In a highly patriotic coincidence, Team USA was off on this Labor Day Monday as they prepare for Tuesday’s match with New Zealand, the only Group C team without a win here in this FIBA World Cup.
Groups A and B played on Monday with the hosts separating themselves from the pack, one big upset, one huge Freakish dunk and an emerging dark horse for the all-tournament team.
Group A
Serbia (2-1) outscored Iran 25-13 in the decisive third quarter and defeated Iran (0-3) 83-70 in Granada. International forward Nemanja Bjelica led the Serbians with 18 points on 6-of-11 shooting and pulled down 10 rebounds. Bogdan Bogdanovic, Phoenix’s 27th pick in June’s draft, had 16 for the victors.
It was a pretty tough go for Iranian big man Hamed Haddadi in the NBA, but he was positively unstoppable in defeat on Monday. He scored a game-high 29 points on 10-of-12 shooting.
Both teams shot over 52 percent from the field, but the Serbs shot 6-of-13 from three and outscored Iran’s bench by 17.
France (2-1) took a 23-point halftime lead on Egypt (0-3) and never looked back in a 94-55 rout. No French player logged over 20 minutes on the court and got a team-high 12 points and seven rebounds from Joffrey Lauvergne, the 55th overall pick in 2013 whose rights are held by the Denver Nuggets.
For the French NBA’ers, Nicolas Batum hit four of his five shots and scored nine points in 15 minutes; Rudy Gobert had six points and six rebounds in 18 minutes; and Boris Diaw only played eight minutes and was rested for more competitive games. France shot 65.5 percent from the field to just 32.8 shooting for the overmatched Egyptians.
In the featured match of the day, the group’s two unbeaten teams squared off and the hosts from Spain (3-0) did not disappoint. The Spaniards led 30-14 after the first quarter and cruised to an 82-63 win over a very talented Brazilian side.
Two factors led to this Spanish victory: The 3-ball and the dominant play of Pau Gasol. Spain hit 11 of its 24 triple-tries and shot 50.8 percent from the field overall to just 40.6 for Brazil (2-1). Then Gasol not only scored a game-high 26 points on 11-of-15 shooting, including knocking down three of his five three-point attempts, and nine rebounds but also helped limit the battle-tested NBA duo of Nene and Tiago Splitter to a combined 13 points and nine boards on 4-of-14 shooting.
Spain won despite Marc Gasol taking only five shots, scoring eight points and a plus-27, Serge Ibaka scoring just five points and Ricky Rubio scoring two points and not making any field goals (he did have a game-high six assists). Jose Calderon only had five points himself.
But the strength of this Spanish squad lies not only in its talent but its superior depth. Former Portland guard Sergio Rodriguez had 12 points. Former Memphis guard Juan Carlos Navarro had 10. Ex-Blazers guard Rudy Fernandez had eight. Nine Spanish players logged at least 12 minutes and had meaningful contributions to the game, which is the real reason why this team is the largest threat to a Team USA victory in the World Cup.
Recent Golden State signee Leandro Barbosa led Brazil with 11 and Anderson Varejao had a solid showing, scoring 1o points on 5-of-8 from the field, but this game was about Spanish supremacy.
Group B
The major upset of the day came in Sevilla, where Minnesota TimberWolves big man Gorgui Dieng stole the show. Dieng played all 40 minutes and scored 27 points to lead Senegal (2-1) to a 77-75 victory over Croatia (2-1).
Dieng hit eight of his 14 shots and grabbed eight rebounds, but Senegal still trails Croatia in the group standings based on overall point differential.
Sixers first rounder Dario Saric and Nets forward Bojan Bogdanovic paced Croatia with 15 points apiece and Barcelona’s Ante Tomic scored 14. Croatia missed 19 of its 26 3-point tries in defeat.
Argentina (2-1) fended off a pesky Philippines (0-3) side 85-81 that was carried by free agent Andray Blatche’s 14 points and 15 rebounds.
Luis Scola led all scorers with 19 points and former Charlotte Bobcat Walter Hermann had 10. They had to offset bad shooting nights from Knicks guard Pablo Prigioni (2-of-9) and former Bull Andres Nocioni (2-0f-10).
Greece is riding high atop the group, advancing to 3-0 with a 90-79 win over winless Puerto Rico (0-3). Nikos Zisis led the Greeks with 19 points, but it was Giannis Antetokounmpo making waves with 15 points and one thunderous fast-break dunk. Memphis’ Nick Calathes scored 14 points for the victors.
Puerto Rico was led by former Knick Ronaldo Balkman’s 23 and J.J. Barea’s 21 point-point performance but Puerto Rico shot 38.7 percent from the field to Greece’s 53.1
Team USA will face New Zealand at 11:30 a.m. eastern on Tuesday, which you could watch on ESPN2.