Olympic Basketball Tournament 2008

[salaner]

Greece has one unsolvable problem against Spain, this time and every time lately: no inside game, except what little Schortsanitis can provide by pushing and showing his way in. This creates an imbalance that untimately negates whatever the excellent Greek outside game can provide. So, in the end, this time it was a 15-point difference. Frankly, even though Papadopoulos hasn't had much of a season in Spain, I think Giannakis could have used him to provide some sort of referencde point in the low post...

[jt142]

Greece has one unsolvable problem against Spain, this time and every time lately: no inside game, except what little Schortsanitis can provide by pushing and showing his way in. This creates an imbalance that untimately negates whatever the excellent Greek outside game can provide. So, in the end, this time it was a 15-point difference. Frankly, even though Papadopoulos hasn't had much of a season in Spain, I think Giannakis could have used him to provide some sort of referencde point in the low post...

Blah, blah, blah.........Greece looks overrated. Spain is the real deal. They're not exciting, but they're consistent and certainly the best European team. It's either USA or Spain for gold.

I will say, however, that if the USA team shoots 1-10 from 3 in the 1st half again, they could even lose to Germany, let alone Spain.

[salaner]

Greece looks overrated. Spain is the real deal.

You don't say!

I'll tell you a couple more things...

a. Greece is n ot overrated. Just watch the fits they throw into the US team now. They just don't have a low post game. (The US doesn't either.)

b. Spain is indeed the real deal. And they're exciting to watch too - but not against a dogged, tough team like Greece. No one looks exciting against Greece.

[Maf]

yeah, Greece and Argentina were kind of dissapointing at their first matches. But for 1/4 finals, watch out. They're able to get totally insane and shoot 15 three pointers with 60% accurancy. Like Lithuania. Man, kids have to be born with basketball in their hands in there...

[lilfishi22]

Man, Ricky Rubio looks good for Spain. What's the NBA rule for oversea prospects? When can he get drafted or whatever?

[JustMagic]

Man, Ricky Rubio looks good for Spain. What's the NBA rule for oversea prospects? When can he get drafted or whatever?

He can declare the year he becomes 19 years old - which will be in october 2009. So it is possible for him to get drafted the next draft, july 2009.
However his spanish team signed him until 2011 and his buyout is 6 mil euros...

[Point forward]

As usual, Germany gets pwned by Greece. Their combination of strong team defense, good guards and deep bench just murders us.

[call.me.dude]

Germany with a 59-72 loss against Spain. Until halftime, they really seemed to be the better team with Jagla (with a crazy 25-foot-bank-shot), Kaman and especially Hamann causing the Spaniards some trouble. Since then Spain was better and we had some problems against their aggressive defense. They came out with a strong run and thus built a 16-point lead that decided the game although we had some chances to make it a close game (but we didn't take the chances, lost the ball again, didn't make our shots or had to watch the referees make one or two dubious calls)

What I liked about the game was our defense. We held them to 38 % on their FGs. Hamann was really nice and if he plays like this against china we'll definitely beat them. I also expect Dirk to have a better game than this one (weak FG percentage and didn't go to the FT line once). Kaman was solid, grabbing 10 boards and scoring 8 points but in the second half he didn't really do much. But Bauermann should play him more (only 23 minutes) while Schultze should rather play the 3 together with Wysocki.

I think nobody expected us to win this game and it actually was closer than the score says. That's what makes me think we'll beat China by 10 points because Dirk is gonna be frustrated because of this game and bounce back with a 28pt/8rbd-game, Hamann will kill the chinese guards (i expect him to score 15+ points again), Greene will hit some threes and Kaman will do a solid job on both ends against Yao (who will still score at least 20 points).

[salaner]

No embarrassment. China overpowered Angola. Of course, getting only a dozen fouls called against you is goint to help you any time...

[Point forward]

If Dirk does not score 20, we mostly lose. It's fact...

[TheCardinal20]

USA, unfortunately for the other teams, is twice as good as the nearest competition...

[Hardzy]

The gold medal might be locked up by the USA but there is plenty of other teams who will battle it out for a chance to play the USA will be interesting, watching Australia v Lithuania right now, 20-8 up. Go Aussies!!