FIBA World Cup: Czech Republic wins in loss to Greece

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In a twist because of tiebreakers, Greece lost by winning and the Czech Republic won with a loss, as the Czechs advance to the FIBA World Cup quarterfinals.

Tiebreakers make players do crazy things as the Czech Republic advanced to the quarterfinals of the tournament despite an 84-77 loss to Greece on Monday.

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The closing seconds were almost surreal. Greece, with a seven-point lead, in a full-court press trying to get the ball back to score quickly. The Czech Republic, down by seven, content to let the time bleed off the clock and make its free throws.

If that seems backwards, it was … sort of.

Greece came into the game needing two things to happen to reach the quarterfinals. The Greeks not only needed to beat the Czechs, but needed to do so by at least 12 points in order to pass Czech Republic in a three-way tiebreaker in case the other thing they needed fell into place.

It did, when Team USA pulled away from Brazil in the second half for an 89-73 victory.

That left three teams in Group K in the second round tied for second place in the group at 3-2, all with a win and a loss in head-to-head play with each other.

The next tiebreaker is scoring margin in head-to-head play and with their seven-point win over the Czechs, Greece’s margin in their games with the Czechs and Brazil was plus-6, still behind the plus-15 of the Czechs.

Brazil finished last in the group with a head-to-head tiebreaker margin of minus-21.

The Czech Republic will meet Group L winner Australia, which got to 5-0 with a scintillating 100-98 victory over France, which ends the group phase 4-1.

The French play the U.S. in the quarterfinal round.

In the other game in Group L, Lithuania (3-2) took third place in the group with a 74-55 win over the Dominican Republic (2-3).

We’ll discuss the Olympic implications in a bit.

In the classification round finales, Montenegro (1-4) finished on a high note with an 80-65 win over Japan (0-5) in Group O.

Nikola Vucevic of the Orlando Magic had 18 points and seven rebounds for Montenegro, while Yuta Watanabe of the Memphis Grizzlies went off for 34 points and nine rebounds.

New Zealand won Group O at 3-2 with a wild 102-101 win over Turkey (2-3). Isaac Fotu put the Tall Blacks ahead on a hook shot with 30 seconds left and Cedi Osman‘s pull-up jumper was off the mark.

Fotu had 17 points, as did Rob Loe, for New Zealand. Osman, the Cleveland Cavaliers‘ young forward, scored 32 points and had three steals, while Melih Mahmutoglu added 27 points as Turkey held Ersan Ilyasova of the Milwaukee Bucks and Furkan Korkmaz of the Philadelphia 76ers out of the finale.

In Group P, Jordan (1-4) got a victory with a 79-77 triumph over Senegal (0-5). The Senegalese came from seven down to get to within two in the late going, but Dar Tucker — who scored 34 points with 11 rebounds for Jordan — iced it with two late free throws.

Youssoupha Ndoye led Senegal with 22 points, 11 rebounds and three blocked shots.

Germany (3-2) won the group, beating Canada (2-3) by an 82-76 count. The teams were tied entering the fourth quarter, but Germany opened the final 10 minutes with seven straight points and never trailed in the period.

Dennis Schroder of the Oklahoma City Thunder had 21 points, 10 rebounds and nine assists — just missing the first-ever FIBA World Cup triple-double — while Maxi Kleber of the Dallas Mavericks added 20 points.

Kyle Wiltjer led Canada with 18 points, with Orlando’s Khem Birch finishing with 15 points, nine rebounds and three steals.