Official Eurobasket 2013 Thread

[suckfish]

I don't really see Slovenia beating Spain as a mega upset. I mean it's an upset, but not completely shocking looking at the players Spain are missing. Slovenia have had serious talent and ability for years now, they've just never really put it together and played great. They could make a serious run playing on home soil.

[Rasho Brezec]

I don't really see Slovenia beating Spain as a mega upset. I mean it's an upset, but not completely shocking looking at the players Spain are missing. Slovenia have had serious talent and ability for years now, they've just never really put it together and played great. They could make a serious run playing on home soil.

It's a weak roster though. Poor man's Derek Fisher is backing up Dragic at PG, Nachbar is playing the PF and splitting time with a 33-year old debutant. The one thing they have going for them is that the young guys are fresh and fast enough to run.

[BelgianMagic]

Overtime at Germany - Belgium.

Told you they were going to lose.

Still I liked that they fought their way back in it through their defense and kept it close til the end.
Benzing is really coming into his own and the rest just went totally cold.
And Pleiß makes that layup for the 2nd overtime 9 times out of 10.
Sure the loss was unnecessary, but it wasn't a disgrace or anything. There were some positives you can take away from it.
Also I really like our coach and how he connects with the players. They always convert his instructions on the court. Our biggest weakness are the turnovers, which is totally normal for such a young group.

Really liked the game from our guys, never ever expected us to beat Germany .. I'm a huge Schaffartzik fan, he's really a phenomenal player .. And Benzing was really a pain in the ass to our big guys, played a great game IMO. Made some very smart plays

Also what a game from our guy Massot (#14), I think he played the game of his life here .. He looked like he belongs at this level, while in fact he's had a very modest career here in Belgium. Too bad

I still think our coach is a horrible coach. Very bad rotations & never takes a timeout when he has to .. Offense is our weakness, but our 2 best players (Hervelle & Van Rossem) made some great plays when it mattered. In the end it's really a shame our best player (Matt Lojeski, will play @ Olympiakos next season) got injured I think 1 day before they traveled to Slovenia .. He would've brought the offense this team desperately needs. With him I think we definitely would make the 2nd round .. Now, I'm not sure, even with this victory

[CreoleTiger]

Great game between: SLOVENIA - SPAIN 78:69

Goran Dragic was terrible in 1st half, was benched a lot, but came back and looked great for Slovenia in the last quarter, ended with 18 points on 54% FG, 6 rebs, 7 asts, 2 stl, 0 TO. Nachbar, former NBA, added 14.

Marc (17pts) was beasting for Spain, Calderon (14pts) great from three 4/5.

Not really. Pretty much a non factor in the 4th quarter and down the stretch, likely due to the fact he played 37 minutes in the second game of a back to back.

[aporel18]

Yeah Slovenia really took it to the spanish d-bags.
Great game. Props to the slovenian center who lost a tooth and still played great in the 4th.

spanish d-bags? that's funny as hell, kid. Any other great joke?

Not having Pau, Ibaka or Mirotic, let alone veterans like Navarro or Reyes will do that to a team... melting down under home team pressure. Nothing to argue, good win for the Slovenians.

Elimination games will be another animal, though. I think Greece, France and Lithuania are Spain's biggest rivals when it's win or go home. Calderon needs to play off the ball, with Ricky and Rodríguez setting him for open 3s, and Marc needs to rest a bit more. Spain has done nothing to deserve the favorite label, so they'll need to go game by game.

[HB2]

group A looks like France and bunch of garbage, while several quality teams will not make it out of the group B

[JV4MVP]

Didn't see this thread... can a mod merge my thread into this one?

Link at sig... thanks

[Chalk1]

Why no Mirotic if Ibaka isn't playing?

How's the Koponen kid look for Finland? Haven't heard much about him recently.

Also Van Rossum PG for Britain?

[Euro77]

Yeah Slovenia really took it to the spanish d-bags.
Great game. Props to the slovenian center who lost a tooth and still played great in the 4th.

spanish d-bags? that's funny as hell, kid. Any other great joke?

Not having Pau, Ibaka or Mirotic, let alone veterans like Navarro or Reyes will do that to a team... melting down under home team pressure. Nothing to argue, good win for the Slovenians.

