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

[G R E Y]

Quality win by Slovenia. Outmatched Aussies in rebounds, team play, crisp sets, shooting.

Aussies do advance to the Olympics but it's a wake-up call as to with whom top to bottom. Felt like they ran out of steam once their bread and butter transition push was taken out as a factor.

Slovenia did a bunch of 'small' things better, most notably rebounding and spacing. Also made sure the Boomers offence had to play in the half court.

Totally deserved the win.

Australia need a quality big (actually, 2, but I'm hoping Lansdale can be 1) and more shooting/spacing.
Which are both issues unlikely to be solved by the Olympics to tell the truth.

Aussies have a lot of talent, some of which didn't play as is the case on many teams. They do need to figure out how to use it better to maximize burgeoning strengths.

One of big Aussie positive factors has been team spirit and team play.

Surprised how our of sync ('clunky' was the commentator's word) Aus O looked, laboured and out of gas. There were some frenetic moments but they couldn't impose their game on Slovenia and instead had opponent game imposed on them. On D, they couldn't stop Slovenia even in the non-Luka minutes.

Aussies need that next crop to step up and be the main group with vets being in supporting roles. Not sure if it's a deference or seniority thing or what but this surely signals a change over. You can sense the energy shift coming and needing to.

[Quentin]

Edwards’ 17 second half points saved US.

I’d give Cam Johnson minutes over Ingram. He has been pathetic.

Yeah, he was 0-5 in the first half but made some tremendous passes. His teammates couldn't finish a lot of them. Tried to get them involved though. 7-11 in the send, but we've got people here calling him a chucker. We'd lose this game without him. Stop the hate already people.

[TylersLakers]

As soon as RJ realizes he’s not a Kobe type of player and settles into a role as a Lamar Odom type player, he’ll be much better off.

The dude should literally handle the ball to drive and playmake, attack close outs, rebound. He is not as good as he thinks he is.

[UcanUwill]

53-24 second half Lithuania en fuego.
With a complete mess in another group, no idea if it is worth even trying versus USA

Lithuania absolutely dominated, but two really weird calls against Larentzakis. F U REFEREE chant kind off worked? But have you seen that Larentzakis double split, my god that mans a quality, if he was a bit more explosive, he could be Franz Wagner no kidding.

Got to love the fact Greece has sole NBA player, who is so NBA quality, he spent almost entire second half being a cheerleader. That team had Walkup, Larentzakis, Papapetrou, to a point PapaG, and after that, quality drops noticeably.

Lithuania again, I think eye test says Valančiūnas and Jokubaitis are best players, but team builds leads with them on the bench every time. I feared the opposite, I thought Kariniauskas minutes would be a disaster, thankfully it isnt.

[nikster]

Really ugly 3rd quarter, Canada offense has been ugly this stetch

[the_other_guy]

53-24 second half Lithuania en fuego.
With a complete mess in another group, no idea if it is worth even trying versus USA

Lithuania absolutely dominated, but two really weird calls against Larentzakis. F U REFEREE chant kind off worked? But have you seen that Larentzakis double split, my god that mans a quality, if he was a bit more explosive, he could be Franz Wagner no kidding.

Got to love the fact Greece has sole NBA player, who is so NBA quality, he spent almost entire second half being a cheerleader.

Larentzakis could be better if he was trying to play, not provoke and look for fouls and other ****. This game he was trying to step on Lithuanians toes, but actually it turned against him.

[Sakkreth]

53-24 second half Lithuania en fuego.
With a complete mess in another group, no idea if it is worth even trying versus USA

Lithuania absolutely dominated, but two really weird calls against Larentzakis. F U REFEREE chant kind off worked? But have you seen that Larentzakis double split, my god that mans a quality, if he was a bit more explosive, he could be Franz Wagner no kidding.

Got to love the fact Greece has sole NBA player, who is so NBA quality, he spent almost entire second half being a cheerleader. That team had Walkup, Larentzakis, Papapetrou, to a point PapaG, and after that, quality drops noticeably.

Which of his foul calls against him were weird? His 3rd, 4th, and 5th fouls were as follows:

Hits Jokubaitis on his hand trying to steal the ball. A foul to which he admitted.
Clear flop trying to get an offensive foul on Brazdeikis, while he was moving and lost his position already.
Hits Dimsa into the head with a backhand.

