Slovenia Grab Last Olympic Qualiyfing Spot, Rasho ranks as EC's top blocker - Sep. 17, 2007
Slovenia
drained seven three-pointers during a 24-6 run to start the fourth quarter in
knocking off France 88-74 to clinch seventh place at the 2007 EuroBasket as well
as a berth in next summer's pre-Olympic tournament and
Radoslav
Nesterovic (212-C-76) is the Championship leading blocker, rejecting 1,9
balls per game. Jaka Lakovic hit three long bombs in the big stretch on his way
to 26 points, six rebounds and seven assists and
Radoslav
Nesterovic collected 19 points, 8 rebounds and 2 blocks. SLOVENIA 88 (18+18+15+37): Cebular DNP, Lakovic 26, Dragic,
Nesterovic 19, Smodis 13, Slokar 13, Klobucar 2, Jagodnik 5, D.Lorbek 8, Vidmar
DNP, E.Lorbek. FRANCE 74 (17+23+17+17): Gomis 10, Badiane DNP, Giffa 2,
Sangare, Diawara 7, Parker 31, Fercheaud 5, Pietrus 4, Kirksay 2, Diaw, Turiaf
13, Weis.
Russia is European Championship 2007 !!!! - Sep. 16, 2007
Russia edged in the final of Eurobasket 2007 host Spain 60-59. The hero of the
game was definitely J.R. Holden, who's 2-pointer jump just 2.1 second before the
end of the game save the game for Russians. It was their first European
championship title in the history (as Russia, since Soviet Union team won
previously 14 gold medals at Eurobasket). Pau Gasol still could switch the
victory towards host team, but his buzzer shot went in ...and out. That way
Spain got their 6th silver medal at Eurobasket. The MVP of the tournament went to Russian
Andrei
Kirilenko (205-F-81), who was the leader of his team thru all competition
games including the final one, where he got 17 points and 5 rebounds.
Coach David Blatt: "Khryapa was the secret of our success. Thank you first of all to my
two great stars - Kirilenko and Khryapa. Both of them they are wonderful people
as well as they are great players. We wanted to stay in the game the whole time.
In the scouting we spoke about that first - stay close and make them feel the
pressure. They felt the heat and we took advantage of it."
"This is an ultimate moment in the history fo the Russian nation. It's the first
championship of the new Russia. I'm very proud to be the person in charge of
this historical journey. I feel very lucky to be part of history both in Russia
and FIBA Europe basketball."
"We did not want to double team Gasol a lot. We did doubling late after two
dribbles just not to allow him to go close to the basket, but we did a great job
against Calderon, and he didn't play as good as he did in the last game against
us. We played a lot of match up zone and didn't allow Gasol to get the ball
close to the rim. We wanted to put him on the line and it worked. Holden stopped
in the last three days - Tony Parker, Sarunas Jasikevicius and Jose Calderon and
people should acknowledge that."
Coach Pepu
Hernandez: "This team is a very important team. This group of team
doesn't only play good basketball but they also set an example. For me they are
without doubt the best team in the history of Spain."
"Of course nobody will settle for a silver medal, but that's not going to
console the team. The coaching staff did a great job. We continue to believe we
can compete with anyone. Perhaps a few days from now we can see things
differently, and see we have a great future ahead of us."
"The team has to follow a certain direction, and we have established that. I
don't think we deserve to take steps back. We still want to improve, even day to
day, no matter if a player is old or young. There were critical moments and all
the time I tried to keep the team with their feet on the ground, and be prepared
for the competition. Of course I'm gong to think about all the mistakes, and
having mistakes is natural."
Post game quotes are courtesy of FIBA
French NT : a sad day for French Basketball... - Sep. 16, 2007
...and maybe sadder ones to come.
The 2007 Eurobasket is over, ended by a huge disappointment for the French NT;
which finished at the 8th place, the only place of top 8 giving nothing, except
regrets.
After a correct first round (successes over Poland and Italia), Tony Parker &
co arrived in Madrid with a supposed top -motivation to show the european world
of basketball their skills and potential. It started pretty good, with this
success over Germany for the first Madrid game. But then, Lithuania was too
strong. On the basketball side? Yes maybe a little bit,since Lithuania finished
third. But where France suffered the comparison with others was the mental
aspect. This team showed his incapacity to keep a leading gap and drive the game
their way instead of having to deal with the opponent one. After this official
friendly game vs Turkey (not very convincing, but won 85-64), all hopes were put
on the quarter final game vs Russia. There again, no mental skills, and a lot of
missed free-throws during last quarter to give (not let, give) the game to a
team of Russia that could have been dominated by the French NT.
Was the tournament completely a fiasco? Not at that time. The French players,
supposed to be motivated by the Olympic quest, were expected to give their best
in the 2 last games vs Croatia and Slovenia. The only thing asked to that team
was a last effort, a single win meaning a ticket for the Olympic qualifying
tournament. But none of that happened, France got crushed by Croatia 86-69, and
her so-called strong defense couldn't prevent the Slovenian players from scoring
37 points in the last quarter to win the game and the last place for the
olympics qualifying.
Seeing the Lithuanian's happiness after the 3rd-place game won vs Greece, the
conclusion is that we rarely noticed with the French players this motivation,
this attachment to their home land and jersey other nations keep having since
the young NT game series. France will not be in Beijing for the 2008 Olympic
games and could miss the 2009 Eurobasket, if the 2009 qualifying campaign is not
a success.
A(nother) bad time is starting for basketball in France, a country
dominated in the media by soccer, rugby. There is the third place left for any
sports with good international results, which basketball cannot bring so far.
Now, the 2007/2008 season is about to start. Even if all basketball fans are
behind Roanne and Le Mans for the beginning Euroleague campain, we all know that
doing our best won't be enough.
Lithuania defeats Greece and takes Bronze - Sep. 16, 2007
Greece-Lithuania 69:78(19-20, 15-21, 20-21, 15-16)
Lithuania finishes Eurobasket on the third place. Congratulations, the Baltic
team will bring bronze medals home. In the game against the defending Champions
Lithuania overcame 78:69.
Ksystof
Lavrinovic (210-C-79) led the way with 19 points.
Linas
Kleiza (203-F-85, agency:
Interperformances, college:
Missouri)
and
Ramunas Siskauskas (197-G-78) added 13 points respectively.
Nikos
Zisis (195-G-83) had a great game in the losing effort nailing 23 points.
Of course it is a great success to finish in the first three of the tournament,
however probably not for the Baltic state. Spain or Russia that will stay on
podium will have also 1 loss. Moreover the second team of the tournament for
sure will finish with 2 losses and Lithuania has only one. Well, that's the game
and you need to win the most important games.
Even though the difference is 9 points, Lithuania won all the quarters. The most
productive was the second when the team benefited with 21:15 victory. With 17
seconds to go Jasikevicius nailed a three to be sure in a win. Lithuania
deserves the third place and wins 78:69. Greece, being the ex-champion finished
this time on the fourth place. Greece:
Nikos
Zisis 23, Ntikoudis 10 Lithuania:
Ksystof
Lavrinovic 19,
Linas
Kleiza 13,
Ramunas
Siskauskas 13
Germany with a power Nowitzki finish in 5th place - Sep. 16, 2007
The battle
for the 5th place had a better start for Croatia thru their fast game against
Germany more sleepy in wich might be the last game for Okulaja in German
national team jersey (9-2 8:00m) ,wich in the best they could do in the first
quarter was two ties in the period that ended with 2 points for Popovic with
Croatia lead 25-16.
The second quarter started like the previous quarter ,Croatia draining 3 point
shots thru Popovic, distancing themselfs ( 31-20 -7:40m),Germany cuted the lead
but right after 2 minuts of good basket by Germany they fall off again ,this
time Banic showed what he can do and what Germany can´t do against them
,Nowitzki as always was the only good player in Germany battling against Croatia
team work game ,he got 8 straight points to reduce 42-34 with 1:16m,Mario Kasun
quickly got 4 fouls in the game,being sidelined ,final result at the half a
Croatia lead 44-36 a lead that didn´t showed exactly the difference virified
between teams in the first half ,but Nowitzki with 18 points was the reason they
wasnt losing for more points.
The first 5 minuts of 3rd quarter both teams was playing at a diference of 7
points between them but with a 3 point shot Jagla got Germany at just 1 point
diference 57-56(2:10m) and Demirel in the free-throw line gave Germany a lead at
the end of the quarter 58-57 .
Okulaja started the last period with a jump shot giving Germany their biggest
lead they had in the game till that moment(9:06m with 62-57)but it wans´t
enaught for them showing again that Croatia have many problems fnishing the
games but not starting them (72-63 with 5:18m Germany lead),till the end of the
game Germany just controled the game with the final result of 80-71.
Germany finished in 5th place and Croatia in 6th,outstanding players of the
game:
Germany-Dirk Nowitzki 31 points,12 rebounds,4 assists ; Jagla 11 points ,4
rebounds and Greene 10 points.
Croatia-Banic 16 points,Popovic 14 points and Davor Kus with 10.
Slovenia secures place in pre olimpics tournament with win over France - Sep. 16, 2007
The game for
decide wich team will be in Pre-Olimpics tournament( the 7th place) had a better
start for Slovenia making a partial of 10-2,France just scored again with 5.15m
by a jump shot by Turiaf reducing Slovenia lead but after some missed shots by
Slovenia and a technical foul for their coach ,in wich shows this game was a
decive game for both team and a nervaus game with many players fouled out ,Tony
Parker in the first quarter showed why he one of the best players in the world
scoring the first 11 points of France 18 points.
Before the game of the first quarter France arrived i the lead (18-17).
In the second quarter Slovenis had a better start making a 24-29 lead but France
didnt let them get away in the game,with the game at the end of the second
quarter having a result of a France lead 40-36 in a very disputed game .
In the second half
Third quarter Tony Parker with his penetrations and 3 point shots,keeped France
in the lead 57-51.
Yaka Lakovic in the last quarter with a 3point shot made the tie and Slokar with
6 points made Slovenia in the lead - a partial of 11-0 cutted by a layup by Tony
Parker again and always but Slovia started to scoring lots of 3 point shots( in
total they had 10-25 from 3 point line) that ´´shaked´´ France players heads
with offensive errors and turnouvers (75-62 with 3:10m remaining), and their
biggest lead of the game 86-69 in the last seconds of game( the lead got bigger
because some technical and many fouls by France players),final result 88-74.
The best players was:
Tony Parker with 31points and 4 asists,Turiaf scored 13 poiints, grabed 8
rebounds,for Slovenia Lakovic had 26 points ,6 rebounds ,7 assists in a all
around game for him,Nesterovic with 19 points.
Slovenia is in pre olimpics tournament and finishes in 7th place, this was a
really bad tournament for France that ends in 8th place.
Spain beat Greece again and reaches the Final - Sep. 15, 2007
Spain-Greece 82:77 (24-18, 17-21, 18-21, 23-17)
Spain reached the Final of Eurobasket 2007 and upset the defending Champions in
Serbia. The hosts of the tournament overcame the ambitious Greece and now can
watch another semifinal game, Lithuania-Russia.
Pau Gasol
(214-F/C-80) and
Juan
Carlos Navarro (192-G-80) led the winners with 23 points.
Jose
Manuel Calderon (190-G-81) supported them with 18, nailing some important
three pointers.
Vasilis
Spanoulis (193-G-82, agency:
Beo
Basket) was the best for the Greek squad having 24 points.
