JV at EuroBasket 2013 is Done, Lithuania Gets Silver

[JV4MVP]

Spain played all the game to win. If you say anything different you did not watch the entire game and, for sure, you could not understand the last timeouts of the spanish coach (obviously he spoke in Spanish that's so easy to understand for every Italian). Great game coming from both teams.

Well obviously the Spanish coach won't deliberately tell his team to lose the game lol in front of cameras and the crowd.

This is something that is orchestrated in the locker room, and possibly by only a few players.

Spain's play late in the 4th quarter and OT is so suspicious allowing a 11-0 run, fouling 3 pt shooters, missing FTs, playing lazy defense, not trying to aggressively score when behind in OT, etc.

[Italians in NBA]

Spain played all the game to win. If you say anything different you did not watch the entire game and, for sure, you could not understand the last timeouts of the spanish coach (obviously he spoke in Spanish that's so easy to understand for every Italian). Great game coming from both teams.

Well obviously the Spanish coach won't deliberately tell his team to lose the game lol in front of cameras and the crowd.

This is something that is orchestrated in the locker room, and possibly by only a few players.

Spain's play late in the 4th quarter and OT is so suspicious allowing a 11-0 run, fouling 3 pt shooters, missing FTs, playing lazy defense, not trying to aggressively score when behind in OT, etc.

It did not happen. And it does not happen in real basketball. None does it in the sports. If you decide to "lose" a game you are going to lose the next one for sure. A coach cannot ask to his players to lose. I say it again, listen the Spanish last 2 timeouts, the Spain's coach is not a perfectly acting Robert De Niro, every word he said was true! Tanking is for loosers that are going to never win anithing!

[JV4MVP]

It did not happen. And it does not happen in real basketball. None does it in the sports. If you decide to "lose" a game you are going to lose the next one. I say it again, listen the Spanish last 2 timeouts, the Spain's coach is not Robert De Niro, evry word he said was true!

Google "Spain intentionally loses to Brazil".

And again, obviously the coach will speak as to appear that he isn't tanking the game.

[Italians in NBA]

It did not happen. And it does not happen in real basketball. None does it in the sports. If you decide to "lose" a game you are going to lose the next one. I say it again, listen the Spanish last 2 timeouts, the Spain's coach is not Robert De Niro, evry word he said was true!

Google "Spain intentionally loses to Brazil".

Spain wins titles, winning great games. Do you think they prefer Serbia over Lituania? Really? Do you think they want to lose with Italy? You do not know anything about European Sports challenges. Spain cannot accept to lose with Italy in every life's event. They simply prefer to die and the same is for Italians!

I do not know if a Canadian can imagine what's rivalry between these 2 nations, but you are totally wrong for sure about this game.

[JV4MVP]

It did not happen. And it does not happen in real basketball. None does it in the sports. If you decide to "lose" a game you are going to lose the next one. I say it again, listen the Spanish last 2 timeouts, the Spain's coach is not Robert De Niro, evry word he said was true!

Google "Spain intentionally loses to Brazil".

Spain wins titles, winning great games. Do you think they prefer Serbia over Lituania? Really? Do you think they want to lose with Italy? You do not know anything about European Sports challenges. Spain cannot accept to lose with Italy in every life's e event. They simply prefer to die and the same is for Italians!

I think I know enough about European basketball. And lol at your "They simply prefer to die and the same is for Italians" rhetoric.

Spain didn't want to play Lithuania because LTU is stacked with bigs. That is Spain's weakness. LTU has five 7-footers, including 3 that play PF. All of them play in the NBA or the Euroleague. Is Spain going to defend the PFs with Claver? If Spain were to shoot poorly from the outside they would be in trouble. Serbia only has Krstic. For Spain to bring only 1 center was a disaster. Same for Greece.

A second reason is that Spain preferred a 2-day rest after today's game. Had they played Lithuania they would've had only a 1 day break before the semis.

Judging from your username you're probably a little biased towards your country. It's nothing against Italy either, they played phenomenally against Greece and other top teams. They have a good chance against Lithuania too although I think they will lose. In 1 game, anything is possible. US once lost to Puerto Rico and sometimes the Raptors beat the Lakers. Every game has a probability and I am subjectively assigning a 60% chance that LTU will win.

[Italians in NBA]

Google "Spain intentionally loses to Brazil".

