Basketball On The Internet.

BOOMERS centre Andrew Bogut yesterday in China rolled his ankle in the fourth quarter of Australia's 64-74 loss to Germany in its final FIBA World Cup warm-up outing.

Jock Landale was rested from the game which coach Andrej Lemanis used to share court-time, with players such as David Barlow and Mitch Creek seeing more action.

Germany (or France) is most likely to be Australia's next opponent at the World Cup, if its gets out of Group H against Canada, Senegal and Lithuania.

Despite Australia's 2-3 win-loss record in the warm-up games - splitting two matches apiece on home spoil against Canada and the USA before yesterday's drop to Germany - Saturday's historic first-ever win over the Americans has bolstered the Boomers to #3 in the FIBA World Cup power rankings.

GERMAN JUGGERNAUT: Chris Goulding fires for the Boomers last night against Germany.

If the Boomers' form stays true to those new rankings, it would mean a historic first ever medal.

Of course, with no update yet on Bogut's ankle, that has huge ramifications for Australia's medal hopes.

Beating the USA also hurt the defending champions in their rankings, with Serbia currently holding the #1 spot.

Australia's additional intragroup rival Lithuania also has dropped to #9, Canada is at #17 and Senegal at #24.

For those who were unhappy the Adelaide 36ers chose to play the Philippines in two warm-up games ahead of the World Cup, the fact the Sixers split those games and the Filipinos also dropped a game to Democratic Republic of Congo, sees them drop to #19.

Meanwhile, a survey of 32 journalists - one per country participating in the FIBA World Cup - has revealed an interesting set of results for the poll gatherers, RunRepeat.com/news/basketball.

The main takeaways are:

*USA, Serbia, and Greece are projected to win Gold, Silver, and Bronze medals respectively;
*The USA will have the best offence in the tournament, and Serbia will have the best defence;
*Nigeria will be the biggest surprise in China, while Spain will disappoint its fans;
*Kemba Walker scored the most MVP votes;
*Giannis Antetokounmpo is expected to be the top scorer of the tournament (total points) and grab the most rebounds;
*Nick Calathes will be the assists' leader in China;
*Players who will make into the All-Tournament Team are Kemba Walker, Bogdan Bogdanovic, Giannis Antetokounmpo (below), Jayson Tatum, and Nikola Jokic.

For more in-depth survey results, head here.