Spain started the game fresher and were supported by the spectators. That gave
the team to finish the first quarter at 24:18. Meanwhile Greece won the second
and trailed by 39:41 at the half. Moreover Greece left the third quarter being
in front by 1.
In the end of the game after Greece had 67:65
Jose
Manuel Calderon nailed a three to give Spain lead back.
Juan
Carlos Navarro with a lay-up brought 70:67. For a minute the teams played a
tough defense and did not allow the score to change. Greece thought only of a
three pointers in order to tie the game. With 1.44 remaining
Jose
Manuel Calderon made 74:68 and it was a great relief for the hosts.
Vasilis
Spanoulis reduced to 74:70 scoring his 23rd points in the game. After 76:70,
Panagotis Vasilopoulos (202-F-84, agency:
FCM)
nailed a three to trail by 3. Jimenez made 2 free throws with 24 seconds
remaining to give Spain 78:73. The game is probably over, but not for the Greek
team. Zisis with a three made 78:76 and the teams had to play 18 more seconds,
however at first Greece fouled and then lost the ball.
Spain led the game to the happy end and reached the FINAL. Spain:
Pau Gasol
23, Juan
Carlos Navarro 23,
Jose
Manuel Calderon 18 Greece:
Vasilis
Spanoulis 24,
Panagotis Vasilopoulos 10, Ntikoudis 8
Slovenia ... Black Out No 2 - Sep. 15, 2007
Germany made
a 18-5 run in last five minutes as defeated Slovenia 69-65 in the 5th-8th
classification round of EuroBasket 2007. Slovenia will play against France on
Sunday for seventh place and last Olympic Qualifying Spot. Jaka Lakovic
collected 17 points and 6 assists, Matjaz Smodis scored 16 points and Radoslav
Nesterovic had 13 points and 9 rebounds. SLOVENIA 65 (16+15+23+11): Cebular DNP, Lakovic 17, Dragic 3,
Nesterovic 13, Smodis 16, Slokar, Klobucar DNP, Jagodnik 5, D.Lorbek 8, Vidmar
DNP, E.Lorbek 3. GERMANY 69 (18+14+14+23): Demirel 2, Okulaja 7, Arigbabu,
Garrett DNP, Herber, Hammann 6, Greene 16, Roller, Gruenheid DNP, Femerling 4,
Nowitzki 28, Jagla 6.
Greece rallies from 16-point deficit to beat Slovenia - Sep. 15, 2007
Greece
overcame a 12-point deficit in the final 2:30 to knock off Slovenia 63-62 and
live on for another chance to defend their EuroBasket title. Slovenia made a
18-2 run spanning halftime and had their largest lead at 58-42. But Theo
Papaloukas 11 of his 17 points posted in last quuarter including a game winning
lay-up with 6,7 seconds remaining.
Radoslav
Nesterovic (212-C-76) had 16 points, 11 reboudns and 5 assists, Jaka Lakovic
added 14 points and Matjaz Smodis 10.
SLOVENIA 62 (17+17+17+11): Cebular DNP, Lakovic 14, Dragic 7, Nesterovic 16,
Smodis 10, Slokar 4, Klobucar DNP, Jagodnik 2, D.Lorbek 2, Vidmar DNP, E.Lorbek
7.
GREECE 63 (14+14+12+23): Papaloukas 17, Bourousis 2, Zisis 7, Spanoulis 6,
Vasilopoulos 2, Pelekanos, Chatzivrettas 2, Ntikoudis 4, Tsartsaris 6,
Diamantidis 5, Papadopoulos 10, Kakiouzis 2.
Greece shocks Slovenia 63-62 in Eurobasket quarterfinals !!! - Sep. 14, 2007
An
epic win for the Hellenic NT
An amazing 21-4 in the last 6.30' minutes gave to the Panagiotis Yiannakis the
ticket to the top four teams in Europe.
The most highly paid European player,
Theodoros Papaloukas (200-G-77) proved once more why the Russians worship
him !! The amazing Hellene guard with 7 points, 1 steal and 1 assist in less
than 1.30 minutes was the MVP of the game and at the same time
the player who took the team in his back, like a modern Atlas, and travel to the
end!! The God is Greek!! Everybody now (and especially the Slovenians and Ales
Pipan) believes so.
In regards to the game now, the Hellenic team had to face and overcome two
negative elements from the very beginning, their bad shooting performance (with
1/12 three pointers in the first 35 minutes) and the hostile presentation of the
referees. The men in gray were 100% aggressive towards the Hellenic NT.
The Slovenian team was much better team in the court for 35 minutes, the first
quarter finished with 17-14 with Lakovic and Smodis in offence and Nesterovic in
defense being dominant. The same backdrop took place in the second quarter where
things were exactly the same, with the score being 17-14 and 34-28 by the end of
the first half. From the Hellenic team Lazaros Papadopoulos was the top scorer
with 10 points, while Dragic and Lakovic was leading the Slovenian NT with 9-0
made the score 34-28. The third quarter was a monologue for the Slovenians in
offence and defense, the rebounds was the Achilles heel, for the Hellenic NT,
they couldn't get any rebound. The end of the third quarter found the Hellenes
to score only 12 points and the Slovenians to be dominant in all the edges of
the court. The same scenery took place in the first 4 minutes of the last and
most crucial quarter where the Greeks had a deficit of 16 points with 1\12
three's no psychology at all and the Slovenians cheering in the bench being 100%
for their success but…… They forgot that nothing is finished until the fad lady
sing, the Hellenic spirit and the duet of Diamantidis and Papaloukas spoke once
more. The top duet (in Guards) decided to take over and with the two three
pointers from Tsartsaris and Zisis made an unbelievable 21-4 and qualified once
more in the semi-finals of the Eurochampionships. Tomorrow against the
Spaniards, the Greeks will try to make another Basketbll miracle, in less than
24 hours we will be able to know whether Greece will be able to repeat their
performance in Serbia of 2005..
Planinic sends ...Lithuania to the semis - Sep. 14, 2007
What a game! Thanks to Croatia that did not give up in the game against the
favorite of Eurobasket 2007. Lithuania grabs the ticket to the semifinal thanks
to Zoran Planinic (198-G-82) who missed 2 free throws with a second remaining.
Tha Baltic team won 74:72 and will meet Russia in the semifinal.
Darius
Songaila (205-C/F-78, agency:
Priority Sports, college:
Wake Forest)
(205-C/F-78, agency: Priority Sports, college: Wake Forest) led the winners with
20 points. Linas Kleiza (203-F-85, agency: Interperformances, college: Missouri)
ended up with 19 points and 9 rebounds, while Rimantas Kaukenas (193-G-77,
college: Seton Hall) netted 8. Zoran Planinic top-scored for Croatia with 16
points.
Croatia surprised everyone when they started very ambitious. The team won the
opening quarter 19:17 and looked also good in the second. After three quarters
Croatia was still in front having 2 points advantage.
With 27 seconds remaining in the game Lithuania led 74:70. Zoran Planinic made
two free throws and reduced the score till 74:72. It was him who stepped into
the line again with 1 second remaining. Unfortunately he missed the first one
and did the same, however by purpose in the second try. Lithuania deserved the
win a bit more and now looking forward to the next game.
Lithuania - Croatia 74:72 (17-19, 21-16, 15-20, 21-17)
Lithuania:
Darius
Songaila 20, Linas Kleiza 19+9 rebs, Rimantas Kaukenas 8
Croatia: Zoran Planinic 16, Marko Popovic (185-G-82) (185-G-82) (185-G-82) 12,
Tomas 10
Germany without a chance versus Spain - Sep. 14, 2007
Spain set a
stop to the German medal-dreams in the Quarter Final at the European
Championships and advanced to the Semis by outclassing Germany 83:55.
It was the same procedure as in preparation, when these two teams met twice with
Spain winning on both occasions. Once again it became clear that only two or
three German players have the class too compete at the highest European level
constantly and that some have already reached their climax in the past, now
being on the way down. The problem keeps returning: If Dirk Nowitzki faces
strong defensive pressure there is hardly anybody to step aside supporting the
German topscorer. In contrast the Spanish hosts showed a great allround-play and
dominated the game completely. At halftime the score was 40:27 and Spain
continued to humiliate the Germans in the third quarter (26:16).
Though dropping out of the medal-race Germany still have the chance to earn a
spot at the Qualifying Tournament for the 2008 Olympics by claiming the seventh
place in the Placement Round. Germany: Nowitzki (11pts, 6rbs), Jagla (10pts, 7rbs), Femerling
(8pts), Demirel (7pts), Herber (7pts), Okulaja (5pts), Garrett (4pts), Hamann
(2pts), Gruenheid (1pt), Arigbabu, Greene, Roller. Spain: Calderon (17pts), Fernandez (12pts), Navarro (12pts), M.
Gasol (10pts), Garbajosa (7pts), P. Gasol (7pts), Reyes (6pts), Cabezas (3pts),
Jimenez (3pts), B. Rodriguez (3pts), Mumbru (2pts), S. Rodriguez (1pt).
Calderon leads the hosts to the semifinal - Sep. 14, 2007
Spain-Germany 83:55 (18-14, 22-13, 26-16, 17-12)
Spain goes to the semis after a wonderful victory over Germany. A great game in
all the quarters brought the hosts of Eurobasket 2007 a 83:55 win.
Jose
Manuel Calderon (190-G-81) paced the winners with 17 points.
Juan
Carlos Navarro (192-G-80) netted 12, while
Rudy
Fernandez (197-G-85) collected 12. As usual it was
Dirk
Nowitzki (211-F-78) who paced his German squad. His 11 points were however
nothing in comparison with what he used to score.
Germany stayed in front of the game for the first five minutes. After 9:10,
Spain took a control and managed to win the opening quarter as well.
Juan
Carlos Navarro and
Jose
Manuel Calderon scored nine of Spain's final 14 points in the half as they
went on a 9-0 run. A 40:27 garanteed a good advantage at the break.
In the third quarter Spain increased the lead and after
Rudy
Fernandez's dunk the board showed 56:36. The teams went to the last break
with 66:43 for the hosts of the tournament. At that time probably nobody
believed that Germany would catch up as they could not struggle anymore. A 17:12
in the last quarter sent Spain to the semis.
Spain will meet the winner of Slovenia-Greece in the semifinal game. Spain:
Jose
Manuel Calderon 17,
Juan
Carlos Navarro 12,
Rudy
Fernandez 12 Germany:
Dirk
Nowitzki 11,
Jan-Hendrik Jagla (213-F-81, agency:
Priority Sports, college:
Penn St.) 10
Russia makes it to the semis - Sep. 13, 2007
After a vewry exciting game, Russia managed to defeat France 75-71 in the
quarterfinals and made it to the semis, where they will face the winner of game
between Lithuania and Croatia. It will be their first time in 10 years to reach
that level of Eurobasket.
French team was ahead the most of the game. Russian players tried to stay close,
never allowing for the French to get too big lead. The deciding part of the game
was last quarter, where Russian outscored France 22-15. The strongest weapon of
winning team were 3-point shoots, which allowed them to catch up with French
players. Just 24 seconds before the end of the game, it was styill a tie 69-69.
Then Holden successfully got 2 shots from the line getting 2-points lead. Then a
very nervous time with missing shots from both France (Diaw) and Russia
(Pashutin). Parker made only one free-throw, missing the second one, and
Pashutin got another 2 points for Russians (73-70). Parker got faulked and after
getting 1-pointer, he intentionally missed the second one. But it did not work
as Russians get the rebound. France had nothing to lose and they had to foul.
