24/09/2018
Ranking
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France, Argentina and Australia just avoid being overtaken in latest FIBA World Ranking Men, presented by Nike

MIES, Switzerland - The FIBA World Ranking Men, presented by Nike, was updated following the fourth window of the FIBA Basketball World Cup 2019 Qualifiers and several teams near the top will consider themselves lucky not to have fallen down the order.

Click here to view the full FIBA World Ranking Men, presented by Nike.

The USA (767.1 points) and Spain (704.1) remain first and second, while France (647.2) held on to third place as their closest rivals, Serbia (644.2), matched them by splitting their games (1 win and 1 loss) to start the Second Round of the European Qualifiers.

There is an intriguing battle for fifth place between the current holders Argentina (625.0) who have Lithuania (620.2) hot on their tail.

Meanwhile, 10th-place Australia (483.7) are feeling the pressure from Brazil (482.9).

With all of these small gaps, the top 10 could look a lot different following the fifth window in late November-early December.

Further on down, Hungary moved up two spots to 40th following a convincing win over Netherlands and a close loss to 15th place Italy.

Bulgaria also jumped up a couple of places, from 50th to 48th on the back of handing France - a team ranked 47 places higher than them at the time of the game - their first defeat of the Qualifiers. They are hot on the heels of the teams right above them - Estonia, Jordan and Iceland - so more good results in the next window will see them move up even further.

There were notable gains in Europe and Asia after the latest action in the Pre-Qualifiers for the Continental Cup 2021.

Denmark moved up two spots to 70th after defeating a pair of teams that played in the First Round of the World Cup Qualifiers. They claimed a 98-94 away win to Belarus and followed that up with a 76-72 defeat of Sweden.

Saudi Arabia climbed a massive 12 places to 112th after going undefeated (4-0) to win the FIBA Asia Cup 2021 Pre-Qualifiers - Western Region tournament. That perfect record included wins over Palestine (91st) and tournament hosts Bahrain (107th).

The FIBA World Ranking Men, presented by Nike, is updated following every window of the FIBA Basketball World Cup 2019 Qualifiers. It takes into consideration rating points of games played in top official FIBA competitions and their Qualifiers during an 8-year period.

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About FIBA
FIBA (fiba.basketball) - the world governing body for basketball - is an independent association formed by 213 National Basketball Federations throughout the world. It is recognized as the sole competent authority in basketball by the International Olympic Committee (IOC).

For further information about FIBA, visit fiba.basketball or follow FIBA on facebook.com/fiba, twitter.com/fiba, instagram.com/fiba and youtube.com/fiba.