[Sedale Threatt]

Cruising back through the USA game, what a dogsht performance. Hopefully that's just a matter of them knowing they could win that game rolling out of bed after having been at this for a good month now rather than anything systemic. It's wild how shooting always feels like a concern with this team even though on paper we have plenty of guys who can make shots.

It's too easy to make a scapegoat out of Ingram, but I wish Kerr would just bench him at this point. He drags the team down every time he's on the court and we're getting to the point of the tournament where the margin for error vanishes and you just can't afford that. He's had his chance to carve out a role and he hasn't done it.

The reliance on Edwards feels double-edged to me. It's great that he can pick it up like he did in the second half, just like the Germany game which he pretty much won by himself. He's the one guy we have who can consistently attack the rim with force. But the degree of difficulty on so many of his shots is so high. I trust, say, KD's iso game on the 2010 team about 100 times more than his. So fingers crossed there.

With the lack of size and our one legit big's propensity to pick up dumb-ass fouls, Lithuania feels kind of scary at the moment. I can see Valanciunas just eating us alive inside.

[nikster]

SGA had a massive block on Caboclo as he tried to dunk it on a straight line drive, really impressive play. Caboclos been playing well today

[UcanUwill]

53-24 second half Lithuania en fuego.
With a complete mess in another group, no idea if it is worth even trying versus USA

Lithuania absolutely dominated, but two really weird calls against Larentzakis. F U REFEREE chant kind off worked? But have you seen that Larentzakis double split, my god that mans a quality, if he was a bit more explosive, he could be Franz Wagner no kidding.

Got to love the fact Greece has sole NBA player, who is so NBA quality, he spent almost entire second half being a cheerleader.

Larentzakis could be better if he was trying to play, not provoke and look for fouls and other ****. This game he was trying to step on Lithuanians toes, but actually it turned against him.

I think it could have been called different, it was controversial I think, his technical was bull I thought, fifth foul I dont know what he did there. Refs were against him this game.

I dont know why, but why do you think double teaming works so well to stop Jonas, I mean it creates open looks, but I am just talking about him getting his shot off, I dont remember it being such problem in the past, its like this years court is smaller, it is so easy to implode on bigs in this tournament, kinda weird but its all probably in my head, teams just keep overdefending Jonas while other people are breaking out in games.

[Airmiess]

Watch on YouTube

Still got his through foul trouble and constant double teams

[mabundo_nagumbe]

Quality win by Slovenia. Outmatched Aussies in rebounds, team play, crisp sets, shooting.

Aussies do advance to the Olympics but it's a wake-up call as to with whom top to bottom. Felt like they ran out of steam once their bread and butter transition push was taken out as a factor.

Slovenia did a bunch of 'small' things better, most notably rebounding and spacing. Also made sure the Boomers offence had to play in the half court.

Totally deserved the win.

Australia need a quality big (actually, 2, but I'm hoping Lansdale can be 1) and more shooting/spacing.
Which are both issues unlikely to be solved by the Olympics to tell the truth.

Interesting tactics, aussies were doubling and blitzing Doncic. Even if others were on fire. I thought they would let Luka beat them, would probably be a tactic worth exploring after they lost first half so bad. Terrible coaching, and I thought we have the worst coach in the tournament in Sekulić

[UcanUwill]

53-24 second half Lithuania en fuego.
With a complete mess in another group, no idea if it is worth even trying versus USA

Lithuania absolutely dominated, but two really weird calls against Larentzakis. F U REFEREE chant kind off worked? But have you seen that Larentzakis double split, my god that mans a quality, if he was a bit more explosive, he could be Franz Wagner no kidding.

Got to love the fact Greece has sole NBA player, who is so NBA quality, he spent almost entire second half being a cheerleader. That team had Walkup, Larentzakis, Papapetrou, to a point PapaG, and after that, quality drops noticeably.

Which of his foul calls against him were weird? His 3rd, 4th, and 5th fouls were as follows:

Hits Jokubaitis on his hand trying to steal the ball. A foul to which he admitted.
Clear flop trying to get an offensive foul on Brazdeikis, while he was moving and lost his position already.
Hits Dimsa into the head with a backhand.

Flop was not clear. I mean maybe he tried to sell it a bit, but you cant deny he was at least bumped. Even if its a flop, it is far from obvious to be a tech I think, otherwise we would see far more techs of this kind.

Fifth foul I need to rewatch the play, because I was a bit confused what happened, but I didnt see it.

