Puerto Rico vs Spain Prediction & Betting Tips - Basketball World Cup

Prediction published on 01/09/2019, 09:22  by Steve Ashfield | Modified on 01/09/2019 at 10:22 in Basketball World Cup Predictions

Spain are ranked second in the world and face Puerto Rico who are 16th in the world. The Spanish side won bronze medals at the 2016 Summer Olympics and 2017 EuroBasket tournaments. They won the latter in 2015 and in the last World Cup held the previous year finished fifth. Strong credentials indeed and they showed their good current form when beating Tunisia 101-62 in their opening match. The Spaniards made a slow start though and were 17-16 down after the first quarter of that match. That lead was extended to ten points during the second quarter but Spain rallied to take a three-point lead at half time. They dominated the second half winning the third quarter 30-8 and ran out winners by 39 points. Ricky Rubio was in top form scoring 17 points and making nine assists too.

Puerto Rico also had to come from behind to get a win in their opening group fixture. They got off to a poor start losing the first quarter to Iran by 14 points. That deficit was increased to 18 by half-time but this really was a game of two halves. Puerto Rico fought back in the third quarter, winning it by four points but that still left a 14 point deficit with just the final quarter remaining. With three minutes left they still trailed by 10 but a fantastic performance by David Huertas changed the game and the Puerto Rico side squeezed home by two points. He scored three triple-points to get them ahead. It took a score by Javier Molica seven seconds from time to get them the win. This is going to be a lot tougher and the tip here is for Spain to get the win on a handicap of 19.5 points.