Nikola Jokić and Victor Wembanyama played twice in four days. They split.

Updated Aug. 27 with results from both friendlies and the Window 4 schedule.

Serbia won 90-87 in a sold-out Belgrade Arena on Aug. 20, Jokić going for 20 points, nine rebounds, eight assists and three steals. Three days later in Orléans he was better — 34 points, 13 rebounds, five assists — and lost. France led 54-35 at halftime, nearly gave the whole thing back, and won 91-90 when Jaylen Hoard beat the buzzer with a fast-break layup after Marko Gudurić had put Serbia ahead with 4.7 seconds left.

Neither game counted. That was the point of them.

Now the games count.

How to watch Window 4

All times Eastern. Everything streams on Courtside 1891 through DAZN — and everything is available on demand afterward, which is the part nobody mentions. Belgrade, Orléans, all of Thursday. The archive is included in the $49.99 annual pass, and Courtside 1891 is sold separately from a full DAZN subscription.

Thursday, Aug. 27

11:00 a.m. — Nigeria vs. Cameroon, Radès
11:30 a.m. — Finland vs. Sweden, Helsinki
11:30 a.m. — Mali vs. Ivory Coast, Dakar
12:00 p.m. — Hungary vs. Estonia, Miskolc
12:00 p.m. — Qatar vs. China, Doha
1:00 p.m. — Saudi Arabia vs. Japan, Jeddah
2:00 p.m. — Croatia vs. Latvia, Zadar
2:00 p.m. — Germany vs. Netherlands, Cologne
2:00 p.m. — Israel vs. Poland, Riga
2:00 p.m. — Tunisia vs. Cape Verde, Radès
2:00 p.m. — Lebanon vs. South Korea, Zouk Mikael
2:30 p.m. — France vs. Slovenia, Bercy Arena, Paris
2:30 p.m. — Egypt vs. Senegal, Dakar
6:10 p.m. — Argentina vs. Puerto Rico, Mar del Plata
7:10 p.m. — Brazil vs. Dominican Republic, Brasília
7:10 p.m. — Chile vs. USA, Santiago
7:10 p.m. — Uruguay vs. Bahamas, Montevideo
9:40 p.m. — Panama vs. Canada, Panama City

Friday, Aug. 28 — Serbia hosts Iceland, Belgrade
Sunday, Aug. 30 — Sweden hosts France
Monday, Aug. 31 — Italy hosts Serbia, Pesaro

Eighteen games, four confederations, nine time zones, one Thursday — from Helsinki to Santiago.

That's what a qualifying system looks like.

The market saw it coming

Worth noting, because it was strange at the time.

Serbia won the first game. Then the line moved toward France and kept moving — FanDuel opened the rematch at France -4.5, touched -3.5 on Friday, and by Sunday morning had swung to France -6.5 with the moneyline at -320. A ten-point move on a game that had just happened, between the same twenty players.

The bookmakers were reading one number: France turned it over 22 times in Belgrade and still lost by three. In Orléans they turned it over nine times and won.

Sylvain Francisco led France with 20, Timothé Luwawu-Cabarrot added 19, Wembanyama had 18 with a pair of blocks after being held to 10 in the opener. Nikola Milutinov and Aleksa Avramović carried Serbia in Belgrade; Jokić carried them alone in Orléans.

Jokić, asked whether an exhibition matters: "A good friend of ours says there are no friendly games, only preparation games."

The one who isn't playing

Luka Dončić spent the offseason in Slovenia. The Lakers held workouts there. He's been visible, he's been fit, and he is not in Slovenia's squad to face France.

Slovenia sits 3-3 in Group L and needs points. Only the top three of six advance to Qatar.

So basketball built a system that gets Jokić on a plane to play an exhibition and Wembanyama on a plane to captain one — and its third-best player is home in the country he'd be representing, for the games that actually count.

That's the honest complication. The road exists. Not everybody drives it.

Orléans, and the other Orléans

The city that hosted Sunday's game is the one that gave New Orleans its name. La Nouvelle-Orléans was founded in 1718 and named for Philippe II, Duke of Orléans, then regent of France.

Three hundred and eight years later, two of the best basketball players alive played an exhibition in the original — the same week Kade Anderson made his major league debut for Seattle out of Slidell, Madisonville, Covington and Baton Rouge, the whole ring around Lake Pontchartrain.

Names travel. They land somewhere else. Three centuries later a kid from the parish next door throws a slider in a big league park while the city he's named after hosts Jokić and Wembanyama.

Georgia and Israel, inverted

Before Sunday's rematch, Georgia played Israel — two countries that swap places entirely depending on which ball you're holding.

In basketball, Georgia is 20th in the world with a World Cup appearance and its best-ever EuroBasket finish. Israel sits near the bottom of the 24 teams left in European qualifying.

In baseball, reverse it. Israel reached the second round of the 2017 World Baseball Classic and played in the Tokyo Olympics. Georgia has a federation, a WBSC Europe membership, and a world ranking of NR — not ranked.

Same two countries. Same morning. Two sports that completely disagree about which one is developing.

Baseball without borders: what Italy has to do

Here is the thing that makes all of the above worth a baseball site's attention.

Serbia plays Italy in Pesaro on Aug. 31. Italy is 5-1 in Group J and comfortably positioned to reach the World Cup in Qatar. Their basketball team has a road, and they're on it.

Now look at their baseball team.

Italy went 4-0 in Pool B at the World Baseball Classic in March — beat the United States 8-6, beat Mexico 9-1 — then beat Puerto Rico 8-6 in the quarterfinals, in front of the first baseball game ever televised nationally in Italy, before losing 4-2 to eventual champion Venezuela in the semifinals. Roughly seven million people watched at home on a broadcast that started after 1 a.m.

Five wins, one loss, a top-four finish in the world.

And Italy still has to qualify for the Premier12. The tournament expanded from 12 teams to 16 for 2027, but the top 12 in the world rankings got automatic bids and Italy is ranked 14th. They have to finish top two at the Barcelona qualifier, Oct. 9-11 at Carlos Pérez de Rozas Stadium — a single round-robin against Colombia, Germany and host Spain. Italy opens against Colombia at noon on the 9th.

The Premier12 is where it matters: the WBSC confirmed the top Asian team and the top Europe/Oceania team from it qualify for the Los Angeles Olympics.

So Italy beats the United States in March, and in October has to win a four-team tournament in Barcelona for the right to play in a tournament in November 2027, for the right to be Europe's Olympic team in 2028. If that fails, there's a last-chance qualifier in early 2028.

Meanwhile the team that automatically qualified out of Europe is the Netherlands, ranked ninth in the world in baseball — and ranked 24th of 24 in FIBA's European qualifiers, playing Germany in Cologne on Thursday afternoon.

Germany is also in that Barcelona pool. Same country whose basketball team holds both the EuroBasket and World Cup titles. Same country that runs the Baseball-Bundesliga and hosts the 2027 European baseball championship in Regensburg.

Eighteen basketball games Thursday across four confederations, and every nation in them knows exactly what winning gets them.

Italy finished fourth in the world in March and has to start over in Barcelona in October.

Odds via FanDuel, accurate as of Aug. 23 and subject to movement. Schedule via FIBA. Premier12 qualification details via WBSC.