In two contrasting semifinals yesterday, Greece outclassed Australia 84-69 while the United States squeezed out a tight 81-77 defeat of Croatia.
The US will nevertheless start favourites at the North Shore Events Centre, having marched unbeaten through the 16-team tournament.
Their athleticism and ball movement was on a different level in the first half yesterday night, going nine points up after eight minutes and leading 46-33 at halftime.
The tall Croatians improved their defence considerably after the break, led by centre Mario Delas and forward Dino Butorac, they hit the front in the dying minutes of a third stanza, which they won 26-11.
However, the US fought back during an intense final quarter to reclaim the lead for the final whistle.
Delas led the scoring for the game with 17 points, while Gordon Hayward, with 15 points, led the scoring for the US.
Greece have improved as the tournament has progressed, having lost in the early stages to Lithuania and then 85-69 to the US on Monday.
Tough defence and smart offence saw them thrash Argentina by 26 points in Friday's quarterfinal and they were too physical for the previously-unbeaten Australians.
After a tight opening, they pulled clear at the end of the first quarter and were 46-33 by halftime, never to be challenged.
Guard Nikolaos Pappas took control in the second half and led all scoring with 19 points while Konstantinos Papanikolaou managed 18 while pulling down 10 rebounds.
The leading scorers for Australia were Jorden Page with 15 points and Matthew Dellavedova with 12.
Yesterday's earlier games were classification matches.
For the teams ranked fifth to eighth, Argentina produced a huge fourth quarter to beat France 92-84 while Puerto Rico guard Jio Fontan sunk the winning basket with 2.6 seconds on the clock to beat Canada 67-65.
The match to decide ninth place saw Lithuania overwhelm Spain 88-64 while while Egypt downed Kazakhstan 86-78 to finish the tournament in 11th place.