Sergey Monya closed the game with two free throws and the game ended with 75-71
for Russia. Russia - France
75-71 (21-23, 18-19, 14-14, 22-15)
Russia: Samoylenko 6, Holden 15, Khryapa 16+7reb+6ast, Kirilenko
6+6reb+7steals+4blocks, Savrasenko 4; Morgunov 14, Pashutin 11, Monya 2, Padus
1, DNP: Shabalkin, Bykov, Ponkrashov
France: Parker 15, Gomis 5, Diaw 17+6reb, F.Pietrus 8, Weis 2+5reb; Turiaf
8+7reb, Kirksay 8, Diawara 5, Ferhaud 3, DNP: Badiane, Sangare, Giffa
Lithuania tip Slovenia 80-61 in clash uf unbeaten teams - Sep. 13, 2007
Ramunas
Siskauskas led four players in double figures with 21 points as Lithuania won a
duel of unbeaten teams 80-61 over Slovenia. Lithuania shot 8-of-11 from the
downtown at half and made a 14-4 run. Slovenia cut the deficit to just on point
but through the third quarter Lithuania went on an 11-2 run to open their first
double-digit cushion.
Jaka
Lakovic (186-G-78) posted 15 points and Matjaz Smodis added 11. The
Slovenians will next face defending champions Greece in Friday's quarter-finals. SLOVENIA 61 (18+23+8+12): Cebular DNP, Lakovic 15, Dragic 7,
Nesterovic 4, Smodis 11, Slokar 6, Klobucar, Jagodnik 3, D.Lorbek 6, Vidmar,
E.Lorbek 9. LITHUANIA 80 (26+18+19+17): Kaukenas 11, Gustas, Maciulis,
D.Lavrinovic 6, Siskauskas 21, Songaila 17, Jasaitis 3, Kleiza 6, K.Lavrinovic
14, Jasikevicius 2, Jankunas, Javtokas.
Italy defeated, farewell Beijing - Sep. 12, 2007
Team Italy
felt to Germany 58-67 and wasn' t able to advance to the Eurobasket 2007
quarterfinals, despite having "the strongest team ever", according with some
observers. After a good start, in which they played a decent offense and a good
zone defense, ending the 1st quarter 18-12, the Azzurri started to play badly,
and kept the same disappointing pace from the second quarter, ended 27-27, till
the end of the game. Germany outrebounded Italy 52-31, and shot better from the
field and from the charity line. No comment.
Dirk
Nowitzki (211-F-78) showed another time more to be a true champion, leading
his team with 15 points and 10 rebounds.
Johannes
Herber (197-G-83, college:
W.Virginia)
added 15 points and
Steffen
Hamann (194-G-81) 10.
Marco
Belinelli (196-G-86) was the game top scorer at 15 points, but no one can
deny that Italy deserved to lose.
German National Team takes on Spain in Quarter Final after defeating Italy - Sep. 12, 2007
The
German National Team topped Italy in the final game of the Qualifying Round at
the EURO 2007 in Spain and advanced to the Quarter Finals. The team managed to
come back after Mondays terrible loss to Slovenia. The final score against Italy
was 67:58.
Germanys team effort was the key to success this time. Three players scored in
double digits with
Johannes
Herber (197-G-83, college:
W.Virginia)
showing one of his personal best performances ever on the National Team. The
Germans dominated the glasses and did outrebound the Italians by a 51:31 margin.
Dirk
Nowitzki (211-F-78) and
Jan-Hendrik Jagla (213-F-81, agency:
Priority Sports, college:
Penn St.)
collected 10 boards apiece. By half time the score was tied at 27, but the
Germans used the third quarter for a scoring spurt (19:10), when Herber drobbed
10 points. Though Italys rising star
Marco
Belinelli (196-G-86) kept his side in business in fourth quarter the Germans
always had the right answer, assuring the ticket for the next round.
In the upcoming Quarter Final on Thursday Germany will face the host team and
current World Champion Spain. Germany: Herber (15pts, 6rbs), Nowitzki (15pts, 10rbs), Hamann
(10pts), Demirel (5pts), Femerling (5pts, 5rbs), Jan-Hendrik Jagla (5pts,
10rbs), Greene (4pts), Okulaja (4pts, 7rbs), Roller (4pts), Arigbabu, Garrett,
Gruenheid (DNP). Italy: Belinelli (25pts), Bargnani (10pts, 6rbs), Bulleri
(8pts, 5pts), Marconato (6pts, 6rbs), Gigli (3pts, 6rbs), Mordente (3pts),
Mancinelli (2pts), Di Bella (1pt), Basile, Soragna, Crosariol (DNP), Da Tome
(DNP).
The end of portuguese dream - Sep. 11, 2007
With Nick
Gales the historical PG of Greece(2 times better player in Europe),Portugal
still could keep his dreams alive if they won for more then 13 points.
Portugal had a bad start in the game as thru Diamantidis with 5 points got a
partial of 7-2 Filipe da Silva with a 3point shot(the 3 point shots in first
quarted was fantastic for Portugal 5-11) did the 7-5,portuguese players couldn´t
handle the big Greece players (Papadopoulos)and Joao Gomes with 2 fouls and
Pelekenos with 3 fouls showed the game was agreesive,Greece also had bad free
throwns percentages a factor that Portugal profited in the first quarter with
some lead changes ,the result of the first quest was a lead for Portugal 17-16.
The second quarter everything started to fall apart for Portugal,Greece
presionated the point guards of Portugal ,and the great percentages of shots
from anywhere(expect the free-throws) for Greece make them a lead of 45-34 at
the half,Joao Gomes had another highlight of the game as he did another alley
hoop,many of the diference contributed the fouls of Elvis Evora that had to be
replaced int hat period ,one more time they showed their starting linaup is the
strong on the team ,without many solutions in the bench.
Second hald was pretty much a relaxed and controled game for Greece,Portugal got
3 players with four fouls(Joao Gomes ,Elvis Evora,and Joao Santos),in the start
of 3rd quarter the differences was around 10 points but then Greece did his job
again-end of period ( 64-47).
The last period was the goodbye of Portugal in a fantastic tournamet ,they
suprised everyone(Latvia president federation traveled 1 day before Portugal
game to Madrid because he was thinking easily Latvia would won against
Portugal)and did the best European ever ,so for that CONGRATULATIONS PORTUGAL .
Slovenia blows out Germany - Sep. 11, 2007
After an
embarrising performance in the second game of the Qualifying Round at the EURO
and a devastating 47:77-loss against Slovenia the German National Team players
have put a lot of pressure on their shoulders prior to the final fixture against
Italy on Wednesday. Defeating the "Squadra Azzurra" is a must to get the ticket
to the Quarterfinals.
In the game against the unbeaten Slovenians Germany never had a chance and gave
up far too early. Trailing 9:30 after ten minutes and 22:45 by halftime the
German Coach Dirk Bauermann let his substitutes play for most of the fourth
quarter. Already a couple of minutes after tipp-off it became evident that
nothing seemed to work out for the Germans that night. Bad shots and plenty of
wrong decisions in offense plus missing commitment in defense were the reasons
why Slovenia captured an easy win. Germany: Nowitzki (16pts, 8rbs), Jagla (7pts), Okulaja (5pts,
6rbs), Garrett (3pts), Greene (3pts), Gruenheid (3pts), Arigbabu (2pts), Demirel
(2pts), Femerling (2pts), Hamann (2pts), Roller (2pts), Herber. Slovenia: Smodis (22pts), Nesterovic (13pts), Lakovic (12pts),
Slokar (9pts), D. Lorbek (6pts), Dragic (5pts, 7rbs), Jagodnik (4pts, 6rbs), E.
Lorbek (4pts, 6rbs), Cebular, Klobucar, Vidmar.
Joao Gomes and coletive of Portugal destroyed Israel - Sep. 9, 2007
Joao
Gomes(23points and 11 rebounds) in a fantastic exibition showed everyone why he
the best portuguese player of actuallity ,he did dunks ,FT,everything in a MVP
performance to show eevryone Portugal have good players and a great team, last 4
games against Israel ,Portugal won them all ,with this win Portugal for be in
quarter finals needs to win for more then 13 points against Greece or just win
that game and wait a Croatia win over Russia.
With lots of turnover and a sleepy Israel team with a great offensive moves and
great shots percentages ,Portugal won this match eaily and the 9 points at the
end arent enaught to show everyone how good Portugal played.
A partial of 5-0 to Portugal started the game with a great dunk by Joao
Gomes,with 8.05m Israel scored their first points by Halperin(8-5),another
partial putted Portugal with 17-5 with 5.15m ,all this at 3point shots ,great
defense and lack of defense for Israel team ,the only player in a great plan for
Israel was Elyiahu with 27 points ,many steals and fast breaks keeped Portugal
in a plus,another dunk by Joao Gomes and a 3pt shot made in last second gave
Portugal a lead of 28-14.
Second quarter-With some substitutions in both teams Israel recoved and the
quarter was in a difference of around 10 points arriving at half 46-34.
Around 15 poits diference between teams ,Portugal thru many rebounds during all
game (45-25) and 3 pt shots made ,aswell 2 alley-hoops from Felipe da Silva
assist to Joao Gomes dunk did a show time period for Portugal (61-42 - 4minuts)
ended the period winning 65-48.
Israel in this period recoved because Joao Sanros got inject and some
free-throws and pression on the portugues guards lead some turnovers for
Portugal,Israel made some 3pt shots but it was 2 late for them (78-70 with
2.30m) final result 94-85 for Portugal.
Italy, at last - Sep. 10, 2007
Thanks to a
14-5 score in the overtime, Italy defeated Turkey 84-75, staying in the race for
the quarterfinals. But it was an hard job. Turkey played very better the first
two quarters, and came back to the locker room ahead 43-34. In the third quarter
started the Italian comeback, and the regular time ended 70-70, but Turkish
veteran
Ibrahim Kutluay (198-F/G-74) missed a a potential game-winning shot almost
at the buzzer. Then, the overtime was dominated by Italy. Scoring 17 pts and
grabbing 10 rebounds,
Angelo
Gigli (209-F/C-83) was the best of the Azzurri,
Marco
Belinelli (196-G-86) added 17 pts, 4 assits and 3 rebs and
Andrea
Bargnani (209-F/C-85) 12 pts and 6 rebs at the winning side. The game best
performer was, however,
Hidayet
Turkoglu (206-F-79), who led Turkey scoring 34 points, with a very good 5/8
from behind the 3pts arch. Team Italy will play tomorrow another pivotal game
vs. Germany
German National Team falls short to France - Sep. 8, 2007
Germany
started into the Qualifying Round at the EURO in Spain with a 66:78-loss against
France.
The Germans opened the game well, after a while it became clear, that Dirk
Nowitzki and Ademola Okulaja were the only players who were to threaten the
Frenchmen in offense, while there was too less support coming from the rest of
the group. In the second quarter France started a 15:2-run and went into
halftime being ahead with eight points (47:39).
After scoring only 10 in the third quarter with Nowitzki struggling to find the
hole, it looked like the Germans could be able to make a comeback again in the
last quarter, but France just played too smart and never lost control.
Especially Tony Parker showed his class, when the comfortable lead slighty began
to disappear.
Nowitzki finished with 28 points, while Okulaja close to a double-double with 14
points and 9 boards.
Germany will take on Slovenia on Monday and is going to face Italy on Wednesday.
