Highlights: Greece vs USA Basketball World Cup (81-109)

In the third and final match of the group stage, the USA will face Jordan on Wednesday (30) at 4:40 am ET, while Greece plays the game of a lifetime against New Zealand a little later, at 9:40 am ET.

With the win, the USA lead group C of the Basketball World Cup with four points. Greece are in second place with three points.

Top scorer

Greece: Georgios Papagiannis, 17 points

USA: Austin Reaves, 13 points

Rebounds

Greece: Thanasis Antetokounmpo, 4

USA: Josh Hart, 11

Assist

Greece: Thomas Walkup, 7

USA: Austin Reaves, 6

Blocks

Greece: Nikos Rogkavopoulos and Thomas Walkup, with 2

USA: Jaren Jackson Jr and Austin Reaves, with 2

END OF GAME

Rogkavopoulos misses an attempt to turn 3, Cameron Johnson sets up the counter-attack, the ball reaches Hart, who passes to Kessler for the hook

USA team recovers from Antetokounmpo's beautiful dunk over Kessler to reach 101 points, with Haliburton, who leaves the USA 30 up

The match is starting to look balanced in the final stages. Greece had their best moment and scored 71, with Rogkavopoulos , against 90 from their opponents

Papapetrou grabs the defensive rebound and sets up Chatzidakis, who tries a jump shot but misses

Greece has a reaction in that time. With the trio of Papapetrou, Walkup and Bochoridis, they try to close the gap to 48-68

USA play very comfortably in the game, hardly put any pressure on the Greeks and take a 21-point lead

Break

Edwards makes 2 of 2 free throws in the last second

USA is dominant, scoring 14 points, including one three-pointer and four free throws

USA started the second quarter better. Gradually, the Greeks found their feet again and, with Moraitis, the gap narrowed to four

Austin Reaves hit two baskets in a row to put the USA ahead 23-19

The Greek national team kept up the pressure and didn't let their opponents take the lead, pulling to within 10-12

Austin Reaves makes a great move, gets rid of Ioannis Papapetrou and puts the USA five points clear

High ball

Same starting 🖐️ for Game Two

🔹 @theantedwards_
🔹 @jalenbrunson1
🔹 @B_Ingram13
🔹 @jarenjacksonjr
🔹 @mikal_bridges

📺 ESPN2/ESPN+
🇺🇸 #USABMNT #WinForUSA pic.twitter.com/Jm3vpa0mbg — USA Basketball (@usabasketball) August 28, 2023

Giannis Antetokounmpo is another NBA player who has not joined the Greek national team. According to the point guard, he said he wasn't "ready to compete at the level I need to be to participate"

Everyone knows my passion and love for my National Team has and never will change. Since the conclusion of my NBA season I have been pushing my body to the limits to be the player I need to be to help our team achieve the goals we set.
But after months of work and multiple… pic.twitter.com/1uhTlfNZVE

— Giannis Antetokounmpo (@Giannis_An34) August 11, 2023

The United States came to the World Cup without players like Lebron James, Stephen Curry, Kevin Durant, Jayson Tatum and other big names in American basketball. The decision not to participate came from the athletes themselves, who decided to take advantage of the time off from the NBA season to recover

Activating!

🇺🇸 #USABMNT vs 🇬🇷 Greece

8:40 PM PHST/8:40 AM ET
📍 Mall of Asia Arena

📺 ESPN2/ESPN+#WinForUSA pic.twitter.com/7Y9Ma9aj3c — USA Basketball (@usabasketball) August 28, 2023

Austin Reaves: "Obviously it wasn't the start we wanted. We'll go back and watch the movie and learn from that, but our intensity and physicality after the first five minutes was much better. But like I said, we'll learn from this and move on to Greece."

Steve Kerr: "Really good game for us to experience. New Zealand were great. They came out and were very physical straight away and then took it to us and we need to feel that because that's how these games will be. But I loved the way we responded and felt that in 40 minutes we can wear teams down. You look at the roster, we have some young guys, but we have guys who can play and who have proven that in the NBA and in the NBA playoffs. They're fearless. I love watching them play and it's been an absolute joy to coach them just because of their willingness to play together, to be unselfish and to compete."