Elimination games will be another animal, though. I think Greece, France and Lithuania are Spain's biggest rivals when it's win or go home. Calderon needs to play off the ball, with Ricky and Rodríguez setting him for open 3s, and Marc needs to rest a bit more. Spain has done nothing to deserve the favorite label, so they'll need to go game by game.

No joke, I despise the way guys like Fernandez play the game. Always acting, complaining and flopping.
And Marc knocked a tooth out of a guy and didn't check once to see if he was okay.

[Goon]

Yeah Slovenia really took it to the spanish d-bags.
Great game. Props to the slovenian center who lost a tooth and still played great in the 4th.

spanish d-bags? that's funny as hell, kid. Any other great joke?

Not having Pau, Ibaka or Mirotic, let alone veterans like Navarro or Reyes will do that to a team... melting down under home team pressure. Nothing to argue, good win for the Slovenians.

Elimination games will be another animal, though. I think Greece, France and Lithuania are Spain's biggest rivals when it's win or go home. Calderon needs to play off the ball, with Ricky and Rodríguez setting him for open 3s, and Marc needs to rest a bit more. Spain has done nothing to deserve the favorite label, so they'll need to go game by game.

Well Slovenia is playing without Beno Udrih, former NBA players Vujacic, Brezec and without one of the best players in Euroleague, Erazem Lorbek. So its quite even on that front.

I wouldn't write Slovenia off, maybe not as much talent on their roster as in mentioned teams, but those young boys have that warrior mentality, with extra help from the home crowd, anything is possible.

[Heat fan06]

Nice few upsets already. Very open tournament so far

[BelgianMagic]

Why no Mirotic if Ibaka isn't playing?

How's the Koponen kid look for Finland? Haven't heard much about him recently.

Also Van Rossum PG for Britain?

I think you mean Van Oostrum, Van Rossem is our Belgian PG .. They play each other tonight btw

Both played ok in their first 2 games (though I haven't seen 2nd half of last night's GB game) .. Van Rossem made some great plays in the end

Van Oostrum definitely has talent, lookin forward to seeing more of him

[Hawk]

Why no Mirotic if Ibaka isn't playing?

How's the Koponen kid look for Finland? Haven't heard much about him recently.

Also Van Rossum PG for Britain?

Ibaka was the first choice for the Spanish team, and Mirotic didn't want to play second fiddle to Ibaka, so when Ibaka said 'no' to Spain, Mirotic did the same.

[Goon]

Wow what an ego from Mirotic, if true. 22 year old Mirotic with almost zero experience with Spain national team, doesn't want to play second fiddle to Ibaka, one of the best defensive bigs in NBA.

Things like this really annoy me. You don't play for your national team for personal stat sheet, it's for pride. Well he is Montenegro born, questionable affection towards Spain.

[Laure]

Wow what an ego from Mirotic, if true. 22 year old Mirotic with almost zero experience with Spain national team, doesn't want to play second fiddle to Ibaka, one of the best defensive bigs in NBA.

Things like this really annoy me. You don't play for your national team for personal stat sheet, it's for pride. Well he is Montenegro born, questionable affection towards Spain.

It would be great if he' played for Montenegro. That way he would have been the 3rd best Montegrin named Nikola. That's a formidable front line

[NamelessHero]

germany lost against ukraine as well

[Andi Obst]

germany lost against ukraine as well

Couldn't watch the game, but looks like another close game Germany couldn't win. They're just too young.
Hope they can still win against GB and Israel.

[MagnusPinus]

Italy is doing great, so proud of my guys.. without Gallinari, Bargnani, Hackett, Mancinelli... arguably 4 of the most important players.. a team very very small, and less physical than the opposite teams is really playing well.. Guys are producing offensively and putting energy.. Guy to watch is Gentile.. showing his amazing talent. He has to work on his shot, body and defense for the Nba, btu he has so much talent and mentality he will get there.

[Nuntius]

Ukraine became the first team to punch a ticket for the second round. This EB is weird

[JV4MVP]

Ukraine became the first team to punch a ticket for the second round. This EB is weird

More like lucky that their first games were against Belgium, Israel and Germany lol.. and they almost lost to Belgium