Germany: Nowitzki (28pts, 6rbs), Okulaja (14pts, 9rbs), Hamann (8pts, 5rbs),
Herber (7pts), Femerling (4pts), Greene (2pts), Jagla (2pts), Garrett (1pt),
Arigbabu, Demirel, Roller, Gruenheid (DNP).
France: T. Parker (23pts), F. Pietrus (12pts), Kirksay (12pts), Turiaf (11pts),
Diaw (7pts, 9rbs), Ferchaud (6pts), Diawara (5pts), Weis (2pts), Giffa, Gomis,
Sangare, Badiane (DNP).
Capin has a surgery - Sep. 10, 2007
Slovenian NT
member
Aleksandar Capin (186-G-82) underwent an arthroscopic procedure on his knee
on Satudary. He will be sidelined at least one month. Capin injured his knee in
the Slovenian's opening game of the 2007 Eurobasket against Italy.
Russia got the first lose at Eurobasket. - Sep. 9, 2007
Russia faced the strongest opponent at curent competition and played well but
not enough to win.
Game was started with big attention to defence from both teams and equal
fighting during first minutes of game.
Russia took leadership 18-12 after couple of good three-pointers and Spanish
coach Pepu Hernandez was must to take first time-out.
Still first quarter was finished 23:20 for Russian NT.Equal game continued after
short break. Russia defended well on Pau Gasol
while Navarro replaced Rudy Fernandez and added danger in Spanish attack. Teams
moved to half-time break with 40:35 scores for
Spanish NT. Third quarter became decisive. Calderon leaded his teammates in
offence and helped them to create comfortable difference
in scores, 61:51 after third quarter. Russia still hoped for victory and tried
to back game risking with couple of long shots but hadn't luck.
On other side Spaniards worked well inside the paint in both sides of court and
finished game with fully deserved 81:69 victory,
Russia - Spain 69:81 (23:20, 12:20, 16:23, 18:18)
Russia:
Andrei Kirilenko (205-F-81) 21 pts, Victor Khryapa 14 pts + 11 rebs, Nikita
Morgunov 13 pts,
Spain: Jose Manuel Calderon 17 pts + 4 ass, Juan Carlos Navarro 15 pts,
Pau Gasol 13 pts + 9 rebs + 2 bs.
Lithuania defeats an improving Italy - Sep. 9, 2007
Italian
Serie A star
Rimantas
Kaukenas (193-G-77, college:
Seton Hall)
scored 22 points to lead his Lithuania to the win, 79-74, over a Team Italy
showing interesting advancements at the two sides of the court. The Azzurri
stayed in contact with Lithuania all the game, and the score was 72-72 at one
minute before the buzzer, and only two turnovers, well used by the opponents,
"condemned" Italy.
Andrea
Bargnani (209-F/C-85) scored 15 pts and grabbed 7 rebs to be the most
outstanding Italian player, veterans
Gianluca
Basile (192-G-75) and
Denis
Marconato (211-C-75) added 13 and 10 points, respectively. Given the very
good shape showed by Lithuania in the first leg of Eurobasket 2007, and the
superior talent of this team, a fall of Italy was easy to forecast, the two
games in which Italy can not go wrong are the next ones, tomorrow vs. Turkey and
tuesday afternoon vs. Germany. Only winning both them, the Italian team can
advance to quarterfinals and keep alive the hopes to qualify to Olympic Games.
Partial of 9-2 gives Lithuania win over Italy - Sep. 8, 2007
Rimantas
Kaukenas led Lithuania with 22 points, including a three-pointer with 3:12
remaining to spark a 9-2 run to finish off the game. Sarunas Jasikevicius was
hampered with a left groin injury for much of the second half but tallied 13
points, three rebounds, four assists and two steals in 28 minutes.
Italy had again some off moments during the game that let Lithuania get their
partials to built up an 11-point lead midway through the first quarter but
allowed Italy back into the game.
It was the third straight game where Lithuanians were unable to control a
double-digit lead. Ramunas Butautas's side nearly blew a 21-point third quarter
lead against Germany but still in that game menaged to build a last minute
moment to not let Germany got the win with a offesive fould by Dirk
Italy, who were out-rebounded 44-29 and both teams was really bad from the 3
point line. With this lost Italy now have to win the 2 remaining games but wait
aswell for other games results.
Denis Marconato scored 10 points for the Italians.
Andrea Bargnani collected 15 points and seven rebounds while Gianluca Basile had
13 points and four rebounds.
The Lithuanians started the game strong defensively, holding the Italians
scoreless for more than five minutes in using a 13-0 run to pull out to a 15-4
lead with 3:30 left in the first. Basile answered with five straight points to
help close to 19-11 but trailed 21-13 going into the second quarter.
Italy kept trying to scrap themselves back into the game and Lithuania continued
to fend them off. But Italian guard Matteo Soragna stole Kaukenas's pass in the
waning seconds and banked in a long three-pointer at the half-time buzzer to
trim the deficit to 40-39 at half-time, a liar result that didnt showed exactly
what happened in the game.
In the third period happened many lead changes aswell many ties and Lithuania
led 62-61 going into the fourth after Siskausas's jumper with 22 seconds left.
More of the same in the fourth period, and things were even at 72-72 when
Kaukenas drained a three-pointer to give Lithuania a 75-72 advantage with 3:12
remaining. That shot sparked a 9-2 run to finish the game as Italy turned over
the ball twice in the final 2:20 to give up any final hope.
Final result Lithuania 79 - Italy 74
( 21-13, 19-26, 22-22, 17-13)
Elvis Evora ,Kirilenko and Russia coach speak about Portugal moment - Sep. 8, 2007
Elvis Evora
the Portugal center confessed that has been "funny" to confrot the "giants" of
the modality, but sometimes he feels he not that tall against much taller
centers. "its been funny to confrot these giants, in Portuguese Liga I
habitually confrot lower players then me. Here... I feel sometimes im small ",
he have 2,05 meters, emphasizing: "I´m loving this experience".
The player of the Ovarense was clearly: "wich player wouldnt like, at least one
time in life, to confrot the best players of the World. A few days ago,i played
against Gasol, Dirk Nowitzki, Tony Parker and the best seleccões of the World ".
"We have this chance to learn", after four meeting between the "giants" of the
Worldl, count with 7,8 points and 5,3 rebounds of average, with 42,4 percent in
"shots" of field.
The mission of Elvis Evora and Portugal has not been easy ,tomorrow Portugal
will play against Israel and was successful for two times in the qualification
phase. "It will be a difficult game,they are better team then the one we played
against in the qualification. In the height, they were in low of form, but they
had gone up very, having obtained the last place of apuramento, and that gave
them a better spirit ", explained the International luso.
In accordance with Elvis Evora, Israel has for backwards a country where the
basketball is a sport that "it awakes enormous passions, in contrast that
happens in Portugal", and already fully justified the qualification for the
final phase. "won against Serbia, that had moved away from the test, and now
they had won with Croacia, that had profit to Spain". Despite this, Elvis left
clearly that Portugal does not go to enter defeated: "it is a game that we want
to be successful. We do not go to enter in field to think about losing, but
already we gained them three times and we can make it another time. We go to
enter with everything... and plus some thing ". Portugal won against
Israel(75-72). "the memory more curious I have is that, already in the final
part, they had whistled there inside to say that the Bosnia had won and we
almost stopped, we allready had the game won . At that time we did not have more
concentration to play more, we only thought about celebrating ", remembered. The
set luso won Israel easily and very it must to a perfect Elvis Evora, author of
27 points: "I did not fail no launching of field. I made 13 in 13, what it only
happens of time tom time. It was valid very for having been in this game ". With
the triumph, Portugal arrived at final phase and now in the European we in the
2nd phase between the 12 best ones of the Europe: "the sensation is excellent,
even for the form as it was, we thought that it did not give. Happily, Croacia
gained Spain ". "We are here and is excellent, but we always continue to the
search of something more", finished Elvis Evora.
In another time i had the time to speak with Andrei Kirilenko the Russia star
and about Portugal he says´´Congratulations to Portugal. They had never
participated in a european and they had obtained to characterize itself for this
phase. They do not have many hypotheses of now in ahead, but they had exactly
improved very -game by game´´.
Already we had confrotted this equips for three times and we knew what to wait.
Portugal played aggressive . Defended well, it forced us to shoot and to commit
many turnovers."
"I never waited to see Portugal here. Already they had made a good
preparation... They had fought admiravelmente, without great names. They are
very good and they deserve congratulations of all ", related the North American
David Blatt. "We respected our adversary and therefore we won."
Slovenia is still hot! - Sep. 8, 2007
With an
incredibile 19-1 run spanning the third and fourth quarters, Slovenia defeated
Turkey 66-51 and already qualified to the quarterfinals of 2007 European
Championship. Radoslav Nesterovic had 13 points and 6 rebounds,
Uros
Slokar (210-F/C-83) added 12 points including three straight 3-pointers to
put his team up 57-40, Goran Dragic posted 12 points, Goran Jagodnik grabbed 8
rebounds and Jaka Lakovic had 7 rebounds. SLOVENIA 66 (20+11+15+20): Cebular DNP, Lakovic 5, Capin DNP,
Dragic 11, Nesterovic 13, Smodis 9, Slokar 12, Klobucar DNP, D.Lorbek 7, Vidmar
DNP, E.Lorbek 4. TURKEY 51 (15+14+11+11): Arslan 1, Kurtoglu, Atsur 5, Akyol
DNP, Ilyasova 2, Erden, Kutluay 6, Demirel DNP, Gonlum 4, Okur 14, Peker 2,
Turkoglu 18.
Spain 76 - 58 Greece - Sep. 7, 2007
As in the
past World Championship, Spain had no mercy of Greece and defeated
Panagiotis
Giannakis team much more easy than expected.
It wasn't a good basketball night, and the start was a disaster for both teams,
unable to score after more than 3 minutes of game, but after Greece first
points, started to work the Spanish engine with a Jimenez three-pointer and
Gasol points (also taking advantage the Spaniards of two technical fouls). A
10-0 run for locals that continued with this good offensive momentum the next
two quarters.
Rudy
Fernandez (197-G-85) once again from beyond the arc helped with his points,
but in front,
Dimitris
Diamantidis (196-G-80) and
Theodoros Papaloukas (200-G-77, agency:
Interperformances) were doing a good job and keeping alive Greek options.
Also important in the first half was the Papadopoulos defense over
Pau Gasol
(214-F/C-80), a real nightmare for Grizzlies star, but foul troubles sent center
to bench and Grizzlies forward took advantage of Bouroussis. Spain had one more
offensive option, apart of
Juan
Carlos Navarro (192-G-80) and Rudy outside. Halftime arrived, and things
were going well for host team: 42-23.
Last 20 minutes were Spanish, although
Panagiotis
Giannakis pupils tried almsot everything (a very good third quarter defense,
allowed Spaniards to score only 11 points), but never seemed to be able to stole
victory from the ”Golden Boys”.
Russia 78 - Portugal 65,2nd stage-easy Russia win thru inside game - Sep. 7, 2007
Portugal for
the first time got in the second phase of the European but didn´t had a great
first game against Russia.
The keys for Russia win was their defense and their tall players(inside
game),Portugal with many 3point shots missed was off today ,1 of the reason
might be the team was just playing their game since the historical act they did
against Latvia.
With Madrid Arena almost empty at 4.30pm and being the first game of the 2nd
phase explains alot why it was like that.
