The FIBA World Cup rolls on Saturday. It's the first time we'll get to see tournament favorite Team USA in action, but our Action Network analysts — Brandon Anderson, Joe Dellera and Bryan Fonseca are betting multiple games on Saturday's slate.
Read on for their FIBA World Cup best bets for Saturday below.
| Puerto Rico Odds | ||
|---|---|---|
| Spread | Total | Moneyline |
-2 -108 | 163 -108o / -112u | -135 |
| South Sudan Odds | ||
|---|---|---|
| Spread | Total | Moneyline |
+2 -112 | 163 -108o / -112u | +114 |
Bryan Fonseca: When Puerto Rico vs. South Sudan opened, Puerto Rico were around 7-point favorites. That has dropped to 1.5 and, at one point, 80% of bets were on South Sudan to win.
A lot of that could be the uncertainty surrounding this Puerto Rican team and the curiosity about South Sudan, who absolutely tore through World Cup qualifiers and are in their first ever Cup.
I think Puerto Rico wins this game, but South Sudan could make it interesting with their athleticism. That leads me to Tremont Waters, Puerto Rico’s best shot creator and one of the shiftiest guards in this tournament.
I suspect South Sudan will throw length at him and perhaps use some double teams. That will challenge him to use his quickness, which will lead to situations where Waters is forced to find open shooters.
I looked at over 15.5 points, but this feels like a smarter play. We’ll see what actually happens.
Pick: Tremont Waters Over 4.5 Assists (-115) DraftKings
| Greece Odds | ||
|---|---|---|
| Spread | Total | Moneyline |
-19 -108 | 159 -108o / -112u | -2800 |
| Jordan Odds | ||
|---|---|---|
| Spread | Total | Moneyline |
+19 -108 | 159 -108o / -112u | +1300 |
Joe Dellera: Some of you may remember Thomas Walkup from his days at Stephen F. Austin, where he was named the Southland Conference Player of the Year in consecutive seasons.
Walkup is known for his defensive prowess, but he’s also a capable distributor. He should be given ample opportunity to run this offense as he did in his last season with Olympiacos, when he averaged 5.6 assists per game.
In his two preliminary games, he tallied just one assist vs Team USA, but dished out 10 against Serbia. Now, he faces Jordan (not Michael) and has a great opportunity to rack up assists against one of the weakest World Cup Teams.
Pick: Thomas Walkup over 5.5 Assists (-125) DraftKings
| Brazil Odds | ||
|---|---|---|
| Spread | Total | Moneyline |
-18 -110 | 157 -108o / -112u | -3200 |
| Iran Odds | ||
|---|---|---|
| Spread | Total | Moneyline |
+18 -110 | 157 -108o / -112u | +1400 |
Brandon Anderson: This is a smaller play, but I’m taking a flier on Iran.
The Iranis have been surprisingly competitive in international games. They routinely contend for the title in Asian tournaments and have won at least one game at each of the past three World Cups.
Hamed Haddadi stuck in the NBA for a while as the first Iranian. He’s 36 now, but still good, and Arsalan Kazemi got drafted and also plays well for the international team.
Brazil has a long, proud basketball history, but this feels like a team in transition. The headline players include Cristiano Felicio, Bruno Caboclo, Raul Neto, Gui Santos and Marcelinho Huertas. It’s not a terrible team, but they’re certainly beatable.
This is probably the last international tournament for Haddadi and it’s one last chance for Iran to make a big splash. I’ll bet them to keep it competitive and sprinkle the +1400 moneyline on the long shot upset.
Pick: Iran +18 (-110) | Iran Moneyline (+1400) DraftKings
| New Zealand Odds | ||
|---|---|---|
| Spread | Total | Moneyline |
+36.5 -110 | 185.5 -108o / -112u | — |
| USA Odds | ||
|---|---|---|
| Spread | Total | Moneyline |
-36.5 -110 | 185.5 -108o / -112u | — |
Fonseca: It could get late early for New Zealand, which bodes well for Tyrese Haliburton.
Haliburton will play meaningful minutes throughout the World Cup, and this is a spot where Team USA — which is favored by a million — should score over 100 points. When they do that, I think it’ll often be a team-based performance with generally level scoring distribution throughout the rotation, not like in the NBA where one or two guys have 25 or more and several others fight for the rest.
It’s the nature of the tournament, and how USA constructs their teams.
Haliburton, I think, will benefit from that and be one of several guys to score at least 10 points against a respectable, yet overmatched, New Zealand team.
