The first-stage group games of the FIBA Basketball World Cup were all finished on Thursday, confirming the 16 teams that made the second stage and the rest 16 for the 17-32 Classification Round.

Of the 16 second-stage teams, nine are from Europe: Poland, Russia, Spain, Serbia, Italy, Czech Republic, Greece, France and Lithuania.

Spain, Serbia, France and Poland made it out of their groups as the No. 1 ranking team. Serbia had the easiest journey by claiming two crashing victors over Angola (105-59) and the Philippines (126-67). Even Italy which have two NBA scorers, Marco Belinelli and Danilo Gallinari, were not able to stop Serbia from moving forward by losing (92-77).

Spain and France, by contrast met some difficulties. For France, the difficulty's name is Germany which fight until the last possession before losing 78-74. In their following two games, France claimed two easy wins over Jordan (103-64) and the Dominican Republic (90-56).

Spain had an opposite journey in Group C. Having taken an easy win of 101-62 over Tunisia in their first game, the team met tough resistance from Puerto Rico (73-63) and Iran (73-65) in the following two games. It remains unclear whether Spain are pulling their punches or simply need longer time to be in the best form, but they need to be careful in the second stage.

Of the six American teams – Venezuela, Argentina, Puerto Rico, USA, Brazil and the the Dominican Republic - competing in the second-stage games, Argentina, USA and Brazil were No. 1 of their groups. Led by 39-year-old Luis Scola, Argentina took three steady victories in Group B. The team do not have super genius but their complete skills and solid way of playing mean that no team should underestimate Argentina.

USA are relatively disappointing with their performance in Group E. If the 88-67 win over the Czech Republic can be considered as average, the ugly win over Turkey (93-92) was more of frustration than excitement. Though the team claimed a big win over Japan (98-45), but honestly, are there really fans excited about USA smashing Japan?

Brazil were the biggest surprise as they defeated Greece 79-78 in Group F, putting Giannis Antetokounmpo on the edge of being eliminated for a while. Like Argentina, Brazil built their franchise relying on veterans and none of their victories was easy.

Australia were the only non-European, none-American team that made the second stage and more importantly, coming to the fore from the intense competitions with Canada and Lithuania in the "Group of Death." The Boomers are not as talented as Serbia or as steady as Argentina, but so far they have been playing the most exciting basketball thanks to those fast break, forcible 3-pointers and improvising moves on the court.