Shenzhen (China) (AFP)
Serbia continues to frenzy the counters at the World Basketball Championship in China where she smashed the Philippines 126 to 67, Monday in Foshan.
For their entry in the running, the Serbs had crushed Angola, 105 to 59. Impressive even if their opponents were two small nations basketball and if the passage of the tournament of 24 to 32 teams has only increased the gaps.
The vice Olympic, world and European champions will pass their first test on Wednesday against Italy, who dominated the Angolans 92 to 61, with 17 points from Marco Belinelli in this group D.
Sacha Djordjevic turned his squad but his stars did not need a lot of time on the floor to leave big stats: 20 points in 15 minutes for the interior of Sacramento Nemanja Bjelica or 11 points, 7 rebounds and 7 assists for the Denver Nikola Jokic All Star pivot in 18 minutes.
Another big favorite for the final squares in this least dense part of the table, Spain also won their second win against Puerto Rico 73 to 63. They made the difference in the third quarter (21-10 ) after being taken from one point to the break.
The recent NBA champion Marc Gasol (Toronto), leader of the team in the absence of his older brother Pau, injured, finished top scorer (19 points) ahead of the future Phoenix leader Ricky Rubio (17 points).
In Wuhan (Group B), Luis Scola became the second-leading scorer in world history during Argentina's victory over Nigeria 94-81. With 23 points, the 2004 Olympic champion raised his total to 611. See you soon 40, he will not exceed the legendary Brazilian Oscar Schmidt (906).
In the group A, the least raised, in Beijing, China suffered its first defeat against Poland. The organizing country will have to beat Venezuela on Wednesday to go to the second round. Mateusz Ponitka scored 25 points for Poland and American AJ Slaughter, who played this season in Villeurbanne, 22 points.
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