Everything Timberwolves fans should know about FIBA World Cup second round
With every FIBA World Cup group stage game in the books, we finally have some new opponents set for the Minnesota Timberwolves players that are in action. Those that were eliminated will have additional games as well.
First, let’s give some praise to Anthony Edwards, who had a great performance in the United States’ game against Jordan, scoring a very efficient 18 points in just 12 minutes of playing time. As for final stat lines, Edwards lead Team USA with 22 points, eight rebounds and four assists. Kyle Anderson had nine points and three rebounds in his final group stage game for China against Puerto Rico.
Looking ahead to the second round of the World Cup:
Now, onto the next round of games, where we’ll begin tomorrow with the seeding for the 17th through 32nd positions of the tournament, with those results having serious implications for the 2024 Olympic Tournament. In Paris, the top two teams from the Americas and from Europe get automatically qualified, as well as the top teams from Africa, Asia and Oceania.
Up first, Kyle Anderson and the Chinese national team will face Angola, featuring Atlanta Hawks’ big man Bruno Fernando. After that, in the final game of the day, the already qualified hosts of the Olympics, France (featuring Rudy Gobert), will matchup against Iran. The second set of games featuring Timberwolves players will be on September 2, with China facing off against the Philippines and France going against the Ivory Coast.
As for the more important and relevant games of the FIBA World Cup, the second round will begin on the September 1, with Karl-Anthony Towns and the Dominican Republic going head-to-head against Puerto Rico. Matteo Spagnolo’s Italian squad has been drawn to play the very strong Serbian team, in what will be a very tough matchup, so Wolves fans will want to tune in to watch.
Minnesota Timberwolves players will take part in some exciting matchups
Anthony Edwards and Team USA will match up against Nikola Vučević and his Montenegro team, who had a very good showing in their two wins. They were a bit behind on the pace against Lithuania, so it should also be quite a fun game to watch.
Last but not least, Nickeil Alexander-Walker and Canada will play Brazil on the final game of the day, in what should be a win for the Canadians. However, Brazil has been very solid, losing only against Spain while having Raul Neto injured and out for the rest of the tournament.
The second games of the second round will include interesting matchups like KAT and the DR against Serbia, Spagnolo and Italy against Puerto Rico, Edwards and USA against Lithuania and finally NAW and Canada against Spain.
All of these second round matchups are must watch, with each game having a serious impact on whether or not the teams progress through to the quarterfinals. Teams must be placed among the top two teams in this new formed group (group A+B, group C+D, group E+F and group G+H) in order to qualify to the next round. This second round of games will begin September 3.
