For his performances, guard Bogdan Bogdanović was selected to the FIBA Basketball World Cup All-Tournament Team.
On 24 May 2019, center Nikola Jokić, who earned All-NBA First Team honors, has confirmed that he will play at the World Cup.
Centers Jokić and Ognjen Kuzmić, and guard Marko Gudurić are members of the 18-man preliminary roster who didn't play a single game in the World Cup qualifications.
[10][11] On 15 July, Kuzmić was put out from the roster due to the unpredictability of the recovery time for such injuries, so coach Aleksandar Đorđević invited center Nikola Jovanović as his substitute.
[13] On 10 August, the team captain Miloš Teodosić suffered a plantar fascia injury in his left foot in the game against Lithuania and will remain in the roster until new results are known after a recovery therapy.
[16] On 16 August, guard Dragan Milosavljević suffered an anterior cruciate ligament injury in his left knee in the game against Turkey.
[19] On 20 August, coach Đorđević confirmed that a guard and team captain Teodosić won't play at the World Cup, due to the injury.
[20] Center Miroslav Raduljica was selected as a new team captain due to Teodosić's inability to play on the tournament.
[23] The following were candidates to make the team: On 18 July, Darko Rajaković was hired as an assistant coach, joining the staff as a replacement for Milan Minić.
Tied at 7-all with six minutes left in the opening quarter, center Nikola Jokić came off the bench and the Serbian offense started to roll.
Forward Nemanja Bjelica came off the bench making all 7 of his field-goal attempts, including 3 three-pointers to finish with a game-high 20 points in just 16 minutes of action.
In those moments, Miroslav Raduljica got fouled three times in a row and Bogdanović right after, so the Serbians got the lead back up to 10 point from a free throw line at 64–54.
At the beginning of the last quarter, Italy had a 5–0 run and got back into the game, before Bogdanović made a 3-pointer and Raduljica scored from a free throw resisted the comeback at 76–62.
Bogdanović scored a career-high 31 points and led all Serbs with 36 minutes played as Serbia won 92–77 over Italy.
Serbia won in its last competitive game against Puerto Rico, in the 2016 FIBA World Olympic Qualifying Tournament.
After the defeat in the quarterfinals, Serbia played the classification semi-finals with the United States, who lost to France, in Dongguan on 12 September.
After the win over the United States, Serbia won over Czech Republic in the fifth-place match in Beijing at the Wukesong Arena on 14 September.
That seemed to break Serbian spirits, there was no comeback by the team that had Nikola Jokić, Bogdan Bogdanović, Boban Marjanović and all the other stars here.
Serbia led by just three points at the beginning of the final period, but behind Vladimir Lučić, Vasilije Micić and Boban Marjanović, they erected a 13-point lead with just 4:43 left.
Team USA would still try to make a late comeback, trimming the lead to as little as four points, but it was all for nothing as the Serbians proved steadier down the stretch.
It remained nip-and-tuck for much of the second half before the Serbians rebuilt their double-digit lead in the fourth period and successfully kept the Americans at bay.
Serbia won in its last competitive game against the Czech Republic, in the 2016 FIBA World Olympic Qualifying Tournament.
Behind a stingy defense and terrific perimeter shooting, Czech Republic erected a 50–41 lead at the half, but the Serbians got their act together in the last two periods to register their sixth win.
Staring at a nine-point half-time deficit was not in Serbia's plans, but they rose to the occasion and turned the tables on the Czech Republic in the third quarter.
[72] Serbia didn't manage to clinch the outright European berth for the 2020 Summer Olympics by failing to finish among two highest performing teams from FIBA Europe; Spain and France qualified instead.