Tyrese Haliburton, Jalen Brunson, Mikal Bridges, Anthony Edwards, J. Jackson Jr., Brandon Ingram, Walker Kessler, Austin Reaves, Cameron Johnson, Bobby Portis, Paolo Banchero, Josh Hart.

Dimitris Itoudis: "If I had known what we were going to do, I would have stayed in Greece. We're in a good mood, we've got a good recovery, we've put some elements into our game plan. The USA are one of the favorites, they're playing very well, yesterday was a very tough game against New Zealand. The start made the Americans realize that if you take it easy in every game, you'll pay for it. New Zealand don't let anything drop, they're all focused on that. The USA had to do their best to win. The USA is a very athletic team that can run and score on the primary or secondary blitz. 

As the tournament progresses, some things will be corrected in our team. That was the logic of the strong friendlies we played, all these teams will go far in the tournament, I believe. I don't know if testing players in other positions is called alchemy, but this is our line-up. Obviously, you can't stretch Moraitis to become a 4-man. We saw what worked and what was most effective. We'll try to be successful in this game as well, but also thinking about the next one against New Zealand. had Kerr respect what he does and basketball. Just as I used to talk like that about Jordan, Kerr also talks about Greece. If you don't respect your opponent and basketball, they won't respect you either".

Nikos Rogavopoulos: "We watched the USA-New Zealand game. We saw that at the start they made the Americans make mistakes and then with the USA's pace the game ended relatively easily. The USA are a very strong team, one of the favorites at the World Cup, but we're going to give it our best shot and we believe we'll put up a good fight. We'll go in and give it our all without fear. We feel good about each other, we're close and we love being in the national team, that's very important. When we play we can't say I'm going to keep my strength up for the next game. You go in and give it your all. Everyone thinks about how to win the game, nothing else. I feel like we're playing Jordan, it's a game where anything can happen. And Jordan made it difficult for New Zealand in the USA.

Kostas Papanikolaou, Thanasis Antetokounmpo, Giannoulis Larentzakis, Ioannis Papapetrou, Georgios Papagiannis, Michalis Lountzis, Dinos Mitoglou, Nikos Rogkavopoulos, Thomas Walkup, Lefteris Bochoridis, Dimitris Moraitis, Monolis Chatzidakis.

The United States beat New Zealand 99-72. Shooting guard Paolo Banchero was the standout performer in the match.

Greece beat Jordan 92-71, with Nikos Rogkavopoulos in the spotlight and Giannoulis Larentzakis as the Greek team's leading scorer.

Group A: Angola, Dominican Republic, Philippines and Italy

Group B: South Sudan, Serbia, People's Republic of China and Puerto Rico

Group C: United States, Jordan, Greece and New Zealand

Group D: Egypt, Mexico, Montenegro and Lithuania

Group E: Germany, Finland, Australia and Japan

Group F: Slovenia, Cape Verde, Georgia and Venezuela

Group G: Brazil, Islamic Republic of Iran, Spain and Ivory Coast

Group H: Canada, Latvia, France and Lebanon.

The tournament's biggest winners: United States (5), Brazil (2), Argentina (1), Spain (2) and the former Yugoslavia (5) and Soviet Union (3).

The Basketball World Cup, also known as the FIBA Basketball World Cup, is an international men's basketball tournament organized by the International Basketball Federation (FIBA). Like the Football World Cup, the Basketball World Cup takes place every four years and brings together the best national basketball teams from around the world.

The first Basketball World Cup was held in 1950, and since then it has been one of the most prestigious events in the world of international basketball. Teams such as the United States, the Soviet Union (now Russia), Spain, Australia and Yugoslavia (now independent nations) have featured prominently in the competition over the years.

The United States has been remarkably successful in the Basketball World Cup, winning several titles over the years. However, the popularity and participation of NBA players in the Summer Olympics often attracts more attention than the Basketball World Cup.

The current edition, in 2023, will have three venues: Indonesia, Japan and the Philippines. The current edition has 32 teams, divided into eight groups of four. Two teams qualify for the next round and so the round of 16 begins, just like the soccer World Cup.

Greece vs USA this Monday (29), at 8:40 am ET, for the Basketball World Cup. The match is valid for the 2th round of the competition.

My name is Izabelle França and I’ll be your host for this game. Follow pregame information on  VAVEL USA.