Spain wins titles, winning great games. Do you think they prefer Serbia over Lituania? Really? Do you think they want to lose with Italy? You do not know anything about European Sports challenges. Spain cannot accept to lose with Italy in every life's e event. They simply prefer to die and the same is for Italians!

I think I know enough about European basketball. And lol at your "They simply prefer to die and the same is for Italians" rhetoric.

Spain didn't want to play Lithuania because LTU is stacked with bigs. That is Spain's weakness. LTU has five 7-footers, including 3 that play PF. All of them play in the NBA or Euroleague. Are they going to defend the PFs with Claver? If Spain were to shoot poorly from the outside they would be in trouble. Serbia only has Krstic. For Spain to bring only 1 center was a disaster. Same for Greece.

A second reason is that Spain preferred a 2-day rest after today's game. Had they played Lithuania they would've had only a 1 day break before the semis.

In real life can you accept losses and wins without suspecting everyone? It was a real game for real men! Accept it once in your sports life. Great game coming from both teams. It was so easy to rest Gasol and Rodriguez but they played all the game trying to win. Simply accept it. Enjoy basketball and life much more.

If you ever played a single Pro game in your life you know that you cannot manage to win either lose a basketball's game ending it in the OT. The simple idea (I do not want to disrespect you) is much more than silly.

[JV4MVP]

In real life can you accept losses and wins without suspecting everyone? It was a real game for real men! Accept it once in your sports life. Great game coming from both teams. It was so easy to rest Gasol and Rodriguez but they playesd all the game trying to win. Simply accept it. Enjoy basketball and life much more.

In real life teams lose intentionally to improve their circumstances later on. Sorry, but Italy did not genuinely beat Spain. You can ignore the evidence. Gasol could've played the entire game and messed around at the end to accomplish the mission (which he did by allowing the Italians to drive to the basket freely). Obviously it requires some discreteness.

And hopefully the Raptor's doctor will sideline Rudy with a "back spasm" injury so the we can improve our chances at the Wiggins lottery.

[Italians in NBA]

In real life can you accept losses and wins without suspecting everyone? It was a real game for real men! Accept it once in your sports life. Great game coming from both teams. It was so easy to rest Gasol and Rodriguez but they playesd all the game trying to win. Simply accept it. Enjoy basketball and life much more.

In real life teams lose intentionally to improve their circumstances later on. Sorry, but Italy did not genuinely beat Spain. You can ignore the evidence. Gasol could've played the entire game and messed around at the end to accomplish the mission (which he did by allowing the Italians to drive to the basket freely). Obviously it requires some discreteness.

And hopefully the Raptor's doctor will sideline Rudy with a "back spasm" injury so the we can improve our chances at the Wiggins lottery.

In Europe if you tank you do not play in the TOP sports leagues anymore. It's a north american way to manage the sport. If your team is the worst one you have more chances in the draft. In Europe if you are the worst team you lose your sports rights to play in the league. Tank is for loosers! Probably you cannot accept it, but it's the sports rules (maybe only in Europe but I prefer this approach so much). Spain vs Italy was simply a great real game that you are not used to see. For sue te NBA is the best league but so many times during the regular season the games are totally not significant just because the teams are tired or not motivated. Too many games without a real value for the final classification. The top teams can rest their best players in the back to back games, teams can have a tanking approach. Only the playoffs are real basketball, the other games are simply show business.

[JV4MVP]

In Europe if you tank you do not play in the TOP sports league anymore. It's a north american way to manage the sport. If your team is the worst one you have more chances in the draft. In Europe if you are the worst team you lose your sports rights to play in the league. Tank is for loosers! Probably you cannot accept it, but it's the sports rule (maybe only in Europe but I prefer this approach so much).

Yes, for Euroleague. In EUROBASKET, however, tanking can help you pick your opponent and schedule to a degree.

In North America, b.c. there is a draft for the most gifted players in the world, mediocre teams have an incentive to tank. Of course playoff bound teams don't have that incentive although it is common for them to rest their players if they secured a position. This actually happened today where the Serbian coach accepted defeat against Spain and benched his starters in the second half. The pro is that his players will be rested for the game to break into the top 6 and get into the World Championship. So indeed it is another example in Europe.

[SportsGuy8]

Ah, c'mon, stop with this. First on the general board, now here.

By far the most likely scenario is that the Spanish team isn't really losing on purpose in the group stages, they're just so confident (and/or arrogant) that they don't really care about results in the group stages. That's all there is to it. Their only goal is to win it all, so in their eyes, it really makes no real difference against which teams they have to play, so they're treating group matches as preparation matches.

