WORLD  CHAMPIONSHIPS  '2006   
Japan, August 19 - September 3, 2006

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Spain won World Championships 2006 (Photo: FIBA) Spanish Pau Gasol voted World Championships MVP (Photo: FIBA) WC favorite USA lost to Greece in the semifinals (Photo: FIBA)

Final Standings 1.Spain 2.Greece 3.USA 4.Argentina 5.France 6.Turkey 7.Lithuania 8.Germany 9-16.Angola 9-16.Australia 9-16.China 9-16.Italy 9-16.N.Zealand 9-16.Nigeria 9-16.Serbia/M 9-16.Slovenia 17-20.Brazil 17-20.Japan 17-20.Lebanon 17-20.P.Rico 21-24.Panama 21-24.Qatar 21-24.Senegal 21-24.Venezuela Standings Preliminary Group A 1.Argentina 5-0 2.France 3-2 3.Nigeria 2-3 4.Serbia/M 2-3 5.Lebanon 2-3 6.Venezuela 1-4 Group B 1.Spain 5-0 2.Germany 4-1 3.Angola 3-2 4.N.Zealand 2-3 5.Japan 1-4 6.Panama 0-5 Group C 1.Greece 5-0 2.Turkey 4-1 3.Lithuania 3-2 4.Australia 2-3 5.Brazil 1-4 6.Qatar 0-5 Group D 1.USA 5-0 2.Italy 4-1 3.Slovenia 2-3 4.China 2-3 5.P.Rico 2-3 6.Senegal 0-5 Stats Leaders Points 1 Ming Yao (CHN) 25.3 2 D.Nowitzki (GER) 23.2 3 Pau Gasol (ESP) 21.3 4 C.Arroyo (PUR) 21.2 5 E.Ayuso (PUR) 21.2 6 C.Anthony (USA) 19.9 7 D.Wade (USA) 19.3 8 F.El Khatib (LIB) 18.8 9 I.Rakocevic (SRB) 18.3 10 T.Splitter (BRA) 16.4 Rebounds 1 R.Lugo (VEN) 11.4 2 P.Gasol (ESP) 9.4 3 D.Milicic (SRB) 9.3 4 D.Nowitzki (GER) 9.2 5 Ming Yao (CHN) 9.0 Assists 1 J.I.Sanchez (ARG) 5.8 2 C.Arroyo (PUR) 5.2 3 Chris Paul (USA) 4.9 4 Wei Liu (CHN) 4.5 5 L.James (USA) 4.1 Steals 1 Diamantidis (GRE) 3.3 2 C.J. Bruton (AUS) 2.3 3 Mackinnon (AUS) 2.3 Blocks 1 D.Milicic (SRB) 2.8 2 Pau Gasol (ESP) 2.4 3 Ming Yao (CHN) 2.3 Other Years __________________ 2010 2006 2002 1998 1994 1990 1986 1982 1978 1974 1970 1967 1963 1959 1954 1950

All-Tournament 1st Team
Gasol	Garbajosa	Anthony	Ginobili	Papaloukas

  Gasol named MVP - Sep. 3, 2006
Despite not playing in Spain's historic victory over Greece in the final of the FIBA World Championship, Pau Gasol (214-F-80) of Memphis Grizzlies (USA) was selected as the tournament's Most Valuable Player.
Gasol missed the final after suffering a broken bone in his left foot during Spain's semi-final win over Argentina on Friday.
The power forward/center, who was cheering Spain from the sidelines in the final, averaged better than 21 points and nine rebounds as his team went undefeated in Japan.
"I'm very happy about the honor," Gasol said. "I tried to play as well as I could to help my team get this far. It was unfortunate that I couldn't play in the final because of my injury.
"But the job my team-mates did in this game was so amazing. And I'm so proud of them."
One journalist from each of the 16 eight-finalist nations selected the five-man squad.
Joining Gasol were his team-mate power forward Jorge Garbajosa (205-C/F-77) of Unicaja Malaga (ESP), who had 20 points in the final, Team USA's small forward Carmelo Anthony (203-F-84) of Denver Nuggets (USA), Argentina guard Manu Ginobili and Greece playmaker Theo Papaloukas.