[Sofia]

Australia really missed Jock Landale this tournament. Having him play 24 minutes so Duop and Cooks only need to fill in 12 high energy minutes between them would’ve made a big difference.

I’m not out on Cooks completely yet… hopefully playing in garbage minutes available in Washington (which is looking like the last 44 minutes of each of their 82 games) will see him really develop some moves, find his touch around the rim, and perhaps have thumb attachment surgery so he can catch. Any brain transplant to help the passing IQ is a bonus.

Knowing what we know, and how much they struggled to find big men minutes, if Jock was healthy, I wonder if the best cut would have been Ingles? Give more time to Green, Exum, Thybulle to bring a bit more energy, and pop Goulding in when microwave shooting is required.

Nick Kay will continue to fill the role of pudgy scrappy tweener big man that Australia seems to love bringing, though I would have preferred to see a lot more White.

[the_other_guy]

Lithuania absolutely dominated, but two really weird calls against Larentzakis. F U REFEREE chant kind off worked? But have you seen that Larentzakis double split, my god that mans a quality, if he was a bit more explosive, he could be Franz Wagner no kidding.

Got to love the fact Greece has sole NBA player, who is so NBA quality, he spent almost entire second half being a cheerleader.

Larentzakis could be better if he was trying to play, not provoke and look for fouls and other ****. This game he was trying to step on Lithuanians toes, but actually it turned against him.

I think it could have been called different, it was controversial I think, his technical was bull I thought, fifth foul I dont know what he did there. Refs were against him this game.

I dont know why, but why do you think double teaming works so well to stop Jonas, I mean it creates open looks, but I am just talking about him getting his shot off, I dont remember it being such problem in the past, its like this years court is smaller, it is so easy to implode on bigs in this tournament, kinda weird but its all probably in my head, teams just keep overdefending Jonas while other people are breaking out in games.

He had contact with Brazdeikis, but oversold for sure.
His 5th foul he elbowed (in think on purpose) Dimša.

Jonas is struggling, but he is such a gravity in the paint it creates space for others. And opposing teams definitely needs to adjust when he is on court. 1 on 1 you cant stop him most of the time.

[G R E Y]

I have book for flights, games and hotels to watch the QFs onwards onwards and Australia is out. Not sure whether to laugh or cry at this point

Oof sorry, man. Yeah it's a downer when your favourites are out but there's still a lot of quality play to get to see.

[Sakkreth]

Lithuania absolutely dominated, but two really weird calls against Larentzakis. F U REFEREE chant kind off worked? But have you seen that Larentzakis double split, my god that mans a quality, if he was a bit more explosive, he could be Franz Wagner no kidding.

Got to love the fact Greece has sole NBA player, who is so NBA quality, he spent almost entire second half being a cheerleader. That team had Walkup, Larentzakis, Papapetrou, to a point PapaG, and after that, quality drops noticeably.

Which of his foul calls against him were weird? His 3rd, 4th, and 5th fouls were as follows:

Hits Jokubaitis on his hand trying to steal the ball. A foul to which he admitted.
Clear flop trying to get an offensive foul on Brazdeikis, while he was moving and lost his position already.
Hits Dimsa into the head with a backhand.

Flop was not clear. I mean maybe he tried to sell it a bit, but you cant deny he was at least bumped. Even if its a flop, it is far from obvious to be a tech I think, otherwise we would see far more techs of this kind.

Fifth foul I need to rewatch the play, because I was a bit confused what happened, but I didnt see it.

To me it looked like a flop for sure. And it wasn't the first. He was already warned. Also, there were no grounds for an offensive foul there on Brazdeikis. Larentzakis had already lost his position and was trying to catch up from the side and was moving, Brazdeikis shoulder bumped him a little bit, which like it or not is a foul on the defensive player. Larentzakis was trying to sell that by flopping out of bounds.

5th foul there isn't much to talk about. Larentzakis slapped Dimsa across the head clearly.

Idk why you chose to talk about reffing in a 25-point blow-out though.

[Phreak50]

Such ridiculous coaching to double from the tip.

Just inviting the Slovenian team to get some rhythm and giving Luka a gameplan to just find others.

Yeah he had 6 turnovers but their offense found open shots left, right and centre.

It's great to see him slim and fit. He still nearly lost it for his country as he did in the Tokyo Olympics with his bad temper though.

[Phreak50]

Canada in trouble here.

[vege]

Canada is a joke without SGA