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The winner takes the 2nd place, unless...

...Serbia wins by 1 point difference. In that case, the triangle Serbia, France and Brazil will happen, where Serbians and the French have the same point-difference, and total difference is taken. Serbia center Krstic said he's ready and expects to be playing today

Serbia secured the placement to top 16 by defeating Iran, but almost everyone in the camp said that their first goal is fulfilled.

- We're slowly getting our form, we can think about round of 16 and the quarterfinals now - Bogdan Bogdanovic, Serbian first scorer against the Asian champion with 16 points, said.

- We started badly, but fixed our defense in the second part, caught rhythm and finished the job.

The match got interesting after the 15-0 series at the beginning of the second part, everything was over in 3-4 minutes. The first halftime wasn't memorable, the Serbian defense was miserable, Haddadi did whatever he wanted in the paint. Memphis' ex player had 20 points by the break, but also 4 faults - important because Memi Becirovic didn't use him in the third period. That's when the Serbians got away. Alongside Bogdanovic, Nemanja Bjelica scored 18 and had 10 rebounds. One of the key reasons for the big series was Stefan Markovic's defense, he didn't give the Iranian point guard a chance. In the end, the Iranians had 5/25 three pointers, and 23 turnovers.

No need to review the match in detail, the only weird thing was Aleksandar Dordevic's rotation. Out of four centers, he basically played the match with Raduljica and Katic, Stimac got only a few minutes in the end, and the captain Nenad Krstic not even that. He didn't play for the second time in a row, he got seven minutes at the beginning of the game against Egypt.

- I definitely count on Krstic, there'll be more matches on this championship - was all the Serbian coach had to say about that, before commenting on today's rival:

- The Brazilians are great, it'll be really difficult against them, but the pressure will be smaller, less nervousness because we fulfilled our first goal. Besides, it's always a challenge to face rivals like Brazil or Spain.

Krstic claims he can play:

- I'm ready, I really don't know for how many minutes. As far as I'm concerned, I can play, I have normal practices and I'm working with the team. The coach said there was no need to play these two matches, and I hope I'll play against Brazil.

Was Krstic spared for the Brazilian centers? Is it all a little tactic? We can only speculate. If this was the last round, they'd calculate the game, even though Teodosic said that "there won't be calculations on our side, we always go for the win", but also added that "it would be best if we were second or fourth". In both cases they'd avoid Spain in the quarterfinals. They'd have to win some matches for the second place, and it's easy to be fourth, they lose today and tomorrow against Spain. Which seems very likely. 

They can get the second place with a few conditions. The first is to defeat Brazil with two or more points difference (because of the triangle against the French who lost to Brazil), and the second is that nobody surprises the Spaniards.

As for the Brazilian math, they'd secure their second place by winning today, of course, under the condition that Spain don't lose to anyone in the first round. No reason for them to calculate anything.

Serbia will face Brazil with the questionable Krstic, but also Raduljica who became their MVP here (15.7 field goal, 5r). He got kicked into the left wrist against the French, and then fell on that same wrist during a slam dunk against Iran.

- It's really bad, I fell directly on that hand, and the right one is painful, too, I don't know how to play - Raduljica complained after Iran, adding "we'll go through everything."

The Spaniards stopped Brazil's frontcourt game completely yesterday, so no need to point out how important it is that the Serbian centers do their job. The South Americans' backcourt is a bad part of the team, and the winner could be decided in the paint today.

- We know Serbia have a good team and good game, we'll have a tough match - Varejao said after they were defeated against the Fury.

They were losing 30-14 by the end of the first period, it seemed they had no idea how to deal with the Spanish offense that attacked them from all the positions, and they couldn't go through the Gasol brothers in the offense. They got better individually a little bit when Barbosa forced in the second, but there was no luck in that in the long run. Splitter was left with 6 points and 2/7 field goal, and even though they only lost 6 balls as a team, they were miserable in scoring (3/10 three pointers, 40% two pointers), which was a consequence of their offensive inertia on Spanish defense. The Serbians don't have defense like that, especially with Teodosic in the game, that's not doubtful and they'll play more easily against them. 

- In the first three games, the last periods were bad, and we have to work on that in the next match - Cleveland center said.

Coach Ruben Magnano thought the main reason for their defeat against Spain was Spanish rhythm they couldn't keep up with.

- I want to say clearly that we'll go on fighting for our goals and prove that FIBA were right to give us an invite.

Pau Gasol crushed his tall players, really, what was Magnano even supposed to do against a 215 cm tall man who scored 13 points in less than five minutes of the third period, scored three pointers from three different positions. It's Gasol's quality that Brazil couldn't suppress. We'll see how they react today. 

Serbian coach Dordevic brought four centers to Spain, with the clear intent on trying to resist Brazil and Spain's backcourt. He didn't use Krstic so far, but he's announced in rotation against Splitter, Nene and Vajerao. Raduljica is playing better than anyone expected, he's the first Serbian player here, and with him, they can match any of the mentioned Brazilians (except for maybe Nene who's faster and plays a bit away from the hoop). Besides Krstic and Raduljica, there are great defensive players like Stimac, and I doubt Katic will get minutes. As for the backcourt, Brazil have Huertas and Barbosa, but Barbosa is far from his real form, and the Serbians can match him with many options, from the defensively great Jovic (4 turnovers against France), to Markovic, Bogdanovic and Teodosic. Serbia lost against the French because the Italian referee was sloppy (he was eliminated from WC), while Brazil defeated the French in the tie. That's how I see this match, evened out, but I wouldn't be surprised by Serbia's win, because except for the defensive firmness, they don't have anything else that's much better than in Brazil.