All-Tournament Team
Pau Gasol (214-F-80), Spain (MVP)
Jorge Garbajosa (205-C/F-77), Spain
Carmelo Anthony (203-F-84), USA
Emanuel Ginobili (198-G-77), Argentina
Theodoros Papaloukas (200-G-77), Greece

  Gold For Spain - Sep. 3, 2006
Greece - Spain 47-70 (12-18, 11-25, 11-11, 13-16)
Greece: Kakiouzis 17+9reb, Papaloukas 10+5reb, Fotsis 7, Spanoulis 4, Diamantidis 4, Papadopoulos 2, Schortsianitis 2, Dikoudis 1, Tsartsaris 0, Zisis 0, Vassilopoulos 0, Hatzivrettas 0.
Spain: Garbajosa 20+10reb, Navarro 20, Reyes 10, Calderon 7, Rodriguez 6, Jimenez 4+11reb, M. Gasol 2+7reb, Cabezas 1, Mumbru 0, S. Rodriguez 0, P. Gasol 0, Fernandez 0.
Playing without superstar Pau Gasol, Spain didn't miss a beat, running past Greece, 70-47, in the gold-medal game of the 2006 FIBA World Championship.
Gasol, who led Spain in scoring and rebounding in the tournament, broke his foot in Friday's win over Argentina. Spain, which finished the World Championship with a perfect 9-0 record, led by six after one quarter. In the second quarter, Spain outscored Greece, 25-11, to take a 54-34 lead and all but guarantee its first-ever gold medal. Juan-Carlos Navarro and Jorge Garbajosa filled the void for Gasol, scoring 20 points each. Garbajosa also grabbed 10 rebounds.

Spain has won the World Championship that took place in Japan during the last three weeks.

Spain faced Argentina in the semi-final. It was a tough game and the blue and white team played as they like. The beginning was for the men of "El oveja" and they got more than 10 points lead, but Pepu knew how to stop it. The solution's name was Sergio Rodriguez.

With Sergio on the floor, the rhythm was faster. Besides, he took the responsibility from the three points arc and equalized the game together with Rudy. In the end, Calderon and Gasol managed the last minutes and they got the victory from the free throws line.

The bad new was that two minutes remaining for the end of the time, Gasol, in a movement to score, broke his fifth metatarsian bone of the left foot. It was not a new injury because he has had problems in this part of the body.

In spite of the victory over Argentina, the men of Pepu were not so happy... the injury of Gasol was serious and he will not play in the next weeks. Besides, Greece had slammed out USA, and the American team was the favourite for the gold. The Final game seemed very hard.

But Spanish boys wanted to give the title to Pau, especially his brother Marc, who arrived to the National Team after the injury of Fran Vazquez. They knew that they would need more than 100% of every one, but it was possible. Pau cried after defeating Argentina because he knew this opportunity was the good one.

And there were no rest for Greece since the first minutes. The Spanish defense was almost perfect, with Felipe Reyes and Marc Gasol covering the absence of Pau. Calderon played injured, with pain in his knee, and Cabezas did a great work replacing him. Berni guarded Papaloukas as a lion, and Carlos JImenez filled with work all the holes, even took offensive responsibility sometimes in spite of he is not the most talented player.

Navarro showed the answer in offense, with the shooting guard scoring as usual -he scored only 4 points against Argentina- and Garbajosa increased the difference more and more. And Sergio Rodriguez showed in the second half that he is ready to manage a team with a good lead.

There were no Schortsianitis, Spanoulis, Diamantidis or Papaloukas able to stop Spain, and the game had not much emotion. The emotion was in the Spanish bench and then in the locker room, where Pepu Hernandez told that his father had died yesterday. He wanted to keep the chemistry in the group hiding the bad new and he got it.

Pau was helped by his team-mates to go upstairs and get the gold medal. It was really amazing. Maybe this is the best team in the Spanish Basketball history. This is a group of FRIENDS who enjoy playing cards, singing some party songs and changing the lyrics to give then special sense.

This Championship has interested everybody in Spain. The great court Madrid Arena was full with people watching the game in the giant screens, there were a lot of huge screens in Spanish cities to watch the game.

The Championship has been broadcasted by a new TV station: "La Sexta". They have counted of some of the best Basketball specialists in Spain to comment the game and prepare the event. It has been a great impulse in spite of some logic mistakes (it was the first time they broadcasted Basketball).

