Eurobasket 2017 SLOVENIA takes the gold

Pukovnik · Post #241 » by **Pukovnik** » Sun Sep 3, 2017 10:34 am

I've been following Eurbasket closely, so this is my recap of the first three days of action.

Top favorite: Spain

They beat Czech Republic by 37 points, which is not surprising as the CR is not a very good team, but I was surprised how they destroyed Montenegro by 39 points. Montenegro is not at their level obviously, but they have few very good players, Nikola Vučević from the Orlando Magic leads that team. They should have been more competitive. More importantly, Spain looks very engaged, motivated, very well trained. It would be a huge surprise if they didn't win the whole thing.

Teams that could surprise Spain: France and Lithuania

Even though both of these teams lost in their first round, they have players that can make the difference. France are athletically gifted while Lithuania can shoot threes like no one else. If they are hot, they can compete with everybody.

Dark Horses: Serbia, Slovenia, Croatia, Russia.

In normal circumstances, I would put Serbia right there with Spain as the top favorite. But, Serbs had so many injuries and withdrawals before the tournament that I would be stunned if they make it to the semis. Slovenia is a team I like very much, Dragić has been a monster first couple of games, they have Dončić and Anthony Randolph, but they don't have a good rotation beside those three. I'm from Croatia, and I'm not happy how we played first two games against weak teams. But, I'm still hopefull we can improve because we have a very good team on paper. Russia could be the biggest surprise. They have a very balanced team led by Aleksey Shved and Timo Mozgov.

Teams to watch: Latvia and Germany.

Latvia is really fun to watch. They are very solid, they shoot many threes and play fast paced basketball. They are led by Porzingis, Bertans and Timma. I think they can make it to the quarterfinals if they avoid some of the big guns in the elimination round before hand. Germany has a very interesting team lead by Dennis Schroder from the Atlanta Hawks. They play very good defense and they have good rotational players. The problem is, beside Schroder they don't have a big star.

lars_rosenberg · Post #242 » by **lars_rosenberg** » Sun Sep 3, 2017 10:38 am

Italy's roster is missing a few key players this year, including Gallinari which would have been very important for the offense, but we've been solid so far.
Great defense and 3 point shooting. We struggle a little bit on offense as expected, but as long as the 3s keep falling (52% in the first 2 games) we're good. Belinelli has played very well.
My biggest concern is that we don't have a reliable center and players like Porzingis or Gasol would wreck havoc in our defense.
Today we play Lithuania and Valanciunas can be a problem.

Veyron · Post #243 » by **Veyron** » Sun Sep 3, 2017 10:38 am

Alatan wrote:
Sir Psycho Sexy wrote:I'm so mad. 5 missed fts in the last 2 minutes

Is it me or were the referees biased towards Russians? We got 2 techs and were chopped every time we step into the paint...

Referees suck in whole tournament , because its 3rd tier quality referees.

jinxed · Post #244 » by **jinxed** » Sun Sep 3, 2017 10:41 am

MrSparkle wrote:
freestyler34 wrote:Cavs new player Cedi Osman' s 28pts, 7reb, 4ast, 7stl performance

Watch on YouTube

Damn... could be an exceptionally good (shooting) game, but that guy's overall offensive skills look incredibly smooth.

Tell me more

UcanUwill · Post #245 » by **UcanUwill** » Sun Sep 3, 2017 11:06 am

lars_rosenberg wrote:Italy's roster is missing a few key players this year, including Gallinari which would have been very important for the offense, but we've been solid so far.
Great defense and 3 point shooting. We struggle a little bit on offense as expected, but as long as the 3s keep falling (52% in the first 2 games) we're good. Belinelli has played very well.
My biggest concern is that we don't have a reliable center and players like Porzingis or Gasol would wreck havoc in our defense.
Today we play Lithuania and Valanciunas can be a problem.

As Lithuania supporter, I am legit scared. Italy's problem for years was defense. This year they finally look good defensively, and that 3 point shooting is as good as ever. Its a big rebounding, pounding the paint team vs 3 point bombing squad. Some people on that team I dont even know who they are, like Filloy, but he is already giving me Basile vibes.

King- · Post #246 » by **King-** » Sun Sep 3, 2017 1:55 pm

Doncic's vision on offense, IQ, and overall offensive maturity is very impressive. Dude plays like he's 28. How tall is this kid? He can be a problem with this skillset, especially if he grows a couple more inches

UcanUwill · Post #247 » by **UcanUwill** » Sun Sep 3, 2017 2:14 pm

King- wrote:Doncic's vision on offense, IQ, and overall offensive maturity is very impressive. Dude plays like he's 28. How tall is this kid? He can be a problem with this skillset, especially if he grows a couple more inches

He is around 6'8. Can play 4 positions.

