FIBA World Cup second round betting predictions – Day 7

The second round of the 2019 FIBA Basketball World Cup begins with four games on Friday, featuring eight of the 16 teams still in the hunt for the title.

There are also four games on the schedule in the classification round, where the teams that did not advance from the initial group stage will battle for ranking order from 17th through 32nd place.

Second round games

Poland vs Russia (-2) O/U 152.5
Serbia (-32) vs Puerto Rico (160.5)
Argentina (-12) vs Venezuela O/U 160.5
Spain (-6.5) vs Italy (154.5)

Classification round games

Nigeria (-16) vs Ivory Coast (157.5)
Angola vs Iran (-5) O/U 152.5
China (-8.5) vs Korea O/U 148.5
Tunisia (-8.5) vs Philippines 158.5

Let’s look at the best bets and the latest odds for the second round of the 2019 FIBA World Cup.

Poland vs Russia (-2) O/U 152.5

Poland won Group A winning all three games with two wins by double digits. They played solid defense in those three games holding opponents to an average of 69.3 ppg. Mateusz Ponitka has led the team in the tournament in both ppg (17.3 ppg) and rebounds (6 rpg).

Russia played in a tougher group than Poland going 2-1 beating Nigeria when they were the underdog and losing to a tough Argentina squad, who won the group, by eight points. They have a better frontcourt than Poland and the power forward duo of Nikita Zubkov and Andrey Vorontsevich have each averaged a double-double in the tournament.

Russia will be too much inside for Poland to handle and they will win this game and cover the spread.

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Serbia (-32) vs Puerto Rico (160.5)

Serbia is the massive favorite in this second round game and with good reason. Their closest game in group play was a 15-point win over Italy and Nikola Jokic and Bogdan Bogdanovic, who have averaged 24 ppg in the tournament, have been monsters and the team has a killer frontcourt.

Puerto Rico is a scrappy team and that was shown in their comeback win over Iran in their first group game when they were down by 17 points in the fourth quarter.

Serbia will win this game and win it pretty easily, but Puerto Rico only lost to Spain by 10 points and they will cover the spread in this game.

Argentina (-12) vs Venezuela O/U 160.5

Argentina won all of their Group B games and their solid balance was shown, as in the three games they had three different high scorers. They held two of their opponents in group games to under 70 points and in their first two games of the World Cup scored 95 points and 94 points respectively. Veteran and the second all-time leading scorer in the World Cup Luis Scola has led the team averaging 17 ppg and 9 rpg.

Venezuela came in second place in Group A, which may have been the weakest group in the tournament. They do not have the talent of Argentina and have to play great defense and have balanced scoring to have any chance to win.

Venezuela may keep it close for a while, but Argentina has much more talent up and down the roster and they will win and cover in this game.

Spain (-6.5) vs Italy (154.5)

Spain won Group Group C winning two of their three games by double figures. The team is led by Ricky Rubio and Marc Gasol, who has been the leading scorer in the last two games, and this duo is averaging 28 ppg in the tournament.

Italy won their first two games in Group D in blowouts but lost by 15 points to the powerful Serbian team in the game deciding first place in the group. Danilo Gallinari was big in the loss going for 26 points and shot 61.5% from the field, but as a team the Italians only shot 43.1%.

Spain’s balance will show in this game and they will play solid defense as well and while this will be a pretty close game they will still win and cover.