The game had a start that showed how Russia would play-Kirilenko with a dunk
made the 2-0,Portugal was never in the lead like the others games and at7minuts
to play Jordao scored first portuguese points on the game fallowed by Elvis
Evora (6-4),J R Holden with a steal assisted kirilenko for a spectalular
dunk(12-4),thru defense pressures on the court and a great inside game by Russia
they was in the lead(many 3pt shots for Portugal-seem they only wanted to shot
3´s).
Portugal didn´t scored during 4 minuts and Evora cuuted Russia partial(12-7 -
3m),Jordao and M. Fernandes scored a pair of 3 point shots and got Portugal at
just 1 point diference(14-13)but finishing the first quarter Kirilenko responded
(16-13).
Second quarter - Russia during the game always missed many FT , Russia got back
with alot of defensive pressure on the portuguese point guards and with steals
fallowed by fast break got a 16 point lead(36-20-4minuts remaining) and menaged
that lead till half time,in the last second Mario Fernandes got a basket
reducing to 44-30.
Third Quarter- At the first half Joao Gomes and Joao Santos the 2 offensive
weapons had 0 points but Joao Gomes started well scoring a basket reduced to
48-37 but they got quickly 4 fouls and him and Elvis Evora got relegated to the
bench because the fouls and thru Kirilenko and Savrecenko inside putted their
lead back and J R Holden got his time to shine with 7 straight points thru shots
,penetration and in the FT line ,arriving at the end of the quarter with a 68-49
lead.
The last quarter didn´t showed much with both teams knowing this would be a
Russia win ,Portugal rotated the players and introduced in the game players like
Miguel Minhava and Paulo Simao for let them get more minuts ,the final result
was 78-65 for Russia.
Poland - Italy 70-79 - Sep. 6, 2007
A 79-70
triumph over Poland was enough to see Italy progress to the qualifying round at
the EuroBasket.
Italy trailed 16-14 going into the second quarter. But that's when Marco
Belinelli and Andrea Bargnani teamed up to spark a
22-6 run and Italy led 36-22 six minutes to go in the first half. However,
Poland hit back and managed to go into the break trailing by just six, 41-35
especially thanks to Adam Wojcik, Radoslaw Hyzy
and Andrzej Pluta.
The Azzurri came out of the locker rooms refreshed and ready to run and
Belinelli's three-pointer early in the third quarter pushed their lead up to
50-38. Italy were still unable to pull away as Poland refused to give up the
fight and made sure to punish the Azzurri for their mistakes. Four turnovers by
the Italians sparked an 8-0 run by the Poles to cut the deficit to 54-50. Then
Gianluca Basile came to Italy's rescue by hitting consecutive
three-pointers late in the third. But, at the other end, a Robert Witka
scored the same and kept Poland in a battle as they trailed 64-57 going into the
final quarter. The Azzurri though kept their noses in front and Marco
Mordente's shot from beyond the arc allowed Italy to lead 72-66 with
five minutes to go. Italy kept up their focus and stepped up their defense to
limit Poland to just two points over the next four minutes as they sealed the
win.
Guard Marco Belinelli had a game-high 20 points for the winning side while
forward Andrea Bargnani added 19 points - 16 of which came in the first half.
The best scorers for Poland were well-experienced 33-year-old Andrzej Pluta - 15
points and 37-year-old Adam Wojcik. It is worth underlining Lukasz
Koszarek noted double-double - 10 points and 11 assists.
Slovenia Top Group D - Sep. 6, 2007
Domen
Lorbek (198-G/F-85) made a pair of free throws for a 67-65 lead with 12
second to left. Uros Slokar fouled Tony Parker with just 2 seconds remaining.
Parker missed the second free throw ans Slovenia defeated France 67-66.
Domen
Lorbek scored 15 points on shooting 5-of-5 from the field, Smodis had 15
points and 6 rebounds and Radoslav Nesterovic posted 12 points. Slovenia trailed
by 15 in third period, Radoslav Nesterovic was ejected and coach Ales Pipan got
a technical foul. Slovenia responded with a 19-3 run when the bench got new
technical foul and Matjaz Smodis got an unsportmanlike foul. SLOVENIA 67 (16+15+21+15): Cebular DNP, Lakovic, Capin DNP,
Dragic 2, Nesterovic 12, Smodis 15, Slokar 4, Klobucar DNP, Jagodnik 12,
D.Lorbek 15, Vidmar DNP, E.Lorbek 7. FRANCE 66 (18+21+17+10): Gomis 2, Badiane DNP, Giffa DNP,
Sangare 2, Diawara 2, Parker 25, Ferchaud 2, Pietrus 7, Kirksay 4, Diaw 6,
Turiaf 13, Weis 3.
First defeat for Greece - Sep. 6, 2007
Russia won
the first place at Group A of Granada, with a perfect record, and will now carry
two wins to the next round in Madrid, while Greece will now have to work harder
to qualify to the quarter-finals. Russia - Greece 61-53 at the end.
Russia took control on the game from the very start, took the first lead and
after one quarter already looked down at Greece, 15-8.
Andrei
Kirilenko (205-F-81), who finally ended with 17 rebounds, collected seven of
them in that period.
Russia's margin climbed to double-digits, early at the second period (25-15) but
Greece showed they don't plan on giving up the game. A couple of three-pointers
by
Michalis Kakiouzis (206-C-76) (206-C-76) and
Nikos
Zisis (195-G-83), helped coach
Panagiotis
Giannakis walk to the locker room down by only three points, 25-22 behind a
big first half by
Viktor
Khryapa (204-F/G-82) who collected 11 points and five rebounds by then. Nikos
Zisis and then
Theodoros Papaloukas (200-G-77, agency:
Interperformances) put Greece on top for the first time in the game (30-28)
early in the second half, but then Russia showed their back court power when
J.R.
Holden (185-G-76, college:
Bucknell)
warmed his hand and
Zakhar
Pashutin (195-G-74) nailed two big downtown aces. The third period ended at
a Russia's 44-38 lead, and Greece started to look nervous. It took almost three
minutes until the first points of the last quarter arrived, but the momentum
stayed on the Russian side. When
Vasilis
Spanoulis (193-G-82, agency:
Beo
Basket) slashed to the rim with 6:13 to play, he was about to cut the margin
to three, but
Andrei
Kirilenko was there at the right time and place to show who owns the court
tonight. With a big block he sent
Vasilis
Spanoulis to the floor and pushed Russia forward.
It was then
J.R.
Holden's time, as he scored five points in a row, and
Andrei
Kirilenko made it a nine point difference, 54-45, with less than five
minutes to play. That margin was enough to upset the Greeks, who never came
close to threaten the Russian lead until the final buzzer.
Russia: Shabalkin,
J.R.
Holden 17, Bykov,
Andrei
Kirilenko 12,
Nikita
Morgunov (211-F-75, agency:
Interperformances) 1, Samoylenko 4,
Viktor
Khryapa 13,
Zakhar
Pashutin 9, Monya 3, Ponkrashov, Savrasenko 2, Padius
Greece:
Theodoros Papaloukas 8, Bourousis,
Nikos
Zisis 9,
Vasilis
Spanoulis 12, Vasilopoulos, Pelekanos, Hatzivrettas, Dikoudis 5, Tsartsaris
4, Diamantidis 8, Papadopoulos,
Michalis
Kakiouzis 7
Post Game Quotes David Blatt
: "It's always special when you beat a team as great as Greece and a Eurobasket
champion. That being said the key for this tournament isn't to win early, but
winning late. It's to win early but then know how to win the late games.
Obviously it's important, but we need to prove ourselves also in Madrid and not
only in Granada. Our objective was to raise the tempo the game. We did that in
the first game. For the last two and a half quarters Greece set the tempo, but
we made a great defensive effort. We made some stops that broke the game and
when we opened a 10-point lead in such a game, it's like 25". Nikita
Morgunov: "Today it was a very important game. Now we need to think about
the next game because this game is already in the past and we need to think
about the future". Viktor
Khryapa: "We played against a very good team, but we showed a lot of passion
on defense and we managed to control the tempo of the game. That was the key for
our win tonight, and what happened tonight made us a real unit. Now we are a
real team and we have to thank our coach
David Blatt
for this". Panagiotis
Giannakis : "Congratulations to Russia. They played very good. It was a very
nervous game. We missed a lot of shots. We missed a lot of open shots and made
some easy mistakes. They controlled the game when we came back. We saw that we
can do it, but then didn't have the patience. The tournament is very long and it
depends how we will control our feelings and our game after the loss. We tried
some things that didn't work out. Maybe we were a little bit tired. The opponent
gave us a lot of problems. We shot 58% from the free-throw line and only 38%
from the field and that's not enough. We'll try in the next games to play
better." Nikos
Zisis: "It was a very hard game. Both teams played very well on defense. On
offense it was a slow tempo game. Russia deserved to win. They played better
than us. We need to play much better if we want to try to do the same things
that we did in the last few years. It's good to have a day off. We'll start to
win the next game. We don't play good basketball until now. We can't hide behind
reasons like pressure. Last year in Japan in the first games it was also the
same. We must play much better now. When you get 61 points usually you must win
games."
Tsartsaris: "We have time to play better. We scored in last two games very few
points and this is the biggest problem of the team. The game in the last year is
faster and we play slow. Tomorrow we'll see what we have done wrong, and try to
fix it." Michalis
Kakiouzis: "We didn't play the game that we wanted. If we scored some free
shots I think we had a better chance to play. Nobody has contracts with the
wins. I don't think we are not hungry anymore. We want more than anyone in
Greece to win again something. For us the Eurobasket 2005 and Mundobasket is
history."
Israel better than Serbia 87:83 - Sep. 5, 2007
Serbia and
Israel started European Championship with two defeats so win in this game was
main goal for both teams. "Mosquitoes" quickly forgot unlucky defeat against
Greece after over time and opened the game against Isreal well making 15:8 after
4 minutes. Later they increased advantage to 8 points but Israel succeeded to
come closer on 30:28. Teodosic and Velickovic led Serbia to the first double
digits advantage during the game, 45:33. In the last offense Israel made
3-pointer through Halperin and decreased minus to 9 on the half time. Israel
committed 10 turnovers in the first half while Serbia had 8 steals.
In the center of the third quarter Israel melted down Serbia's advantage to
55:53 and later took lead 58:59. In 34th minute Israel had the biggest advantage
during the game, plus 6 but Serbia quickly made run 5-0 for 67:68. At the very
end Israeli players were concentrated from the FT line and earned ticket for
Madrid.
Yaniv Green (206-F-80, agency:
Arik Krayn
Services) was the best for the winners collecting 26 points and 12 rebounds.
Yotam
Halperin (196-G-84, agency:
Arik Krayn
Services) followed him scoring 17 points. Serbia got double-double from
Darko
Milicic (212-C-85), 18 points and 13 rebounds, while
Milan
Gurovic (207-F-76, agency:
Beo
Basket) netted 19 points.
Head coach Zoran Slavnic had a lot of problems before EC because of many
cancellations. He had the youngest team and 9 players who made debut on the
European Championship. But one thing is sure, people in Serbia again can't be
satisfied with the performance of their National Team, especially after four
gold medals by Serbian U16, U18, U19, U21 NT and one silver by University Team.
Anyway, those golden kids are basketball future of Serbia so all people who are
involved in Serbian basketball must play attention on them and help them to
continue in the same way!
Germany suffered first defeat - Sep. 6, 2007
Germany has
lost the last game in group-play against Lithuania (80:84) and completed the
first stage of the EURO on second place in Group C.
Though Lithuania was ahead with 21 points during the third quarter and dominated
the first half completely the Germans managed to come back and reduced the score
to 68:70 with seven minutes left to play in the game.
