FIBA World Cup 2023 part 2 SEMIS (USA vs GERMANY : SERBIA vs CANADA) poll added

[Paija]

Just finished watching the France Latvia game live in Jakarta Arena. The Latvian crowd was awesome throughout the game. The whole arena was cheering for Latvia.

Latvia's PG Zagars was awesome. With number 55 and great passing, he looked like Latvian Jason Williams out there. Bertans and Fournier had an awesome first half shooting 3s. Fournier got cold in the 4th. France loss their composure. De Colo got ejected, Batum kept fumbling the ball.

I am so happy for Zagars, was not sure if he will manage the pressure. After we lost our best point guards to injuries and just before tournament KP dropped out too I did not have a lot of hope...

[RSP83]

Just finished watching the France Latvia game live in Jakarta Arena. The Latvian crowd was awesome throughout the game. The whole arena was cheering for Latvia.

Latvia's PG Zagars was awesome. With number 55 and great passing, he looked like Latvian Jason Williams out there. Bertans and Fournier had an awesome first half shooting 3s. Fournier got cold in the 4th. France loss their composure. De Colo got ejected, Batum kept fumbling the ball.

I am so happy for Zagars, was not sure if he will manage the pressure. After we lost our best point guards to injuries and just before tournament KP dropped out too I did not have a lot of hope...

He's also such a pest on defense. High motor guy on both ends. If a guy like Dellavedova can get a shot in the NBA why not him?

Watch on YouTube

[lambchop]

Latvia is one of the biggest what ifs of European basketball. They hardly ever had their full squad with KP, both Bertans brothers and that other dude that lives in the US and stopped playing basketball a while back but still stays in shape and is always available to play when the national team asks him to - was it Timma?

They either had injury issues or just couldn't qualify because their NBA/Euroleague guys couldn't make it to the qualifying tournaments, plus they don't have enough depth to be able to compete without them.

Another what if is Italy where they hardly ever managed to get Gallinari, Belinelli, Melli, Datome together. One of them always had injury issues. Usually Gallinari of course.

Timma was cut. I think Latvia is where it's at, they are in wc straight out of Europe, what else can you really ask from them?

I'm talking about in general in the last 7 years or so. Like I said, Timma stopped playing, but isn't officially retired. He still lives in the US and just stays in shape. Of course, that's not enough, if you actually want to compete in the tournaments, but he's still a solid piece in the qualifying games that don't feature NBA and Euroleague guys. But even when they were all younger there was always some kind of KP injury issue or they just couldn't qualify. Like last Eurobasket they weren't participating.

[Mavrelous]

The way too early probable pairings for the QF KO stages (just to see how easier it is now for the Americans to go all the way);

Dominican Republic vs Lithuania
USA vs Italy
Slovenia vs Spain
Canada vs Australia

How does 2nd round seeding go? I don't see SLO beating AUS or GER, can AUS and GER come out of the 2nd the round and SLO be eliminated?

so assuming the states win their group they'll play the loser of the game between lithuania and montenegro. canada will (likely) play either brazil or spain and slovenia play either germany, australia or japan.

Yeah, but in the 2nd round each plays the 2 teams from the other group, how does the seeding between them work? Do they get their points from previous round, I'm not exactly sure how it works.

[UcanUwill]

How does 2nd round seeding go? I don't see SLO beating AUS or GER, can AUS and GER come out of the 2nd the round and SLO be eliminated?

so assuming the states win their group they'll play the loser of the game between lithuania and montenegro. canada will (likely) play either brazil or spain and slovenia play either germany, australia or japan.

Yeah, but in the 2nd round each plays the 2 teams from the other group, how does the seeding between them work? Do they get their points from previous round, I'm not exactly sure how it works.

They carry both record and point differential. Play 2 more game against other group teams and two on top goes in. That is why there is no such a thing as Australia losing today not being a huge thing. Yes, of course they will make it to second round, but they complicated the second round already

[G R E Y]

FFBB not mincing words oof

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[Mavrelous]

They carry both record and point differential. Play 2 more game against other group teams and two on top goes in. That is why there is no such a thing as Australia losing today not being a huge thing. Yes, of course they will make it to second round, but they complicated the second round already

Interesting, this makes the 3rd game very important for teams that already qualified...
If 2 teams finish with the same record of W/L, what's the tie breaker? H2H matchup or points differential?

