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Manila Bulletin devider Sports devider Basketball devider Italy red-hot heading into Basketball World Cup 2023 battles vs. Gilas Pilipinas, Angola, Dominican Republic

Italy red-hot heading into Basketball World Cup 2023 battles vs. Gilas Pilipinas, Angola, Dominican Republic

Published Aug 24, 2023 10:33 am

At A Glance

  • The best way to gauge the performance of teams before the start of the FIBA Basketball World Cup 2023 is how they played in their preparation games. Based on these results, the top team in Group A might be too hot to handle for the rest.

The best way to gauge the performance of teams before the start of the FIBA Basketball World Cup 2023 is how they played in their preparation games. Based on these results, the top team in Group A might be too hot to handle for the rest.

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Gilas Pilipinas and Mexico Men's basketball team. (SBP)


Italy, currently ranked 10th in the world in men’s FIBA competitions, swept all of their seven tune-up games against fellow World Cup-bound teams, as they’re looking like legitimate podium threats this time around.


Their campaign started with a 90-89 win against Turkey in an overtime thriller. They picked apart China, 79-61, before another escape act against Serbia, 89-88, where the Italians came back from 17 points down.


Italian small forward Simone Fontecchio of the Utah Jazz in the NBA was the primary weapon of the squad as they also defeated Greece, Puerto Rico, Brazil, and New Zealand for a perfect 7-0 tally.


The Dominican Republic did not hit the ground running, as they suffered losses to Puerto Rico and Latvia, but rebounded with a huge 94-88 overtime win, led by Karl-Anthony Towns, against a loaded Canadian squad.


The sweet-shooting big led his team again with 20 points in their next game, but they fell short versus Spain, 86-77. 

Angola, on the other hand, played in Spain, Jordan, and Japan. They started their campaign with a win against Venezuela, 66-61, but dropped a close one to Mexico, 78-76.


The Angolans rebounded with a win against Jordan but suffered back-to-back losses to Portugal and Japan to end their preparations.


The Philippines started playing preparation games very early, but not against World Cup opposition.


They played youth and club teams in Estonia and Lithuania before picking up a 3-1 tally against Senegal and Iran’s secondary team in China.

The real work happened at home for Gilas Pilipinas as they defeated Cote d’Ivoire, 85-62, before bowing to Montenegro, 102-87, and Mexico, 84-77.


Group A action starts on August 25 at the Philippine Arena, with Italy taking on Angola at 4 p.m. This will be a followed by a musical celebration with Sarah Geronimo, The Dawn, and Ben & Ben before the Philippines opens its campaign versus the Dominican Republic at 8 p.m.

Related Tags

2023 FIBA World Cup
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