Heat_team02 · Post #248 » by **Heat_team02** » Sun Sep 3, 2017 2:17 pm

Watch on YouTube

UcanUwill · Post #249 » by **UcanUwill** » Sun Sep 3, 2017 3:27 pm

That was close, but Slovenia and my bet escaped Greece behind heroics of Dragic and Doncic. Doncic with the best game so far (22/5/3)
As expected, Greece can't shoot 3s. Papagiannis played a very good game, but Greek coach didn't trust him to finish game. Randolph was pretty terrible I thought

Styrian · Post #250 » by **Styrian** » Sun Sep 3, 2017 3:28 pm

Dončić with 22 points on 75 TS%, led comeback as PG in 4th quarter with Dragić in foul trouble.

BoardCrusher · Post #251 » by **BoardCrusher** » Sun Sep 3, 2017 3:34 pm

what a comeback by Slovenia after the blackout in 3q

Beorn · Post #252 » by **Beorn** » Sun Sep 3, 2017 3:35 pm

We lost the game when the Slovenians decided to punish our slow bigs when they switched onto their guards, which is almost cheat-like against our frontcourt.

BaDaBo · Post #253 » by **BaDaBo** » Sun Sep 3, 2017 4:18 pm

Watch on YouTube

UcanUwill · Post #254 » by **UcanUwill** » Sun Sep 3, 2017 4:18 pm

Watch on YouTube

Look at 3:18 part, this is classic Doncic, activates his low dribble powers and goes around bodies and active hands like its nothing. Something most ball handlers cant do.

thomchatt3rton · Post #255 » by **thomchatt3rton** » Sun Sep 3, 2017 4:21 pm

Beorn wrote:We lost the game when the Slovenians decided to punish our slow bigs when they switched onto their guards, which is almost cheat-like against our frontcourt.

How much better is Greece if Giannis plays? Obviously they're better, but would he have made this squad legit?

ReKon · Post #256 » by **ReKon** » Sun Sep 3, 2017 4:50 pm

thomchatt3rton wrote:
Beorn wrote:We lost the game when the Slovenians decided to punish our slow bigs when they switched onto their guards, which is almost cheat-like against our frontcourt.

How much better is Greece if Giannis plays? Obviously they're better, but would he have made this squad legit?

Defensively yes. Our biggest problem is is pick & roll defence because our bigs are too slow and that includes Papagiannis. If Giannis was there he would be able to switch to the guards with ease. Offensively i guess it just makes us lethal in transition but we don't have any shooters to spread the floor for Giannis and the only big who is somewhat capable of playing the pick & roll is Papagiannis and he is pretty average at it.

Either way i m surprised we even managed to stay close in this game or that Dragic didn t score a career high. Doncic of course went off on us as we have some very mediocre guards and forwards and our terrible coach decided to play Antetokounmpo only 4 minutes... Like i said this game should have been much worse for us and i expect that many Slovenian players were tired from yesterday's game against Finland.

Beorn · Post #257 » by **Beorn** » Sun Sep 3, 2017 4:54 pm

^what ReKon said. He would be a difference maker in D, would help the team getting some easy points but he wouldn't mitigate our shooting woes.

thomchatt3rton · Post #258 » by **thomchatt3rton** » Sun Sep 3, 2017 5:23 pm

ReKon wrote:
thomchatt3rton wrote:
Beorn wrote:We lost the game when the Slovenians decided to punish our slow bigs when they switched onto their guards, which is almost cheat-like against our frontcourt.

How much better is Greece if Giannis plays? Obviously they're better, but would he have made this squad legit?

Defensively yes. Our biggest problem is is pick & roll defence because our bigs are too slow and that includes Papagiannis. If Giannis was there he would be able to switch to the guards with ease. Offensively i guess it just makes us lethal in transition but we don't have any shooters to spread the floor for Giannis and the only big who is somewhat capable of playing the pick & roll is Papagiannis and he is pretty average at it.

Either way i m surprised we even managed to stay close in this game or that Dragic didn t score a career high. Doncic of course went off on us as we have some very mediocre guards and forwards and our terrible coach decided to play Antetokounmpo only 4 minutes... Like i said this game should have been much worse for us and i expect that many Slovenian players were tired from yesterday's game against Finland.

Good post. I admit I was only thinking about Yannis impact offensively and thinking it would have been marginal. Foolish of me not to consider his team-D, help-D (or just D in general). I only watched one full game (vs France), and you are NOT kidding about your bigs rotating- no doubt Giannis would help that immensely.

lambchop · Post #259 » by **lambchop** » Sun Sep 3, 2017 6:12 pm

Giannis would be difficult to defend and his defense would be a game changer, however, yea greece really does lack shooting this year. Imo giannis would have limited either dragic or doncic in this game and greece would have won.

To me the most impressive players so far have been dragic and markkanen, who looks like he has a lot of potential, still very raw but he could be very legit in about 4 to 5 years
I still don't understand how finland got "so good" at basketball. I can remember playing against teams from finland about 10 years ago and they were pretty terrible.

ratrac · Post #260 » by **ratrac** » Sun Sep 3, 2017 6:53 pm

Markkanen has been surprisingly nice and consistent. Should get plenty of opportunity with the Bulls.