[knicksfan974]

Few thoughts about team France on why their performance was a disaster:
- Batum: sleepwalking through games, really it is time to retire from the national team.
- Gobert: limited skillset, hardly a plus on court. Embiid would be welcomed.
- De Colo: level of play has dropped, maybe it is time to move on.
- Coach Collet: needs to go
- Ntilikina and Wembanyama were desperately needed. Don' t know if the result would have been much better though.

Fournier is the only one who gets a pass from me. At least he did what he is supposed to and that is to score points. For the Paris olympics the team needs a smart rebuild around Wembanyama with a new coaching staff with some fresh ideas. Hopefully some of the young prospects would live up to the hype and would be able to contribute on a national team level sooner than later.

[durden_tyler]

They carry both record and point differential. Play 2 more game against other group teams and two on top goes in. That is why there is no such a thing as Australia losing today not being a huge thing. Yes, of course they will make it to second round, but they complicated the second round already

Interesting, this makes the 3rd game very important for teams that already qualified...
If 2 teams finish with the same record of W/L, what's the tie breaker? H2H matchup or points differential?

Only records from the teams who they played are considered (if that’s not mentioned yet)

So a team like Dominican Republic couldn’t care less what happens vs Angola, for example.


Edit: apologies to Angola, who can still advance but will need to get past that -14 pt differential they have vs italy.

[lambchop]

- Batum: sleepwalking through games, really it is time to retire from the national team.

That shows just how impressive rudy fernandez is. Dude is 3 years older than Batum but is still having an impact on the NT, making big shots and bringing energy when needed.

[Liam_Gallagher]

Omari Spellman got so fat. He plays for Lebanon.

[a-French-Fan]

Few thoughts about team France on why their performance was a disaster:
- Batum: sleepwalking through games, really it is time to retire from the national team.
- Gobert: limited skillset, hardly a plus on court. Embiid would be welcomed.
- De Colo: level of play has dropped, maybe it is time to move on.
- Coach Collet: needs to go
- Ntilikina and Wembanyama were desperately needed. Don' t know if the result would have been much better though.

Fournier is the only one who gets a pass from me. At least he did what he is supposed to and that is to score points. For the Paris olympics the team needs a smart rebuild around Wembanyama with a new coaching staff with some fresh ideas. Hopefully some of the young prospects would live up to the hype and would be able to contribute on a national team level sooner than later.

Fournier ... team plays better without him ^^ Orléans's game Vs Lithuania was so beautiful ^^

Because Olympics are in one year, staff won't move unfortunately.
De Colo is still good, I would select him next year as a 6th man. And as a guard!!! Not a point guard.
The point guard is a big problem, but how could Hayes and Maledon could say "I will last a part of my summer with french NT, but I already know that I'm not going to the WC"? Last year, Maledon wasn't good as expected, but he didn't get experience. I don't give a s*** about silver last year, I wanted somes tries for 2024. 2024 should have been the only goal last years, but it was not.
So I would drop Batum and Gobert for next year, Fournier I don't know if I would keep him, but De Colo should be the Captain IMO

[lambchop]

Just finished watching the France Latvia game live in Jakarta Arena. The Latvian crowd was awesome throughout the game. The whole arena was cheering for Latvia.

Latvia's PG Zagars was awesome. With number 55 and great passing, he looked like Latvian Jason Williams out there. Bertans and Fournier had an awesome first half shooting 3s. Fournier got cold in the 4th. France loss their composure. De Colo got ejected, Batum kept fumbling the ball.

I am so happy for Zagars, was not sure if he will manage the pressure. After we lost our best point guards to injuries and just before tournament KP dropped out too I did not have a lot of hope...

He's also such a pest on defense. High motor guy on both ends. If a guy like Dellavedova can get a shot in the NBA why not him?

Watch on YouTube

Delly went undrafted and then made the Cavs roster via the summer league. European usually guys aren't willing to do that cause it means turning down guaranteed money or a good roster spot on a Euroleague team just to see what might be possible in the NBA.

