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The final game of the preliminary rounds of the 2015 FIBA Asia Championship.
Kazakhstan is already out of the tournament, and Korea's seeding depends on the Lebanon-Jordan game.
If Lebanon wins, Korea is locked at #3 in Group E and will face Group E #2 seed Iran in the quarters.
If Jordan wins, Korea can tank this game vs Kazakhstan and face the Philippines, against whom they have a solid head-to-head record, in the quarters instead of Iran, against whom they never had any success in FIBA-Asia. But Korea has shown they can beat Iran by winning the gold medal in the 2014 Asian Games.
However, Korea cannot tank the game too obviously or run the risk of earning the ire of their fans back home since the game-fixing scandal back home which caused the suspension of Korean starting PG Kim Sun-hyung is still fresh in the Koreans' minds at the moment. Also, Kazakhstan would probably know if Korea tanks and they will try not to score too much and force the Koreans to stop trying to tank anymore.
Kazakhstan is already out of the tournament, and Korea's seeding depends on the Lebanon-Jordan game.
If Lebanon wins, Korea is locked at #3 in Group E and will face Group E #2 seed Iran in the quarters.
If Jordan wins, Korea can tank this game vs Kazakhstan and face the Philippines, against whom they have a solid head-to-head record, in the quarters instead of Iran, against whom they never had any success in FIBA-Asia. But Korea has shown they can beat Iran by winning the gold medal in the 2014 Asian Games.
However, Korea cannot tank the game too obviously or run the risk of earning the ire of their fans back home since the game-fixing scandal back home which caused the suspension of Korean starting PG Kim Sun-hyung is still fresh in the Koreans' minds at the moment. Also, Kazakhstan would probably know if Korea tanks and they will try not to score too much and force the Koreans to stop trying to tank anymore.
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