Dirk
Nowitzki (211-F-78) hit a three-pointer and two free-throws to cut down the
lead to one point (80:81) eleven seconds before the end of the fourth quarter.
Darius
Songaila (205-C/F-78, agency:
Priority Sports, college:
Wake Forest)
was fouled and converted one of his two attempts from the line.
Ademola
Okulaja (202-F-75, college:
N.Carolina)
now had the final chance for Germany to tie the score. But while driving to the
hoop the German Forward was charged for an offensive foul.
Rimantas
Kaukenas (193-G-77, college:
Seton Hall)
poured in the final two points from the charity stripe.
Germany will now go into the Qualifying Round to take on Slovenia, France and
Italy. The next game will be on Saturday against Tony Parker and "Les Bleus". Germany: Nowitzki (28pts, 9rbs), Okulaja (12pts, 7rbs), Garrett
(10pts), Hamann (8pts), Roller (8pts), Greene (5pts, 5rbs), Femerling (4pts),
Herber (3pts), Arigbabu, Demirel, Gruenheid (DNP). Lithuania: D. Lavrinovic (18pts, 5rbs), Jasikevicius (15pts,
10as), Siskauskas (13pts, 6rbs), Songaila (11pts), Kleiza (10pts), Kaukenas
(9pts, 9rbs), K. Lavrinovic (5pts, 5rbs), Jasaitis (3pts), Macilius, Gustas
(DNP), Jankunas (DNP), Javtokas (DNP)
Italy defeats Poland - Sep. 6, 2007
Team Italy
managed to defeat Poland, 79-70, at the end of a nervous game, in which the
Azzurri have been ahead in the score all the time, but they played conditioned
by the importance of the game, the only way to advance in the Eurobasket 2007
competition. This time, Italy had a very good night in 3 points shooting (12-21
at the end), and
Marco
Belinelli (196-G-86) topped the score with 20 points, while
Andrea
Bargnani (209-F/C-85) scored 19 points, and grabbed 7 rebounds to be the
game MVP. Italian Serie A fresh addition
Adam
Wojcik (207-F-70, agency:
Beo
Basket) was the pest at the Polish side, with 12 points. Italy will now face
an hard job on saturday afternoon, when will meet Lithuania, winnner of Group C
Dissapointing Turkey To Next Round - Sep. 5, 2007
After
suffering two heavy losses and showing no character at all Turkey took down
Czech Republic on Day 3 and grabbed the Madrid ticket to face Italy, France and
Slovenia. Turkish NT opened the game with a 15-2 run thanks to
Hidayet
Turkoglu&Mehmet
Okur duo and never looked back till the end as team captain
Ibrahim
Kutluay (198-F/G-74) hit his shots from beyond the three line.
Bogdan
Tanjevic's neverending rotation once again caused a trouble for Turkey while
Lubos
Barton and
Petr
Benda helped Czech team cut a 18 point deficit to 6 in the last quarter but
sinking the free throws - 17/31 in total though - in the cruical moments sealed
the deal for Turkey. Turkoglu chipped in 22 points, 5 boards and 3 assists as
Mehmet
Okur registered a double double and
Ibrahim
Kutluay poured in 17. On the other hand
Lubos
Barton and
Petr
Benda totally added 36 points and 8 rebounds for Czech Republic. Czech Republic(72): Vrubl 9, Benes 0, Whitfield 6, Kraus 9,
Welsch 5, Sokolovsky 4,
Lubos
Barton (200-F/G-80, college:
Valparaiso)
22, Necas 3,
Petr
Benda (203-F/C-82, agency:
Court Side)
14, Houska 0 Turkey(80): Ender Arslan 6, Ermal Kuqo 7, Engin Atsur 0, Ersan
Ilyasova 1,
Ibrahim
Kutluay 17, Kerem Gonlum 4,
Mehmet
Okur (210-C/F-79) 16, Kaya Peker 7,
Hidayet
Turkoglu (206-F-79) 22
(15-28, 31-46, 49-59, 72-80)
Croatia 85 - 84 Spain - Sep. 5, 2007
With less
than 3 seconds remaining,
Marko
Tomas (200-G-85) scored an incredible three-pointer that gave a very
important win to Croatia in front of the World Champions. Fuenlabrada guard
completed a good game that finished with a sensational shot that represented the
first Spanish defeat after 28 victories in a row.
'Pepu' pupils started very concentrated, with
Pau Gasol
(214-F/C-80) scoring from inside and Rudy and
Carlos
Jimenez (203-F-76) from outside (9-15). Ofensive Spanish game worked
perfect, with
Jose
Manuel Calderon (190-G-81) directing his teammates perfectly, but giving
Croatia the chance to score also very easy, playing a soft defense that didn't
become a problem while points arrived. Spain seemed to feel confortable inside
court, playing as its used, and halftime arrived with host team winning by +10
(40-50).
But problems arrived in third quarter, when points didn't come and Croatia
started to score easily, with Popovic, Tomas and
Davor
Kus (190-G-78) scoring from behind the arc (56-58 with less than 5 minutes
remaining for the end of the period). A
Jasmin
Repesa technical foul seemed to be moment for Spanish to react, but 'Reds'
missed the free throws and the next attack. An unknown Spain couldn't score as
usual, and because of this offensive colapse, defense wasn't working and Croatia
took advantage of it.
In the last quarter, a
Davor
Kus shot represented the maximum advantage (77-70), and then appeared the
best
Rudy Fernandez (197-G-85). DKV Joventut forward led his teammates with his
points and the Spanish reaction (77-81). Another Davor
Davor
Kus three-pointer shot reduced diferences and Rudy missed the next shot.
Croatia overcome with the last Tomas three pointer and in the last possesion,
Fernandez tried an impossible shot that didn't enter thanks to
Mario
Kasun (213-C-80) and
Zoran
Planinic (198-G-82) defense.
Portugal 77 - Latvia 67-Portugal in next stage,historical act - Sep. 5, 2007
Portugal
needed 16 points advantage over Latvia or a Croatia win (wich happened-almost a
miracle well deserved) to advance in the next stage with 4000persons in the San
Pablo arena( more Latvians then portuguese supporters).
Portugal as usual started better then the other team and thru Elvis Evora , Joao
Gomes the portuguese star playing great as always and Francisco jordao with a 3
point shot got a lead of 7-0 with Biendris always strong in the rebounds getting
in the FT line the first Latvia points (7-1 with 7.27 minuts to play),Portugal
was a authentic warrion team hustling to get every rebound and every ball they
could get and Latvia was awfull in the 3point shots,Portugal needed to make some
faults thet custed them alot of FT to Latvia,with a stronger defense and 3 point
shots aswell Joao Gomes dunk show gave Portugal a lead of 17-9 in the end of the
first quarter.
Many TO´s and fouls gave Latvia the opurtunity to recover 4.35m with Biedrins
dunk on a rebound(18-17 Latvia lead)Miguel Miranda responded with a 3 point shot
,and thru many 3 point shots for Portugal that was near perfection on this side
ended the 2nd quarter with a liltle advange because Maria Fernandes and Joao
Santos scored two 3 points giving them a lead of 28-24 in the half.
Evora openned the second half and Felipe da Silva with a pair of baskets gave
32-24 Portugal lead but Latvia dominated the period with a great defense and
many FT and some 3 point shots made got a tie with Hilmanis -6.20m (32) ,Jordao
and Joao Santos socred a pair of 3´s to make a lead of 38-35.
Biedrins with 3 fouls got in the bench and Latvia 3pt shot missed, Portugal
scored more points (55-44).
Portugal keeped playing their basket show in the final quarter ,opening with 3FT
by Mario Fernandes(58-44),aceleration in the scorer and Biedriens was allready
back in the game with 8.30m ,Portugal was virtualy in the next stage because got
a lead of 17 points(61-44),Latvia only scored in penetrations and in the FT
line,the responded and got to 61-55 and later on with a 3 by Elvis with 5m gave
hope to Portugal(64-55)right before he got fouled out , till the end of the game
was around 10 pts difference for Portugal always leading .
Final result 77-67 and Portugal waited 2.30hours without hope that Croatia would
beat Spain wich happened and Portugal in the next round,wich is a dream for
portuguese basketball but well deserved.
Slovenia-Poland 70-52 - Sep. 5, 2007
Slovenia pulled away late in the third quarter to beat Poland
70-52 and clinch their second win of the EuroBasket.
Poland started the game with a run 9-4. Later they played also very well in the
both sides: offence and defence ending first quarter 19-13. Unfortunately for
them in the first three minutes Slovenia scored 7 points while Poland - 0
(20-19). From this part of the game Slovenia has been still expanding its
advantage ending the half of the game by result 34-26. In a one moment of third
quarter Poland trailed 39-33 but Slovenia hit them with a 23-6 run. The game was
over.
Slovenian center Erazem Lorbek had a game-high 16 points and
pulled down eight rebounds while team-mate Jaka Lakovic chipped
in with 15 points. Filip Dylewicz finished with 9 points and 9 rebounds while
team-mate Andrzej Pluta led the Poles in scoring with 12
points. What is worth underlining Poland were out-rebounded 46 to 28 and it was
a key why they lost.
Slovenia shot 19 of 23 (83%) from the charity stripe while Poland were 11 of 16
(65%). SLOVENIA-POLAND 70-52 (13-19, 21-7, 12-7, 24-19) Slovenia: E. Lorbek 16, Lakovic 15, Nesterovic 11, Smodis 6,
Jagodnik 5, Dragic 5, Vidmar 5, Slokar 4, D. Lorbek 3, Cebular 0, Klobucar 0 Poland: Pluta 12, Dylewicz 9, Witka 8, Frasunkiewicz 7, Kitzinger 5,
Koszarek 4, Hyzy 4, Pietras 2, Szewczyk 1, Woloszyn 0, Skibniewski 0, Wojcik 0.
European Champs : France on the way to second round - Sep. 5, 2007
For his
second game in the competition, France has avoided the italian booby trap with a
69-62 win.
Tony
Parker (183-G-80) showed the way to all his teammates, scoring a
record-breaking 36pts. The french team had a terrible start, with a 0-7 run to
begin the game. However, there wasn't any reason to panic, since France had the
weapons to dominate, as far as the athletic skills are concerned.Led by 3 after
one quarter, by 4 at half-time, France had an excellent 3rd quarter with a 20-11
run, playing quick and scoring the long distance shots, still led by
Tony
Parker. However, the blue players were a little bit disturbed by the clock
shutdown with a couple of minutes to go. Each time the clock was down, an
italian player scored a basket. France took the lead for the last time with 2
minutes to go, while italian started missing some shots. Bargnani had a terrific
first half (12pts) but was almost invisible during the second half. Tony
Tony
Parker, MVP of the 2007 finals in the NBA, had his best game ever in a FIBA
competition and will have to finish the job tomorrow vs Slovenia.
France: Gomis, Sangare,Diawara,
Tony
Parker 36, Ferchaud, Pietrus 8, Kirksay 11, Diaw 9, Turiaf 3, Weis 2
Greece beat Serbia 68:67 after over time - Sep. 5, 2007
Serbia lost
second game on the EuroBasket 2007. This time "Mosquitoes" had a chance for the
win but that chance gone forever 4 seconds before the end of over time.
