Team USA faces Jordan — led by former Nets lottery pick Rondae Hollis-Jefferson, who has reshaped his look and game in the style of Kobe Bryant — in its final group stage game at the World Cup on Tuesday. The USA has already advanced to the next round.
Here is who advanced out of other groups on Monday night (the top two finishers in each of the eight groups move on to the next round).
Canada 101, Latvia 75
Canada continued an impressive sweep through the group stage with a 26-point win against Latvia. Canada has gone 3-0 with a +111 point differential in the group stage and has looked as impressive as anyone in the tournament.
Thunder All-NBA player Shai Gilgeous-Alexander led Canada with 27 points (on 10-of-17 shooting), plus six assists and rebounds. The Knicks’ RJ Barrett added 22.
Latvia (2-1) still advances to the next round of the World Cup. Andrejs Grazulis led Latvia with 16 points, and Davis Bertans added seven (his brother, Daris Bertans, missed the game due to injury).
Australia 109, Japan 89
Thunder guard Josh Giddey took over a must-win game for Australia with 26 points and 11 assists, leading his team to the victory and with that into the second round of the World Cup.
Xavier Cooks scored 24 for Australia, Josh Green had 15 and Patty Mills 11. Host Japan would have advanced with a win but this game was never really close. Joshua Hawkinson scored 33 for Japan, Yuta Watanabe added 24.
Dominican Republic 75, Angola 67
Despite Karl-Anthony Towns playing just 15 minutes due to foul trouble (he scored just eight points), the Dominican Republic came back from down three at the start of the fourth quarter to get the win. Andres Feliz scored 17 points and Victor Liz added 13 to lead the Dominican Republic.
At 3-0, the Dominican Republic wins Group A and advances to the next round of the tournament.
Italy 90, Philippines 83
With this win and Angola’s loss to the Dominican Republic, Italy advances to the next round of the FIBA World Cup with its 2-1 record.
This was a Utah Jazz showdown with Jordan Clarkson leading all scorers with 28 for the Philippines, but Jazz forward Simone Fontecchio scored 18 and got the win with Italy.
France 85, Lebanon 79
Rudy Gobert was out for already eliminated France, and don’t expect him to play in the upcoming classification games (eliminated teams have two more games to seed teams 17-32 in the tournament). None of that matters much to the French, who automatically qualify for the Paris Olympics as the hosts.
Guerschon Yabusele scored 18 points and Evan Fournier added 17 to get France the win, its first in this World Cup.
Germany 101, Finland 75
Germany got 15 points a piece from Dennis Schroder and Isaac Bonga to pick up the win and go 3-0 to sweep Group E. Finland finished a disappointing 0-3 and are eliminated. Olivier Nkamhoua led Finland with 14 points while Jazz forward Lauri Markkanen added 12.
Lithuania 91, Montenegro 71
Both teams were going through to the next round, this game was simply to see which side would win Group D and who came in second. Rokas Jokubaitis scored 19 to lead a balanced Lithuanian attack that saw the Pelican’s Jonas Valanciunas add 11 points and eight rebounds. Nikola Vucevic led Montenegro with 19 points.
Egypt 100, Mexico 72
Ehab Amin scored 22 to lead Egypt to its first victory in this World Cup. Mexico, led by Pako Cruz with 21 points, went winless in the tournament and will now have a long road to qualify for the Paris Olympics.
