FIBA World Cup 2014 Finals Predictions: USA vs Spain

Will we see a USA-Spain faceoff for the FIBA World Cup finals? This is inevitable, many camps believe.

USA's coach Mike Krzyzewski would dodge questions pointing to that scenario on Sept. 14, with both teams needing two more wins before they book a Madrid meeting and with a strong Brazil still playing, but many fans are just so sure, USA Today said.

It is the coach's personal policy to never discuss another team unless it's the next opponent, the report explained. And it would seem that his team believes the policy, too:

"We hear [the Spain talk]," Team USA guard Stephen Curry said, as quoted by the report, "but we don't pay any attention to it... We have to do our job to get there and they do as well... [Slovenia is] a very capable team, and if we don't come to play, they can beat us. It's not going to be a walk in the park."

The Slovenia match is on Tuesday. Even so, there's no stopping the claims because Spain and USA have been performing strongly. Sports Illustrated earlier said that both have gone through the 24-team stage without major upsets, recording 5-0 with Greece--and they are both still undefeated.

There were basically no surprises at the Cup as a whole thus far, the report added. Only No. 24 Mexico and No. 41 Senegal were able to surpass higher ranked teams. Mexico went ahead instead of 15th-seeded Angola while Senegal advanced in place of 17th-ranked Puerto Rico and Philippines, 34th.

Sports Illustrated said Mexico and Senegal would not survive their weekend matches against USA and Spain, and got it right.

As far as educated guesses go, USA Today said the bracket containing Team USA does not pose a legitimate threat to its finals berth. Slovenia, for example, suffered a 101-71 loss to the Americans on Aug. 26 during the warm-ups. 

The Bleacher Report agrees that there really is reason to look at the Sept. 14 game with USA and Spain playing, because they have performed so well, only they deserve each other. 

History backs that up, with Spain finishing second to the United States at both the 2008 and 2012 Summer Olympics. Spain also has its share of NBA-honed talents like Pau and Marc Gasol and Serge Ibaka, Bleacher Report added.

That's all the more reason Team USA should be in tip-top shop when it faces Spain, the Bleacher Report said, commenting that the next two matches--against Slovenia and whichever wins the tussle between Turkey and Lithuania--should, no matter how easy, still prepate the team for a faceoff with Spain. 

Team USA should experiment, the Bleacher Report concluded, believing whatever happens in the interim will play a big role on Sept. 14.