Both teams showed their nerves at the beginning of the game which resulted with
just 10 points after five and a half minutes of the first quarter (7:3 for
Greece). Serbia again struggled from behind the arc (1 of 7) so defending
European champions had 12:11 after first period. Very quick in the second
quarter Serbia made couple of unnecessary fouls what experienced Greek players
exploited and were concentrated from the FT line making 24:18. That was a signal
for Serbia to intensify defense and after Erceg's dunk equalized 26:26. Later
they took first lead on the game 28:29 but teams went on the half time equalized
31:31.
Both teams continued with missing the shots as Greece scored 6 and Serbia just 4
points after almost 7 minutes of the third quarter. In the center of the last
period Serbia took lead again 42:46 after Jaric's two free throws and Milicic's
left sky hook. One minute before the end Dikoudis made very important 3-pointer
for 51:51 after what Papalukas scored 2 FT. Jaric missed tough shot from the
paint and Radivojevic immediately committed foul. In the last offense of regular
time Milan Gurovic received the ball in the center of the court scoring amazing
3-pts shot of the board and brought over time to Serbia 56:56. Later, Greece
made plus 4 but still Serbia had a last chance on 68:67 but Marko Jaric was
indecisive and finished the offense without shot attempt.
Clutch player for Greece was
Dimos
Dikoudis (207-F/C-77, agency:
Court Side)
who added 20 points and 8 rebounds. Except of him only,
Vasilis
Spanoulis (193-G-82, agency:
Beo
Basket) recorded double digits for Greece, 10 points and 3 assists.
Marko
Jaric (198-G-78) collected 18 points and 6 rebounds.
Darko
Milicic (212-C-85) dominated in the paint against Papadopoulos adding 17
points, 6 rebounds and 3 blocks while
Milan
Gurovic (207-F-76, agency:
Beo
Basket) followed them scoring 14 points and grabbing 8 rebounds. Once again
Serbia had disappointing percentage for 3-pts, only 3 of 20 (15 %).
Second fall for Italy - Sep. 5, 2007
Team Italy
suffered a second defeat at Eurobasket 2007, this time from France, a
traditional contender that lots of times had imposed its superior athleticism to
the Azzurri. The game ended 62-67, and Italy played very badly only in the last
quarter, forgotting to defend and fight as its players were used to. Italy
started well, with
Andrea
Bargnani (209-F/C-85) scoring all the first 7 points of the game, for a
deceiving 7-0 after 4 minutes of play. Bargnani was the Italian top scorer at
the end with 16 pts.
Marco
Belinelli (196-G-86) added 15 points, but he too gave his best in the first
half, almost disappearing when the game became tough.
Massimo
Bulleri (188-G-77), instead, never stopped battling, ending the game with 11
pts, 3 assists and 1 rebound, but Italy yesterday was probably in need of a true
point guard to run its offense in a better way. The man of the game was
Tony
Parker (183-G-80). The Eva Longoria's husband scored 36 points, grabbed 2
rebs and dished 3 assits, no one of the Italians was able to limit him. USA-FRA
Tariq
Kirksay (199-F-79, college:
Iona) added
11 points, all scored in the second half, and was the only other French to end
the game in double digits, while
Boris
Diaw (203-F/C-82) ended the game with 9 points and 8 rebounds. The last
resort for Italy is tonight game vs. Poland, the last chance to advance to the
second leg of the competition for both the teams.
France - Italy : 69 - 62 - Sep. 5, 2007
The second
match was important for the both team. Yesterday, Italy has lost his game at the
last second and France wanted to consolidate his first place.
Italy started the game very good and after 3 minutes, the score was 7-0 for
Italy. We had to wait until the 5th minutes to see the first points of the
French team (3 points of Tony Parker).
With a good Bargnani (the first choice in the NBA Draft this year), after 17
minutes of the game, Italy has a 9 points length (33-24).
In the half time, the score is 36 - 31 for Italy.
At the beginning of the fourth quarter, the both teams had the same score : 41 -
41.
In the second period, the French can count of Tony Parker and Kirksay (8 points
in the last 10 minutes). The French team imposed its game in the last five
minutes.
Tony Parker finished the game with 36 points, a very good game for him, the best
one with the French team.
France : Parker (36), Pietrus (8), Kirksay (11), Diaw (9), Turiaf (3), Weis (2)
Italy : Belineli (15), Basile (1), Mancinelli (7), Sorgana (3), Marconato (2),
Mordente (5), Bargani (16), Bulleri (11), Gigli (2)
Lithuania beat Czech Republic - Sep. 4, 2007
Lithuania
got their second win in Eurobasket 2007. Czech Republic was beat by 20 points
95:75.
The game started evenly, no team had a big advantage. Czech Republic scored most
of their points from mid-range while Lithuania collected most points by scoring
from inside the free-throw area. Lithuaina broke away in the center of the
quater and constantly increased thei lead. The first quater finished 32:15.
The highlites of the second quater were two unsportsmanlike fouls: one by
Radek
Necas (204-F-80) and one by
Linas
Kleiza (203-F-85, agency:
Interperformances, college:
Missouri).
The Balts increased their lead even more after a steal and a dunk from
Giedrius
Gustas (190-G-80, agency:
Interperformances), who made the score 46:24. The quater ended with a 3
point play from
Ksystof
Lavrinovic (210-C-79) with time runnning out. Lithuania led 54:31 after 3
quaters.
The third quater was better for the Czechs who closed down the difference to 12
(60:48), but Lithuania managed to straighten up and after
Linas
Kleizas alley-oop pass which was finished with a one hand dunk from
Darjus
Lavrinovic (212-C-79) (70:52). The third ends at 72:55.
Lithuania starts to make one mistake after another to see the Czechs get closer
and closer. The score is 75:62 after
Jiri
Welsch (200-F-80) finishes a fast break with a dunk. But Lithuanians managed
to fight back again and won the game 95:75.
Lithuania:
Ksystof
Lavrinovic 22,
Linas
Kleiza 14,
Darjus
Lavrinovic 12
Czech Republic:
Jiri
Welsch 18+6 assists, Petr Benda 14+7 boards, Lubos Barton 13+8 boards
Russia got an easy victory over Israel. - Sep. 4, 2007
Russia got an easy victory over Israel at second day of eurobasket. Russia
played with big confidence and deep understanding of game from first second till
the last.
Israeli basketball players struggled against good Blatt's defence and were lucky
to stay close at first quarter 17-15 scoring some good shots over defender's
hands.
Russia controlled game combining low-tempo attacks with fast-breaks and playing
strong defence. JR Holden leaded his teammates with couple of right decisions in
attack.
Some of his shots and good assits made a double-digit advantage in the second
quarter that was grown till the end of the game. Andrei Kirilenko did another
great game
making good stats 10 pts + 5 rebs + 1 assists before his replacement at second
quarter. But these stats doesn't show how perfect was his game. He allways found
the right way for attack even playing against two or three opponents in episods.
Israeli's players understood soon that this evening must be a very long for
them.
Russia - Israel 90:56 (17:15, 23:13, 26:13, 24:15)
Russia :
J.R. Holden (185-G-76, college:
Bucknell) 18
pts + 5 rebs + 3 ass + 3 steals, Andrei Kirilenko 17 pts + 13 rebs + 5 ass, Israel: Lior Eliahu 17 pts + 6 rebs.
Croatia 90 - Portugal 68 - Sep. 4, 2007
The game
started really bad for both teams with many Tournovours and missed shots , with
2-2 by Francisco Jordao scoring first portuguese points ,till the minute 7.40
when Joao Gomes thru a penetration fallowed by a dunk got the momento of the
game ,fallowed by a rebound and a dunk by Mario Kasun (4-4),Joao Gomes responded
and gave Portugal a lead like against Spain game(6-4),Croatia with a 3point shot
got their first lead in the game(7-6)by Zoran Planinic ,Joao Gomes keeped doing
his show and was the only portuguese player in a high level during the game
,only stoped by his early 3 fouls with 1.54m in the first quarter(he
penetretaded and was scoring by dunks and jump shots ,from any side of the court
he was doing a great show with FT,3point shots aswell )Kasun with 6 points in
the first quarter always responded to Joao Gomes thru dunks and jump shots ,the
quarter ended with a tie 19-19-13 points made by Joao Gomes and Croatia got a
liltle before before the end of the period but Portugal responded.
Second quarter-More equilibrium in the game,but Portugal in the entire game
missed many 3 point shots and without Joao Gomes and Joao Santos both with 3
fouls ,Croatia made the lead of the game (24-19)but Kasun got sideline during
the period because he got a liltle injury in his leg but nothing serious
,because he got back in the game in the second half.
This was another game with many fouls .
Portugal in some time during the period cuted Croatia lead because Elvis Evore
in the inside game was doing his job (32-31)and (35-34) but in the final minute
of the period Croatia made two 3 point shots and to the half got a lead of
42-36.
Third Quarter - Jordao made 3 points in the return of the game (42-39)but Kasun
returned in the game and Croatia got a lead of 51-39 all fruits of a great
defense pression on portuguese defense-ofensive transaction,and alot of
portuguese tournavours made this the decision period where Croatia got their
lead for good ,Popovic,Markota and pretty much all PG made a show of 3´s
(70-46),Portugal comeback till be with a result at the end of the
period(75-57)with Joao Gomes returning and Elvins in the paint scoring a
basket,but it wasn´t enaught because the 3rd quarter had a result of 33-14.
Fouth Quarter-With the game dicided both teams changed some baskts and Croatia
didn´t scored for 5minuts but the diferense between both was was always around
20points ,arriving to a final result of 90-68 for Croatia.
Portugal had 14 TO´s against Croatia 7 TO´s and shoted really bad behind the arc
of 6.25m.
“Once again, we didn't start badly,” said Cunha.
“We never could get on top of them.”
“It was psychologically a different game because of yesterday,” he said.
Marko Banic, the Croatian forward, had eight points in the game.
He said the team play was much improved.
“Yesterday, we didn't play like a team,” Banic said.
“Today, we played much better. We just need to keep playing better defense.”
German National Team gets second win - Sep. 4, 2007
Germany
rolled over Turkey in the second game at the European Championships in Spain and
improved to 2:0 before the last fixture of the group-play against Lithuania on
Wednesday. Simply put, Germany was the better team and showed a great
allround-performance, while the Turkish players never found the key to the game.
The final score was 79:49. Dirk
Nowitzki (211-F-78) led all scores and finished with 24 points, but nearly
the whole German roster got involved in offense this time, letting no doubt from
beginning on. Leading 16:11 after ten minutes, the Germans continued to impress
on both ends of the court until halftime. And the hard work paid off, as Turkey
struggled to get open shots. After two quarters Germany was ahead with 13
(40:27) and kept pushing when the second half started. With ten minutes left to
go the German lead had improved to 58:39. The Turkish players seemed to have
given up very early and all they did trying to turn things around was shooting
the ball from long range and disregarding the fact that basketball is not an
individual game. Hitting only 3 of 22 attempts from beyond the arch and 14 of 34
from the field totally plus a FT-percentage of 50% (12/24) is enough to say
about the performance of the Turkish team that night. Meanwhile, the Germans
made their easy shots and a little bit more than that to get a win, which
somehow came unexpected in such convincing manner.
The Germans will take on Lithuania on Wednesday in a clash of two unbeaten teams
to battle for the first place in Group C. Germany: Nowitzki (24pts, 6rbs), Okulaja (13pts, 9rbs), Greene
(10pts), Jagla (8pts, 6rbs), Demirel (6pts), Femerling (4pts, 5rbs), Garrett
(4pts), Arigbabu (3pts), Roller (3pts), Hamann (2pts), Herber (2pts), Gruenheid. Turkey: Turkoglu (15pts), Atsur (7pts), Ilyasova (6pts, 6rbs),
Peker (6rts), Kurtoglu (5pts), Okur (5pts, 5rbs), Akyol (3pts), Gonlum (2pts),
Arslan, Demirel, Erden, Kutluay.
