 15 points and nine rebounds. Boban Dubljevic posted a double-double with 13 points and 12 rebounds and nabbed four steals as well.

Brazil faces Montenegro to close Group F play on Thursday at 4 a.m. Eastern, followed by the meeting between the two 1-1 teams in the group, Greece and New Zealand, at 8 a.m. Eastern.