The only realistic exception is them trying to avoid team USA at the Olympics. But that's a totally different situation, because their goal changes with one team being objectively much better, so reaching the final (and thus at least 2nd place) is basically their primary goal (as opposed to Eurobasket, where 2nd place is almost as big of a failure to them as 5th place). Then their 2nd goal is to try shocking the world.

Now please stop with this, JV4MVP.

[Italians in NBA]

Ah, c'mon, stop with this. First on the general board, now here.

By far the most likely scenario is that the Spanish team isn't really losing on purpose in the group stages, they're just so confident (and/or arrogant) that they don't really care about results in the group stages. That's all there is to it. Their only goal is to win it all, so in their eyes, it really makes no real difference against which teams they have to play, so they're treating group matches as preparation matches.

The only realistic exception is them trying to avoid team USA at the Olympics. But that's a totally different situation, because their goal changes with one team being objectively much better, so reaching the final (and thus at least 2nd place) is basically their primary goal (as opposed to Eurobasket, where 2nd place is almost as big of a failure to them as 5th place). Then their 2nd goal is to try shocking the world.

Now please stop with this, JV4MVP.

[theycallmeZZ]

I thought I will kill some more time. Decided to look at remained 8 teams and rank remained players, take a deeper look how they were doing in this Eurobasket. It is not a talent ranking, its about performances. PF was such a reach, holy crap. Tell me what you think, I could explain some snubs if you ask.

Centers

1 : M. Gasol
2 : N. Krstic
3 : A. Tomic
4 : A. Ajinca
5 : M. Begic



Power Forwards

1 : Luigi DaTome
2 : Boris Diaw
3 : Victor Claver
4 : Rasko Katic
5 : Linas Kleiza



Small Forwards

1 : Bojan Bogdanovic
2 : Nicolas Batum
3 : Alessandro Gentile
4 : Rudy Fernandez
5 : Nemanja Bjelica



Shooting Guards

1 : Marco Belinelli
2 : Sergii Gladyr
3 : Pietro Aradori
4 : Zoran Dragic
5 : Jose Calderon


Point Guards

1 : Tony Parker
2 : Goran Dragic
3 : Sergio Rodriguez
4 : Eugene Jeter
5 : Ricky Rubio

[JV4MVP]

SportsGuy8,

Am I not allowed to voice the same opinion in a Eurobasket thread on the GB and this related JV one?

Italians in NBA,

Sorry bro, Spain tanked against your country. Maybe you'll meet them again in the finals

[SportsGuy8]

Sure you're allowed ... Doesn't mean it's not nonsense.

Spaniards are not being speculative pricks. They're just being arrogant pricks. Know the difference!

P.s.: I'm just tired of having to listen to it everywhere I go these days. Even during supposedly "professional" broadcasts.

[UcanUwill]

theycallmeZZ

I ranked players who made it to quarterfinals. Czechs were eliminated in the first round. If I ranked all players, list would be noticeably different.

Italians in NBA

I didn't wanted to diminish the comeback victory of your team. But that game did raised a legitimate suspicions. I am not saying Spain purposely lost that game for sure, it's just a theory. Spain lost that game mainly because of their own carelessness.
And another thing, you are being overly sentimental over European sports. Anyone can be a phony if it suits ones needs. You never know

JV4MVP

We have no evidence here, sorry. Stop being so sure about the matter, its just a conspiracy theory. Loose motives aren't evidence.

[Clementine9]

It's game day! Break out the "I <3 Jonas" signs, some pop and chips, and settle into a comfy chair! Beer and wings are also acceptable.

[BLKMASS]

italy is better without bargscrubbi

[JV4MVP]

I'm mad that I missed the Slovenia vs. Serbia game although Slovenia seems to have dominated. I can't believe they played so soon after yst's games. So now Slovenia will be playing for 5th.

Unsurprisingly, Croatia is beasting on Ukraine.

It will be a big test for LTU today against Italy, a team that has some momentum. I hope the coach avoids any shenanigans. JV is def one of LTU's core pieces so he better get his 20 minutes.

[arbsn]

Italy has looked really good this tournament... Great match-up this afternoon. Anyone know if there is a legal stream?

[AK47MVP]

Italy has looked really good this tournament... Great match-up this afternoon. Anyone know if there is a legal stream?

do you have NBA TV? if not legal streams are obviously available but you need to pay for them.