2014 FIBA World Cup Semifinals: Serbia Vs. France Live Streaming And Preview

Serbia's Nenad Krstic slams a dunk against Brazil during their Basketball World Cup quarter-final game in Madrid September 10, 2014. Reuters

Two European teams make the unlikely pairing in the other semifinal round of the 2014 FIBA World Cup. France pulled off the biggest upset in the basketball world championships while Serbia is peaking at the right time beating favoured squads on the way to the final four. Both squads are now one win away from taking on the mighty Team USA in championship round of the world basketball tournament in Spain.

The Americans beat Lithuania on Friday in yet another blowout for USA with the final score at 96-68.

The French and Serbians are not looking too far ahead and think of a Team USA match-up in the final but rather focus on the task at hand: beat a European rival and earn the right for to fight for the gold medal.

How France and Serbia Made the Semifinals

France lost a close one to Brazil, 63-65 in their tournament opener before winning via a hair over their semis opponent, Serbia, 74-73 in the early part of the group stages. They beat Egypt, 94-55 handily before falling to hosts Spain, 88-64 in their third and fourth games and then defeated Iran, 81-76 for a 3-2 record in the preliminary rounds.

In the knockout stages, France started showing off their true form—a defensive-minded team that has lots of options on offense—with the Round of 16 wins over Croatia, 69-64 and the huge and unlikely quarterfinals upset over Spain, 65-52 to boot out the hosts from the competition.

The France victory spoiled the highly-anticipated and hyped Team USA vs. Spain potential meeting in the championship round.

Meanwhile, Serbia was even worse than France in the group phase. After an easy 85-64 win over Egypt, they lost to France before bouncing back with a win over Iran, 83-70. They lost back-to-back games to Brazil, 73-81 and then Spain, 73-89 and ended up with a 2-3 record in the preliminary rounds—enough to get out of the group but not enough to gain respect from the pundits-- until the knockout rounds.

Serbia convincingly won over erstwhile unbeaten Greece, 90-72 in the Round of 16 then got their revenge against Brazil, 84-56 in the quarterfinals.

Recent Form, Key Players of France and Serbia

For both France and Serbia, the group phase games are long but forgotten mediocre performances. What matters most is how they manage to show poise and confidence in their knockout games.

For Serbia, it was their hot shooting from behind the arc and team defense that were the keys against the Greeks. Bogdan Bogdanovic hit 4-of-7 shots from the three-point area to lead the team with 21 points. The Serbians shot a sizzling 9-of-17 3FG in that game while limiting Greece to just 24-of-55 field goal shooting overall.

The Serbians did even better defensively against Brazil, which scored just 56 points and was contained to 26-of-55 field goals. Milos Teodesic was big in this game finishing with 23 points while adding 4 assists. Three other Serbs finished in double-figure scoring.

For France, a dominating defense catapulted them in the semis, holding Croatia and Spain to just 58.0 points per game in the KO rounds. The French held the Croats to just 25-of-67 field goals (37.3%) and 6-of-25 (24.0%) from the three point line and then seriously put the clamps down on the hosts limiting Spaniards to no more than 15 points per quarter-- including just 9 points in the payoff period.

Nicolas Batum (14 points) and Evan Fournier (13 points) led the French over Croatia while Boris Diaw (15 points) and Thomas Heurtel (13 points) paved the way in the upset of the tournament.

The group stage match-up between Serbia and France is now considered eons ago but the highlights are worth watching before the European squads battle for a gold medal match slot.