Spanish population has been so delighted as in Los Angeles Olympic Games, when Fernando Martin -first Spanish man in NBA- and his mates got the Silver Medal. Now, it's time for Basketball in Spain again.

Lithuania - Germany 77-62 (30-17, 17-24, 11-13, 19-8)
Lithuania: D. Lavrinovic 18, Kleiza 16+7reb, Songaila 13+6reb+5st, Gustas 8, Macijauskas 6, K. Lavrinovic 6, Javtokas 6+6reb, Kalnietis 2, Jasaitis 2, Delininkaitis 0, Zukauskas 0, Jankunas 0.
Germany: Nowitzki 18+6reb, Okulaja 10+6reb, Roller 8, Herber 6, Jagla 5, Garrett 4, Grunheid 4+5reb, Femerling 4, Greene 2, Hamann 1, Demirel 0, Schultze 0.
Darius Lavrinovic and Linas Kleiza combined for 34 points to lead Lithuania to a 77-62 victory over Germany and seventh place at the FIBA World Championship.
The game was decided early in the fourth quarter as Lithuania went on a 17-2 run to open the period while Germany went 11 and a half minutes without a basket.
Lavrinovic collected 18 points in just 19 minutes including a perfect three of three from long range. Kleiza continued his impressive end to the tournament with 16 points and seven rebounds.
Pascal Roller, who got the starting nod from Bauermann for the first time in the tournament, buried back-to-back three-pointers to give Germany a 13-11 lead with 5:44 left in the first period.
Nowitzki started the second half by converting a three-point play, which Okulaja followed with a three-point shot. And Germany's star big man evened the game at 49-49 with a break away dunk at the 6:17 mark.
In the final period, Lavrinovic scored six straight points and Darius Songalia added five consecutive as Lithuania blew the game wide open with a 17-2 spurt to start the fourth - 75-56.
 

LeBron James

  USA Wins Bronze Medal and France Clinch Fifth - Sep. 2, 2006
France - Turkey 56-64 (7-20, 13-15, 23-14, 13-15)
Turkey: Atsur 15+5reb, Akyol 10, Ilyasova 9+7reb, Peker 8, Gonlum 6+11reb, Kurtoglu 4, Demirel 3, Erden 1+7reb, Arslan 0, Erdogan 0, Kutluay 0, Solak 0.
France: F. Pietrus 12+9reb, Weis 11+6reb, Foirest 10, Diaw 8+6reb, Gomis 8+6reb, M. Pietrus 6, Bokolo 5, Gelabale 2+5reb, Turiaf 2, Jeanneau 0, Diarra 0, Petro 0.
A five-point possession following an unsportsmanlike foul allowed France to beat Turkey 64-56 and capture fifth place at the FIBA World Championship.
Joseph Gomis (180-G-78) made three free throws and Mickael Gelabale dunked home a missed jumper to give France a nine-point lead with 3:46 remaining in the game. And that would prove enough despite France missing six foul shots in the final 2:20.
"We're fifth and that's the main thing that we'll remember," said France captain Boris Diaw (203-F/C-82), whose team finished 6-3 in the tournament with losses to Argentina, Lebanon and Greece.
The France's 2P FG percentage is 44%, on the other hand, Turkey is only in 21%.
France led the score 35-20 in the first half. The brilliant performance in the third quarter let Turkey made the score in 40-44. But Turkey can not find a way defeat France from then on.

USA - Argentina 96-81 (21-27, 29-22, 19-13, 27-19)
USA: Wade 32, James 22+7ast+9reb, Anthony 15+5reb, Brand 11+6reb, Howard 7, Paul 4+6reb, Hinrich 2, Battier 2, Bosh 1, Miller 0, Johnson 0, Jamison 0.
Argentina: Scola 19+5reb, Nocioni 18+6reb, Delfino 13, Ginobili 10, Sanchez 6+6ast+6reb, Oberto 6, Herrmann 5, Fernandez 2, Wolkowisky 2+5reb, Prigioni 0, Gutierrez 0, Farabello 0.
It may not have been the gold, but Team USA still left the 2006 FIBA World Championship with a medal. One day after suffering a semifinal loss to Greece, Team USA bounced back to topple Argentina, 96-81, in the bronze-medal game on Saturday. USA finished the tournament with an 8-1 record. After trailing by as many as nine in the first half, Team USA rode the hot shooting of Carmelo Anthony en route to a 50-49 advantage at intermission. In the second half, Team USA made sure it would come home with its 10th medal in FIBA competition by increasing its defensive pressure. Tri-captains Anthony, Dwyane Wade (193-G-82, college: Marquette) and LeBron James (203-F-84) led the charge as Team USA outscored Argentina 19-13 in the third quarter. Wade was in the zone in the final period, erupting for 19 of his 32 points as Team USA increased its lead.
 

