A few days before the start of the Basketball World Cup, which will take place in Japan, Philippines and Indonesia between August 25 and September 10, the participating teams are in full preparation to arrive at the World Cup as well prepared as possible. Some of them will be pitted against each other to assess their options and see how far they can compete against the big gold favorites. Which friendlies should not be missed to follow the news of the candidates for victory?

Despite the fact that some international basketball stars will not be at the World Cup, such as the Serbian Nikola Jokicrecent NBA champion with the Denver Nuggets or the young man who promises to spend great evenings in the best league in the world, the French Victor Wembanyama, either Giannis Antetokounmpo, yes there will be other big names like Luka Doncic or Jamal Murray.

We will have the first big main course in Malaga this weekend. Spain, the United States and Slovenia face off in a triangle on the occasion of the centenary of the Spanish Basketball Federation. Sergio Scariolo’s men have just beaten Venezuela 87-57 in Madrid and want to calculate their potential against two teams with equal chances of reaching gold.

The Slovenians have already played two warm-up matches against Greece on Greek soil and both ended in defeat, 98-91 the first and 88-77 the second. For their part, the Americans beat Puerto Rico in Las Vegas 117-74, leaving great feelings and with a promising team of players. The United States have not won the World Cup since Türkiye 2010.

Spain will continue to prepare for Andalusian lands, finishing with two friendlies in Granada against Canada and the Dominican Republic. The game against the Canadians on Thursday the 17th definitely marks time. The team coached by Catalan Jordi Fernández presents a team full of NBA players like Jamal Murray or Shai Gilgeous-Alexander who want to do great things in this World Cup.

For its part The United States will close their preparation with another triangle on the 18th, 19th and 20th against Greece and Germany. The Germans were about to give the bell to the European Championship last year by losing in the semi-finals to Spain on their feet and now they want to go far in the World Cup, while the Greeks, led by Thanasis AntetokounmpoThey want to make up for the disastrous role they played in the last continental event.

Other selections to consider are Serbia, Lithuania, France and Finland. The Lithuanians will play two friendly matches against the Finns on the 14th and against Latvia on the 22nd, the French will close the preparation against Australia on Sunday 20th while the Scandinavians want to be the rebels of a tournament again.

They were close to knocking out Spain in the quarter-finals of Europe’s past, slipping a 15-point difference with NBA Markanen as the most outstanding player and now they are looking to be among the best in the world. In addition to Lithuania, they will end their preparation on Wednesday 16 against Latvia.