FIBA World Cup: Just like that, 4 quarterfinalists; Day 7 takeaways

Can Spain stop the Serbian express?

In Group N at Wuhan, Serbia and Spain locked up spots in the quarterfinals, each improving to 4-0 and relegating Puerto Rico and Italy, respectively, to the 9-16 classification playoff.

But Spain — the No. 2-ranked team in the FIBA World Rankings — has looked vulnerable in each of its last two games, struggling to get by Iran in the final game of the first round and needing to come from behind to beat Italy on Friday.

Serbia? Their definition of a “close” game thus far in this tournament was a 15-point win over the Italians to close the first round, in a game they led by as much as 23.

Otherwise, the battle for Serbia has seemed to be who is going to get the assist on each possession. The ball movement by the Serbians has been other-worldly as they have won their four games by an average of 40.8 points each.

That’s Dream Team stuff there.

Serbia is shooting 60.7 percent overall and 47.4 percent from 3-point range … for the tournament. and have assisted on 123 of their 145 made baskets thus far. That’s an assist percentage of 84.8 percent, bringing a whole new meaning to “sharing the basketball.”

Against outmanned Puerto Rico (2-2), Serbia opened the game with a 15-4 run … then slowly pulled away for a 90-47 victory. By their standards, the Serbians were cold on Friday, shooting only 55.7 percent (34-for-61) overall and hitting 10-of-29 (34.5 percent) from deep.

But they outrebounded Puerto Rico 48-26 and gave the Puerto Ricans fits with their defensive size, holding them to 26.6 percent (17-for-64) overall and 2-for-24 (8.3 percent) from long range.

Nemanja Bjelica of the Sacramento Kings scored 18 points to lead Serbia, while Boban Marjanovic of the Dallas Mavericks finished with 16 points in 16 minutes to go with one sweet assist in the open floor.

https://twitter.com/FIBA/status/1169940130360020992

Nikola Jokic of the Denver Nuggets went for a 14-point, 10-rebound double-double in 17 minutes off the bench and Stefan Jovic dished out nine assists, with Vasilije Micic doling out eight dimes of his own.

David Huertas led Puerto Rico with 11 points.

In the nightcap, Italy held a 10-point lead early, getting off to a 15-5 start, before Spain began to chip away.

The Italians picked the worst possible time to go cold, getting blanked for a 3:57 stretch late in the game as Spain went on a 10-0 … run isn’t quite the best term, but haltingly progressing fits … to take a 62-56 lead with 27 seconds left and Italy was never able to get it back to a one-possession game.

Spain was sloppy, with 15 turnovers — seven by Ricky Rubio of the Phoenix Suns — but neither team shot the ball well and the Spaniards got 32 points in the paint to just 22 for Italy to get the win.

Spain shot 39 percent (24-for-61) overall and was just 6-for-23 (26 percent) from 3-point range, but Italy’s counter of 35 percent (23-for-65) and 20 percent (4-for-20) didn’t help its cause.

Marco Belinelli of the San Antonio Spurs was particularly out of control for Italy, missing all six of his 3-point tries and finishing with seven points on 3-of-16 shooting, many of those shots being of the let’s-see-what-happens variety.

Juan Hernangomez of the Denver Nuggets scored 16 points to lead Spain, with Rubio adding 15 despite his turnover difficulties. Victor Claver grabbed nine rebounds.

Danilo Gallinari of the Oklahoma City Thunder paced Italy with 15 points, while Daniel Hackett had eight boards.

If Spain is to have any shot at containing Serbia, it can’t come out flat for a third straight game. Otherwise, the Spaniards will serve as just one more speed bump underneath Serbia’s runaway bus.

On Sunday, Puerto Rico and Italy play for seeding in the 9-16 classification tournament at 4:30 a.m., followed by the Spain-Serbia main event at 8:30 a.m. Eastern.