FRANCE is going to have to make some serious history to win this Fiba Basketball World Cup.
One of the pre-tournament favorites, France lost its opener to Canada, 95-65 — a 30-point margin that few saw coming. No team has ever won the World Cup after losing a game by double figures.
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Brazil lost to the Soviet Union by nine in a game early in the 1959 tournament before going on to win the title. Yugoslavia lost to the USSR by 15 points in its final game of the 1970 tournament — but had already clinched the gold medal, so that outcome was meaningless.
The last team to lose any game in the World Cup and win the gold was the former Yugoslavia in 2002; that team went 7-2 in that tournament, then called the FIBA world championship. Both its losses that year were by exactly two points.
PRESSURE IS ON
THE Basketball World Cup started with a record crowd in Manila, Canada's 30-point stunner of a win over France and now has the US set to make its debut in the tournament on Saturday.
It won't take long for the pressure to get turned up on some teams, especially those who fall in their first games of the World Cup.
Teams play only three games in the opening group stage. Every team that finished 2-1 or better in the group stage four years ago at the World Cup in China reached the second round; every team that finished 1-2 or worse did not advance.
US HEAVY FAVORITE
The US is the overwhelming favorite to win the World Cup, according to FanDuel Sportsbook, with the Americans' odds listed at minus-135 (meaning a $135 wager on the Americans would return $235, if they won). Canada's win over France vaulted it into the second spot on the odds sheet at plus-550 (meaning a $100 wager would return $550). Australia is the third choice at plus-700, followed by Serbia (plus-1,300), Spain (plus-1,400), France (plus-2,100) and Slovenia (plus-2,400).
FEMALE REFEREES
Blanca Burns became the answer to a trivia question on Friday, becoming the first woman to officiate a game in the Basketball World Cup.
Technically, it was only by a couple hours.
All three female referees picked by FIBA for this tournament — all of them from the US — worked games Friday on Day 1. Burns had the Australia-Finland game in Okinawa. Jenna Reneau worked the Latvia-Lebanon game in Jakarta (it started a bit after the Australia-Finland tilt) and Amy Bonner had the second game in Okinawa on Friday between Germany and Japan.
QUOTE OF THE DAY
"This is not the NBA. This is serious basketball." — Angola coach Pep Claros.
Now, that sounds like a knock on the best league in the world, but really, it wasn't. Points scored in the World Cup can figure into tiebreakers, and Claros was puzzled why his team didn't try to score in the final seconds of its loss to Italy — just in case a basket might be needed to break a tie when group play ends.
He was referring to the NBA practice of, in the final seconds of an already-decided game, teams usually just stop playing and let the clock expire.
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