Slovenia crushes Poland and moves to second stage - Sep. 4, 2007
Slovenia has
already qualified to the second stage of Euro 2007 as crushed Poland 70-52.
Slovenia outrebounded the opponent 46-28 and limited Poland to just 7 points in
the second quarter and to only 8 points in the third period. Radoslav Nesterovic
registering a double-double with 11 points and 12 rebounds, Erazem Lorbek posted
16 points and grabbed 8 rebounds and Jaka Lakovic had 15 points and 5 assists.
SLOVENIA 70 (13+21+12+24): Cebular, Lakovic 15, Capin DNP, Dragic 5, Nesterovic
11, Smodis 6, Slokar 4, Klobucar, Jagodnik 5, D.Lorbek 3, Vidmar 5, E.Lorbek 16.
POLAND 52 (19+7+8+18): Woloszyn, Pluta 12, Skibniewski, Witka 8, Dylewicz 9,
Hyzy 4, Wojcik, Pietras 2, Szewczyk 1, Kitzinger 5, Frasunkiewicz 7, Koszarek 4.
Injury prone Capin out of EC! - Sep. 4, 2007
Slovenian
guard Aleksandar Capin will miss the rest of European Championship after
suffering a knee injury during the game against Italy. He will be sidelined at
least three weeks.
Successful beginning for Greece - Sep. 4, 2007
Greece
successfully started its way to successfully defend its European title with a
76-66 win over Israel in the second game of Group A. Israel, coming into the
game with some huge momentum from the additional previous week's qualifying
round, fought toughly against the title-holders. Greece couldn't put their
opponents away until the final quarter, when they caught fire from the 3-point
line, connecting on five of seven three-point shots at one point.
After
Antonis Fotsi's (210-F-81) injury, Greek team's two other power forwards -
Kostas
Tsartsaris (210-F-79) and
Dimos
Dikoudis (207-F/C-77, agency:
Court Side)
- had to recover this absence and they did well, combined for 30 points on 66%
shooting from the field, 11 rebounds and two blocks. Even more,
Kostas
Tsartsaris stepped up in the last quarter with two crucial baskets from
beyond the arc.
It took Israel almost three minutes to get its first points on the board, and by
then Greece already led 7-0.
Jeron
Roberts (194-G/F-76, agency:
Gross Zeev
ISA, college:
Wyoming)
woke the challengers with five points in a row, and his seventh point was
followed by
Yotam
Halperin (196-G-84, agency:
Arik Krayn
Services)'s three-pointer to give Israel their first lead of the night.
Greece though answered with four points in a row to take a 19-15 lead at the end
of the first period, but
Yotam
Halperin was just getting warmed up. He added seven points, and together
with a great job in the paint by
Yaniv
Green (206-F-80, agency:
Arik Krayn
Services), helped Israel take a surprising 31-28 lead with a little under a
minute left in the half.
Kostas
Tsartsaris though tied the game at 31 with his first successful three-point
shot at the end of the first half. At that time, Greece had two out of 11 from
the long range, but rediscovered its touch in the second half. Yotam
Halperin made it 42-40 to the Israeli side with 3:38 to play in the third,
but for the next 11 minutes the Greek defense clamped down on their opponents.
On the offensive end,
Panagiotis
Giannakis' team hit just about everything from downtown. When the score was
tied at 46-46,
Dimitris
Diamantidis (196-G-80) hit a three-pointer which started a rain of three's
by Greece. The team hit five three-pointers - all by different players - out of
six attempts in a period of 4:30 minutes, to take a seven-point lead.
Kostas
Tsartsaris followed
Dimitris
Diamantidis and then
Theodoros Papaloukas (200-G-77, agency:
Interperformances) and
Vasilis
Spanoulis (193-G-82, agency:
Beo
Basket) follow on from them.
After
Vasilis Spanoulis broke the "trend" with a two-point shot,
Theodoros Papaloukas hit another long bomb (he finally finished with three
out of three) to make it a 66-59 game for Greece.
Israel didn't give up just yet as
Yotam
Halperin converted another three-point play to cut the deficit to four, only
for
Kostas Tsartsaris to hit from long range line once again with 2:28 to play.
The shot took whatever spirit Israel had left and seal the game, which ended at
a 10-point difference for Greece (76-66).
France - Poland : 74 - 66 - Sep. 4, 2007
Despite of
the 19 points of the best scorer of the match and the oldest player of the
competition (37 years old), A. Wojick, France has beaten the team of Polen in
the opening group D match in Alicante.
France started well his match and after 9 minutes, the team reached the biggest
lead of the game 22-12. The Polen played their game and were efficient in the
painting. For France, it was the opposite, in the half time, France shouted more
at the 6,25 meter line (17) than at 2 points.
In the 22 minutes, the Polish took the control of the game for some minutes,
38-35. The tiredness of the Polish and the athletic power of the French made the
difference, in the 33 minutes, the lead for France was again of 10 points
(65-55).
At the end of the game, the score is 70 - 63.
According to Tony Parker, even if this game was not the best, it is an important
victory.
Poland : Koszarek (5), Kitzinger (7), Pluta (6), Frasunkiewicz (6), Dylewicz (8),
Woloszyn (3), Szewczyck (12), Wojcik (19)
Crotia : Paker (16), Ferchaud (3), Gomis (9), Diaw (10), Diawara (10), Kirksay
(12), Giffa (3), Badiane (4), Turiaf (7), Weis (2)
Savrasenko gave a big heart and Kirilenko performed at high level - Sep. 3, 2007
Savrasenko gave a big heart and Kirilenko performed at high level as Russia
started Eurobasket-2007 with victory over Serbia.
Russia - Serbia 73:65 (13:21, 17:17, 18:16, 17:19)
Rusia started strong with 9:0 spurt and took leadership all the way. Russian
center Savrasenko had a difficult match-up against NBA-star Darko Milicicic
and fought with big heart inside paint. Still whole team heading by great coach
Davide Blatt showed great khemistry helping each other as in defence either in
attack.
But awful performance in free shots of Serbian players also was an important
factor in final Russian victory. Start of the game was pretty nervous and
Serbian
players were unlucky in episods while Russians demonstrated good tactic and
mental power to finish 38:30 first half.
Kirilenko leaded his teammates after break making fantastic game. Russian leader
easy found way in any situation for succesful attack working hard in defence
also.
Experienced Zahar Pashutin scored decisive three-pointer in last minutes making
a key-points-difference for comfortable Russian victory.
Russia:
Andrei Kirilenko (205-F-81) 24 pts + 12 rebs + 3 bs + 3 ass,
Alexei
Savrasenko (215-C-79) 11 pts + 5 rebs + 1ass, Victor Khryapa 11 pts + 9
rebs, Nikita Morgunov 10 pts + 5 rebs. Serbia: Milan Gurovic 24 pts, Milos Teodosic 15 pts.
Kakiouzis: The gold medal is our aim at Eurobasket, again - Jul. 27, 2007
This time
it's not a prophecy like it was in 2005. The Greek national team is now at its
first stage of its preparation ahead of Eurobasket 2007, at Karpenisi, and its
captain,
Michalis Kakiouzis (206-C-76), took some time and answered a few questions
at the Greek's National Federation's site about Greek team's defence of its
title.
Q: Talk about the challenges of regaining the title and remaining at the top. Michalis
Kakiouzis: “At least this year we had the time to rest a little bit. We
needed this time off. Now, we are all really happy just to be here, all together
once more. We all know that we have to work really hard each and every day, each
and every practice to get where we want.”
Q: We understand that your training has involved a lot of running at Karpenisi? Michalis
Kakiouzis: “This is the hardest part of the preparation. But we all know
that this is the place where we are going to put the foundations of our effort.
My only wish for now is for all of us to be healthy until the end”.
Q: Do you still insist that your only goal is to win another title? Michalis
Kakiouzis: “Yes! Our goal must be the title, since we are already the
champions of Europe. We have set on ourselves very high goals, we have created
many expectations. And we know that. We want the title; we want to stay at the
top. It's not a prophecy or something like that. It's a matter of setting a
goal”.
Q: Is it a burden for you that you are going to Spain as the European Champions? Michalis
Kakiouzis: “No. We got over that in Japan and I think we did it
successfully. This doesn't mean that we are not going to try to give our best.
We know that our opponents will have an extra motive playing against us, because
they want to beat the champions. But I believe that it's up to us. We have to
play nice basketball and of course to get the results we need”.
Q: Your group is not exactly what you could call ‘easy'. What do you think of
your first round competition? Michalis
Kakiouzis: “We are going to face two teams that have great basketball
tradition. Russia and Serbia are strong teams. And we'll get the strongest team
from the additional qualifying round. Maybe all this will turn out for our best.
It will keep us on guard from the very first day. We are not expecting easy
games and it will not be easy for us to beat our opponents. We know that the
path is narrow and difficult to pass. But we want to get to the destination we
have determined: the gold medal”.
Doron Jamchy: I hope we will make Giannakis' life difficult the evening of our possible game at Spain - Jul. 9, 2007
Doron
Jamchy (197-F/G-61), the best Israeli shooter of all time, one of its
greatest players and Israel's top scorer of all times, with 4.224 points, 11
Israeli Championships won with Maccabi Tel Aviv and 7 Israeli State Cups, was
present at Athens 1st Eurostar and gave at Eurobasket.com a brief interview,
stating though some interesting things:
Q: What do you think are the chances of Israel to qualify from the Additional
Qualifying Round to the forthcoming Eurobasket 2007 of Spain?
D.J.: First of all, I hope we can do it. However, it will not be easy to qualify
and as an example I bring our loss from Portugal at the previous round, which
brought us to the additional round instead of the final round of Eurobasket. We
have a very talented team, with many talented players, although we still have
the disadvantage of not having a full knowledge of our roster for the games. If
it was difficult to qualify with our initial roster, after the withdrawals of
Arnold and Burstein it would be even more difficult.
Q: If Israel qualifies, it will face Greece at the very first game of the first
round of the Eurobasket 2007. What do you think of such a game, especially since
Greece, in such a case, will have few games to be prepared for the game (we
remind that the team to qualify to Group A of Granada will become just 3 days
before Eurobasket's beginning)?
D.J.: The most games between Greece and Israel during the last years have been
almost equal. However, generally there were also games with big differences for
Greece. Of course, we made it difficult for Greece to qualify at Beograd and I
think that our game at that Tuesday gave Greece a strong, mental especially,
advantage for the rest of Eurobasket 2005. We raise their self-esteem a lot. In
any case, Greece is a very difficult and talented team, the champions of Europe
and 2nd team of World Championship, a very strong team. Giannakis is a very good
friend of me and I hope we will make his life difficult that evening (we should
have qualified firstly, of course).
Q: Do you have any idea of the presence of Israel's funs at Spain?
D.J.: With our national team the things are very different than with Maccabi and
the presence of its funs at Euroleague's Final 4etc. Certainly, some people will
follow us at Spain, but in any case I believe that Greeks will be much many at
Granada than we.
Q: And something about the 1st Eurostar?
D.J.: It is always very good for me and I feel very happy when I have the chance
to feel the great Greek hospitality for one more time. I feel also happy to meet
again my friends - journalists - and to feel the support and admiration of all
my years at the past. I really feel blessed to be here in Athens and join all
these great players and old friends.
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