Greece vs Italy Basketball Preview: Prediction, rosters and more for FIBA World Cup 2023 tune-up

Greece and Italy, two teams that are deep into their preparation for the 2023 FIBA World Cup will battle in a tune-up match. The game on Aug. 10 will be at the Olympic Athletic Center of Athens “Spiros Louis” in Athens, Greece.

The Greeks lost in front of their own fans two days ago to a Serbian team that didn’t have Nikola Jokic. They will be looking to bounce back with a win against their upcomingn opponents.

The Italians, on the other hand, are yet to lose in their last three pre-FIBA World Cup preparation games. They rallied from a 17-point deficit against the same Serbians that beat the Greeks. Simone Fontecchio, a small forward for the Utah Jazz in the NBA, led Italy to the thrilling win.

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Game Preview

The matchup between Greece and Italy will have several key players who will not see action. Two-time NBA MVP Giannis Antetokounmpo of the Milwaukee Bucks is recovering from a “cleanup procedure” on his knee.”

“The Greek Freak” could join his teammates when they go to Abu Dhabi to take on Germany and tournament favorite Team USA.

The Italians will not have the services of Danilo Gallinari who suffered an ACL injury in last year’s EuroBasket. There is also the controversial absence of Paolo Banchero who reversed his decision to play for Gianmarco Pozzecco to join Team USA.

Despite notable absences, the game promises to be an exciting one. Italy has shown that it’s quite serious in their preparations, particularly when they rallied against Serbia. It was only an exhibition game and they could have gone through the motions regardless of the score. Instead, they put on a dazzling show to win.

Greece won two games against Slovenia but it was obvious how they struggled when Luka Doncic was on the floor. The Dallas Mavericks superstar abused them whenever he had the chance.

The Greeks will count on naturalized guard Thomas Walkup, Ioannis Papapetrou, Giannis Larentzakis and Giannis Antetokounmpo’s brothers.

Against the Serbs, the Greeks also had all sorts of trouble containing Bogdan Bogdanovic. Italy, arguably, doesn’t have that kind of talent on the perimeter. Nico Mannion, who once played for the Golden State Warriors is a solid guard but is not the threat that Donci or even Bogdanovic is.

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Greece vs. Italy prediction

Italy may not have the big names in basketball but they’ve been quite superb when they had to. In last year’s EuroBasket, they beat Serbia despite Nikola Jokic’s monstrous effort. The Italians eventually lost to a stacked France in the quarters.

Pozzecco’s team will be tough to deal with. The Italians, however, will be playing the second game of a back-to-back and might take it a little easy to conserve themselves.

Greece, meanwhile, will be raring to bounce back from their loss to Serbia in Athens. The Greeks could add another W to their win column in their preparation for the 2023 FIBA World Cup.

Italy Lineup

• Marco Spissu
• Nico Mannion
• Stefano Tonut
• Nicolo Melli
• Simone Fontecchio
• Giampaolo Ricci
• Matteo Spagnolo
• Guglielmo Caruso
• Achille Polonara
• Mouhamet Diouf
• Riccardo Visconti
• Luca Severini
• Gabriele Procida
• Tomas Woldetensae
• Alessandro Pajola
• Luigi Datome

Greece Lineup

• Walkup Thomas-Ryan
• Agravanis Dimitrios
• Antetokounmpo Thanasis
• Kalaitzakis Panagiotis
• Larentzakis Giannoulis
• Lountzis Michalis
• Bochoridis Lefteris
• Moraitis Dimitrios
• Papagiannis Georgios
• Papapetrou Ioannis
• Rogkavopoulos Nikolaos
• Toliopoylos Basileios
• Chatzidakis Emmanoyil