Italy vs Slovenia Prediction & Betting Tips - Basketball World Cup

Prediction published on 08/09/2023, 15:32  by Joseph King | Modified on 08/09/2023 at 15:34 in Basketball World Cup Predictions

Italy and Slovenia wrap up their 2023 FIBA World Cup campaigns when they face off in this final Classification stage fixture. FIBA uses these games to determine qualification for the 2024 Olympics. The winner of this contest will finish seventh while the loser will end the tournament in eighth-place.

Italy were bounced out of the tournament following a 100-63 blowout loss to the heavily favored United States in the quarter-final. The Italians were unable to bounce back in the following Classification stage match as they lost 87-82 to an overachieving Latvia team. They’ll hope to avoid ending the tournament on a three game losing streak, something that hasn’t happened since August of 2022. Italy progressed through the two group stages thanks to a strong defense. However, they’ve failed to keep up when coming up against more high-powered opponents. Italy’s offense is putting up only 78.4 points per game in this tournament, ranking 23rd out of the 32 competing nations.

The lack of offensive spark could wind up costing Italy here as they come up against the best player in the tournament in Luka Doncic. The Dallas Mavericks star is leading the tournament in scoring for Slovenia at 26.7 points per game. Doncic put up a 29 point performance in his last outing, although it wasn’t enough to propel Slovenia to the victory. Overall, this World Cup will likely be viewed as a failure by fans of Slovenia who will have harbored aspirations of making it to at least the semi-finals. The team were knocked out in the quarters by Canada 100-89 and would then go on to lose the Classification stage game 100-84 to Lithuania. The results mean that Slovenia have now lost three consecutive games for the first time since 2018.