Home FIBA FIBA World Cup 2019 Five takes from the opening games of the FIBA Basketball World Cup

Five takes from the opening games of the FIBA Basketball World Cup

Photo: Twitter/Australia Basketball

The competition started on a fine tune, with the favorites winning easily in their first games in the FIBA Basketball World Cup.

Apparently, there is big “gap” between the strong and the lesser teams of the tournament, but they were some remarkable moments. 

1. Scoring galore

Serbia, Italy, Spain, Australia, Brazil and Lithuania scored over 100 points in their first game in the tournament.

Obviously, the high scoring games showed a blueprint of what will see in the next few days of the competition. 

Although they did it against lesser opponents (especially Serbia, Italy, Lithuania and Spain), one thing is certain, the up tempo game will prevail once more. 

2. Puerto Rico returned fron the “dead” 

Puerto Rico was ready to lose a game of great importance against Iran, but Huertas and his teamates didn’t give up.

Eddie Casiano’s team returned from an 11-point deficit in the closing minutes and won the game (83-81).

Javier Mojica nailed the winning shot, after a last minute three-point barrage from David Huertas, who finished the contest with 32 points. 

Iran v Puerto Rico - Highlights - FIBA Basketball World Cup 2019

3. The Australian “machine”

Australia NT made a glorious start against Canada with Andej Lemainis’ team ready to do some “damage” in this FIBA World Cup. 

The “Boomers” scored 108 points on 70% FG% and 41% from the three-point line, with Matthew Dellavedova scoring 24 points on 6-10 from distance in the blowout win against Canada.

Matthew Dellavedova | Canada v Australia | TCL Player of the Game

4.The  Al-Dwairi “show”

Ahmad Hekmat Al-Dwairi or as we know him in Europe, Ahmed Duverioglu, had a really good performance against the Domenican Republic national team in the opening game of the Jordanian national team.

Namely, he scored 34 points on 77% in FG%, while grabbing 9 rebounds and having the best efficiency rating (37.0) of the tournament so far, which was not enough for his team in order to experience the first win of its history in the FIBA World Cup.

Al Dwairi goes for 34 POINTS in Jordan's loss!

5.Age is nothing but a number

Brazil is the most experienced group of the tournament, having an average age of 29.6 years old, but against New Zealand they didn’t have any problem running the floor and scoring 102 points.

Leandrinio Barbosa,37, scored 22 points and Alex Garcia,39, was vital in the crucial third quarter(12 points), in which Aleksandar Petrović’s team made a decisive run in order to achieve their first win in the FIBA Basketball World Cup 2019.

New Zealand v Brazil - Highlights - FIBA Basketball World Cup 2019

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