Serbia grabs last spot in Basketball World Cup

The Basketball World Cup field is now filled, with Serbia grabbing the last spot in this summer’s 32-team tournament.

Serbia clinched the berth with a 101-83 win over Great Britain on Monday. The win means two-time reigning NBA MVP Nikola Jokic of the Denver Nuggets — if he is so inclined — will have the chance to play for a World Cup this summer, when the tournament is held in the Philippines, Japan and Indonesia.

Serbia’s win in Belgrade eliminated Belgium, the last team that still had a chance to qualify.

Most teams at the World Cup will use NBA players when they can. The U.S. used G League and internationally based players almost exclusively in its qualifying games, but it will go to a roster of NBA players for the tournament this summer.

Spain is the defending champion. The U.S. finished seventh at the last World Cup in 2019.

THE FIELD

Serbia qualifying means 10 of the top 11 teams in the world rankings reached the World Cup. The exception was No. 4 Argentina, the silver medalist in 2019.

No. 1 Spain, No. 2 United States, No. 3 Australia, No. 5 France, No. 6 Serbia, No. 7 Slovenia, No. 8 Lithuania, No. 9 Greece, No. 10 Italy and No. 11 Germany qualified. There will be two first-round groups that include two of those teams. And none of the four teams involved in that scenario will be thrilled when they see that draw.

The lowest-ranked teams in the field are four of the five African qualifiers: No. 43 Ivory Coast, No. 55 Egypt, No. 63 South Sudan and No. 66 Cape Verde.

HELLO

Cape Verde, South Sudan, Georgia and Latvia are in the tournament for the first time.

THEY’RE BACK

Twenty-three teams that were in the 2019 World Cup have qualified for this year’s event, a list led by the U.S. and Brazil — the only nations to appear in all 19 editions of the tournament.

Spain has been to each of the past 11 World Cups. Puerto Rico has been to the past 10.

The other 19 nations back from 2019: Angola, New Zealand, France, Greece, Australia, Lithuania, Serbia, Iran, Dominican Republic, Philippines, Montenegro, Jordan, Venezuela, Japan, Ivory Coast, Germany, China, Italy and Canada.

Finland, Slovenia, Egypt, and Mexico are back in the field after last reaching the World Cup in 2014. Lebanon, whose most recent appearance was in 2010, is back as well.

THEY’RE NOT BACK

These nine nations appeared in the 2019 tournament but won’t be back this summer: Argentina, South Korea, Turkey, Senegal, Nigeria, Tunisia, Poland, the Czech Republic and Russia.

FIBA banned Russia’s teams and officials from its competitions last year in response to that country’s invasion of Ukraine.

THE TOURNAMENT

The group phase — eight groups of four teams — runs Aug. 25-30. The second round is Aug. 31-Sept. 4.

Quarterfinal games will be played Sept. 5-6. The semifinals are Sept. 8, and the championship and third-place game in Manila are Sept. 10.

That’s about two weeks before NBA training camps are scheduled to open, barring a lockout this summer.

THE DRAW

Each nation will be assigned to a four-team opening round group April 29. The top two teams from each of those groups will make the second round, and eventually eight teams will make it to the quarterfinals.

The U.S. will play its group stage games in the Philippines, and will remain there for the entirety of its stay in the tournament — as will the Philippines.

Slovenia and Japan will play group stage games in Okinawa, Japan. Canada will play its group stage games in Jakarta, Indonesia.

All teams will find out their opponents, and all the other teams that don’t already know their group stage destinations, at the April 29 draw.