2023 FIBA World Cup Preview: Who will win the gold medal?

Group J: Anthony Edwards, Jonas Valanciunas, Thanasis Antetokounmpo, and Nikola Vucevic will be trying to lead their countries to the quarterfinals

Teams: USA, Lithuania, Greece, Montenegro

Who do we expect to advance? USA and Lithuania.

Team USA still shouldn’t be challenged at this phase. Perhaps Lithuania can make things interesting for a half, but the talent gap is too large to see them succumbing to defeat. 

Montenegro will likely lose to Greece, and this will make Lithuania vs. Greece a winner-take-all affair. 

Greece will be prepared to make this game as ugly as possible. They’ll keep it in the half-court, crash the offensive glass, and give fouls when they need to. If Thomas Walkup or Nikos Rogkavopolous get hot they’ll make the game a guaranteed wire-to-wire affair.

Lithuania can match their size though with Valanciunas and Motiejunas, and they are more skilled on the wings and have guards who are better threats in the pick-and-roll. As long as they are healthy, don’t go ice cold from three, and avoid significant foul trouble they should be able to tough this one out.