  USA out of gold medal race, Greece faces Spain in the final !!! - Sep. 1, 2006

Semifinals:

Greece - USA 101-95
Fed up with its recent failures, the United States assembled a new program with new plan.
The end result was all too familiar.
Greece used a sizzling stretch of shooting across the middle two quarters to turn a 12-point deficit into a 14-point lead, and beat the Americans 101-95 Friday in the semifinals of the world championships.
"To lose any game is a shock to us," U.S. star Carmelo Anthony said. "We came in with the mentality to win the game and the gold medal."
Instead, the best Anthony can do now is add another bronze to his collection.
Greece (8-0) can earn a world title to go with the European championship it won in 2005 with a victory over Spain in Sunday's gold-medal game. Spain (8-0) beat Argentina 75-74 on Friday night.
"They played like a champion plays," U.S. forward Shane Battier said of Greece.
The Americans will have to wait at least two more years to remember what that feels like.
Done in again by their inept 3-point shooting -- and they weren't much better from the foul line -- the Americans will fall short of a championship in a major international tournament for the third straight time since winning gold at the 2000 Olympics.
The Greeks -- with no current NBA players on their roster -- danced in a circle at halfcourt after their victory.
"Big players play big games," said guard Theodoros Papaloukas (200-G-77), the MVP of the European final who had 12 assists Friday. "And today I think we played very good."
The U.S. (7-1) will return to the court Saturday against Argentina (7-1), hoping to match the bronze medal it left Athens with in 2004.
"Those guys are hurting," said USA Basketball managing director Jerry Colangelo, who was put in charge of the program after a sixth-place finish in the 2002 worlds preceded the disappointment in Athens. "It's probably a better thing we have to come back tomorrow and play again instead of sitting on this for two days."
Anthony scored 27 points for the Americans, who couldn't overcome their 32 percent shooting from 3-point range or 59 percent from the foul line. Dwyane Wade added 19 and LeBron James had 17, but the three U.S. captains were unable to make up for their disappointment from Athens.
Vasilis Spanoulis (193-G-82, agency: Beo Basket), bound for the Houston Rockets, scored 22 points for Greece. Michalis Kakiouzis (206-C-76) added 15 and 6-foot-10 Sofocles Schortsianitis (206-F-85) -- nicknamed "Baby Shaq" -- added 14, shooting 6-of-7.
"Basketball is not just about dribbling and shooting," said Greece coach Panagiotis Yiannakis , who took a congratulatory call from Prime Minister Costas Karamanlis after the game. "You can come off the bench with a clear mind and give the best of your talent and that's what our players did today."
In Greece, thousands gathered in the streets, waved flags and honked car horns. Traffic information screens flashed the final score, and drivers abandoned cars to join celebrating crowds.
Continuously burning the Americans' poor defense against the pick-and-roll, the Greek team shot 63 percent (35-of-56) from the field and made 31 of 44 shots over the final three periods.
"We didn't make the right adjustments," U.S. center Chris Bosh (211-F-84, college: Georgia Tech) said. "They ran the same play. We made it easy for them."
The U.S. hasn't even played for a world championship since winning the last of its three titles in Toronto in 1994. Mike Krzyzewski -- who was looking for gold after winning bronze with the 1990 team -- and a few American players walked to midcourt to congratulate the Greeks, while most of the U.S. roster quickly headed to the locker room.
The Americans, who put together a national team program this year for the first time, now will be forced to qualify for the 2008 Olympics next summer in the FIBA Americas tournament in Venezuela.
"This one hurts," said Colangelo, who assembled the team. "We had the gold medal as our goal and anything short is disappointing. We go back to work and get ready for qualifying next summer."
The U.S. seemed in control after Joe Johnson's 3-pointer gave the Americans a 33-21 lead with about 6 1/2 minutes left in the second quarter. It was around then that James told his teammates on the bench: "They don't know what to do."
Well, they figured it out in a hurry.
Greece scored nine straight points, pulling within three on Papaloukas' drive with 3:51 left and forcing Krzyzewski to call a timeout. Dwight Howard (207-F-85) converted a three-point play, but the Greeks answered with a 13-2 surge, featuring eight points from Schortsianitis, to open a 43-38 lead and force Krzyzewski to call a second timeout.
Greece hit nine straight shots -- its only miss in the last 5 minutes was a heave from halfcourt as time expired -- and led 45-41 at halftime. The Greeks shot 56 percent (15-of-27) in the half.
The Americans were 2-of-10 from behind the arc -- after going 10-for-40 in their quarterfinal victory over Germany -- and trailed at the break for only the second time in the tournament. Italy had a nine-point cushion in a group play game.
Greece kept it up in the third quarter, hitting 14 of its 18 shots, including all four 3-pointers in the first 5 minutes. Kostas Tsartsaris (210-F-79)' 3-pointer with 5:45 left in the period gave the Greeks a 65-51 lead -- the biggest deficit the U.S. faced in the tournament.
After shooting 4-of-12 in the first quarter, Greece was 25-of-33 (76 percent) in the second and third and led 77-65 heading to the final period.
"It seemed like they didn't miss the whole third quarter," Wade said.
Anthony, Wade and James combined for the first 18 U.S. points in the quarter, and the Americans eventually got as close as 95-91 on Kirk Hinrich (191-G-81, agency: Octagon, college: Kansas)'s 3 with 36 seconds to play. But the U.S. missed its final two attempts from behind the arc, capping a 9-of-28 night.
Courtesy of AP

