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FIBA World Cup 2014: Rudy Gobert's France vs Raul Neto's Brazil, and Ante Tomic, Dante Exum, Brock Motum and others! Day one Thread

"It has begun." -Shang Tsung,

Brad Rempel-USA TODAY Sports

The World Cup has begun. The players are ready, are you?

We have a few games of interest:

Date Time Game Jazz players
1 Aug 30 4:30 AM MT Group B Croatia vs Philippines Ante Tomic
2 Aug 30 8:30 AM MT Group B Puerto Rico vs Argentina Carlos Arroyo
3 Aug 30 9:30 AM MT Group D Australia vs Slovenia Dante Exum Brock Motum
4 Aug 30 10:00 AM MT Group A France vs Brazil Rudy Gobert Raul Neto
5 Aug 30 1:30 PM MT Group C United States vs Finland Erik Murphy

Crazy. Croatia is up by 2 with seconds left in overtime. I should get this post up asap.

[EDIT]: Croatia wins 81-78

1409080685litva_tomic_andric_medium

via dubrovacki.hr

Close game ends with a last second missed shot by Philippines who were leading at critical points of the fourth quarter. Ante Tomic played 25:19 and finished with 8 points (3/4 FG, 2/2 FT), 11 rebounds, 4 assists, and 1 steal. Honestly, this game shouldn't have been close with Ante Tomic, Bogdan Bogdanovic, Dario Saric, and others going up against Andray Blatche and a bunch of guys you had never heard about before. Blatche beasted inside and out and finished with 28 points (10/24 FG, 3/4 3PT, 5/7 FT), 12 rebounds, and 1 steal. He also had 7 turn overs. But he was precisely the right tool to expose Croatia's defensive troubles. In the big picture this almost loss could be the thing that gets Croatia to take this seriously.