At his age no NBA team is going to sign him straight up, unless he balls out against a team like CAN/USA where he shows he can be factor against nba players OR if he actually played in the Euroleague and were a difference maker there.

There's obviously still time for all of that to happen.

[-Luke-]

With all the games so far (inlcuding exhibition), some problems for other teams and missing star players, I'm starting to believe that we (Germany) could make some noise in this tournament.

I hope I didn't jinx it with this post.

[Mirotic12]

This tournament is 10 times better than the Olympics. The fact that we even have to debate which tournament is better here is ludicrous.

You still either don't get it ir in your fashion shifting goals to your narrative, we were not debating which tournament was better, we were talking which was more prestigious, and it's no debatable, Olympic FIBA is FAR FAR more prestigious sadly. You think me, as huge basketball fan wouldn't want to real basketball wc where everything about only basketball was more prestigious, of course I would, but it isn't, even just a niche of basketball fans care about this thing, and me lying to myself and everyone your style, won't change facts.

Now which tournament is actually better, now that IS debatable. I personally like that wc has a lot of teams, but a lot of people could argue half of these teams shouldn't be here at all and it just makes everything boring. We had 16 games so far, I believe only two were remotely close.

Just like FIBA said, they did a big survey in the 6 continents and North America was the only one that considered Olympics basketball to be more important and "more prestigious" than the World Basketball Cup. The other continents all viewed the World Cup as being more important and more prestigious.

You are just basing everything on your opinion and opinions of those countries that were a part of that Olympics East versus West Cold War era propaganda. As was already explained in the first World Cup thread, it's only really those countries that were involved in that Col War Olympics propaganda that care so much about the Olympics. The other countries of course consider the actual World Cup to be much more important.

So you are actually basing this on your own personal opinion.

[mikejames23]

Rudy Gobert needs a real leader next to him, or he won't win anything. Congrats to Arturs Zagars.

[Mirotic12]

It's a shame Milutinov never came to the NBA after being drafted could have easily been a 10/10 with above average D and decent passing big.

His defense outside of the paint is absolutely horrific though.

[Liam_Gallagher]

Rudy Gobert sucks. He took one field goal attempt in their loss.

[Mirotic12]

Come on guys that was a clear foul.

Mills slapped at his arm and mid body, not going for the ball.

Giddey is slow. And slow energy wise for a starting point guard as well. Really easy to guard without a jumper and puts too much pressure on his teammates.

Yeah he looked good on the box score against Finland but Australia was down all game till he went out and Exum came in.

Giddey is a slower, less vertical, less athletic, with weaker handles, with much worse defense, but a better shooting version of Theo Papaloukas.

[durden_tyler]

This tournament is 10 times better than the Olympics. The fact that we even have to debate which tournament is better here is ludicrous.

You still either don't get it ir in your fashion shifting goals to your narrative, we were not debating which tournament was better, we were talking which was more prestigious, and it's no debatable, Olympic FIBA is FAR FAR more prestigious sadly. You think me, as huge basketball fan wouldn't want to real basketball wc where everything about only basketball was more prestigious, of course I would, but it isn't, even just a niche of basketball fans care about this thing, and me lying to myself and everyone your style, won't change facts.

Now which tournament is actually better, now that IS debatable. I personally like that wc has a lot of teams, but a lot of people could argue half of these teams shouldn't be here at all and it just makes everything boring. We had 16 games so far, I believe only two were remotely close.

Just like FIBA said, they did a big survey in the 6 continents and North America was the only one that considered Olympics basketball to be more important and "more prestigious" than the World Basketball Cup. The other continents all viewed the World Cup as being more important and more prestigious.

You are just basing everything on your opinion and opinions of those countries that were a part of that Olympics East versus West Cold War era propaganda. As was already explained in the first World Cup thread, it's only really those countries that were involved in that Col War Olympics propaganda that care so much about the Olympics. The other countries of course consider the actual World Cup to be much more important.

So you are actually basing this on your own personal opinion.

If that’s the case, why do most teams don’t take it seriously? Jokic? Wemby? Murray and others? While US sends a second rate squad and has a big chance to win it all.