Spain - Argentina 75-74
JOSE Calderon's free throw with 19 seconds to play lifted Spain over Olympic champion Argentina 75-74 in a semi-final at the World Basketball Championship.
The Toronto Raptors point guard put through the second of two free throws after being fouled for the winning point, which gave the Spaniards their first medal in global competition since the 1984 Olympics.
Spain and Greece will meet in Sunday's final.
Andres Nocioni (199-F-79), who played for the NBA's Chicago Bulls, had a final chance to win for Argentina but his 3-point attempt with two seconds to go bounced off the rim.
Pau Gasol (214-F-80), a 213cm centre with the NBA Memphis Grizzlies, and forward Jorge Garbajosa (205-C/F-77, agency: Interperformances) led Spain's scoring with 19 points each while Emanuel Ginobili (198-G-77, agency: Interperformances), a guard with the NBA San Antonio Spurs, hit 21 to lead Argentina.
Ginobili sparked Argentina to a 21-15 lead in the first period.
But Gasol sank a lay-up on the break, his third basket of the night, and added a free throw on foul to put Spain up 32-30 halfway through the second quarter.
Argentina caught up twice with Spain, which won the 1984 silver and the 1980 bronze from the Olympics but no world championship medal.
But two free-throws by Barcelona shooting guard Juan Carlos Navarro (192-G-80) on foul left the Iberians with a slight 40-38 lead at half-time.
Garbajosa hit two open shots and a cut-in jumper in the final minute as Spain stood 60-56 at the end of the third period.
Down 65-56, Argentina battled back to 69-67 with a three-pointer by Ginobili with three minutes to go.
Navarro made it 71-67 with a jumper in the paint. Gasol added two free-throws but Pepe Sanchez (193-G-77, college: Temple) hit back with a three-pointer to narrow the gap to 73-70 at 1:17.
Calderon sank a free throw but Ginobini hit an inside shot to make it 74-72 with 28 seconds to go.
Argentina forward Luis Scola (206-F/C-80) tied the score 74-74 with two free throws on Fernandez's foul with 22 seconds to go before Calderon's winning throw from the line.
Courtesy of the Australian

  Incredible Turkey - Aug. 31, 2006
Classification Games for 5th to 8th place

Lithuania - Turkey 84-95 (10-19, 17-4, 21-17, 27-35, 9-20)
Lithuania: Songaila 17, Kleiza 14+6reb, Macijauskas 13, Gustas 10, Kalnietis 8, Jankunas 7, D. Lavrinovic 7+7reb, