FIBA World Cup 2023: Dates, teams, schedule, and more

The 2023 FIBA World Cup is right around the corner, and teams are beginning to play exhibition matches to warm up. Here’s everything you need to know.

The 2023 FIBA World Cup will officially begin on Friday, Aug. 25. The first two games will be between Lauri Markkanen’s Finland squad and Josh Giddey’s Australia. Italy and Angola will also face off at the same time. The teams in this year’s field are loaded with NBA players and there will be plenty of familiar faces even if you don’t normally watch international basketball.

For the first time in the tournament’s history, games will be hosted in multiple nations — the Philippines, Japan, and Indonesia.

And, yes, the start times are suited to the host nations. This means many of these games will start between 3:30 a.m. and 9 a.m. ET. The tournament’s opening games, for example, tip-off at 4 a.m. ET.

There are a total of 32 teams in the tournament, split into eight four teams groups to start the tournament.

2023 FIBA World Cup Groups:

Group A: Angola, Dominican Republic, Philippines, and Italy

Group B: South Sudan, Serbia, China, and Puerto Rico

Group C: United States, Jordan, Greece, and New Zealand

Group D: Egypt, Mexico, Montenegro, and Lithuania

Group E: Germany, Finland, Australia, and Japan

Group F: Slovenia, Cape Verde, Georgia, and Venezuela

Group G: Iran, Spain, Ivory Coast, and Brazil

Group H: Canada, Latvia, Lebanon, and France

Teams will play each other once each in the group stage, and this first phase of play will end on Aug. 30. The United States will play on Aug. 26, 28, and 30.

The top two teams from each group will then advance into a winners bracket and form four, four-team groups. The winners of groups A and B will merge into one group. Then C and D, and so on.

The same thing will happen with the bottom two teams in each group, forming a losers bracket. This phase of the tournament will take place on Sept. 1 and Sept. 3.

The top two teams from each of these four groups will then advance to the quarterfinals, which will take place on Sept. 5 and 6.

The semifinals will take place on Sept. 8, and the final will take place on Sept. 10 in the Philippines.

The United States is still the betting favorite at -105, with Canada second at +400. Australia and Slovenia are next at +900. France closes out the top 5 at +1000.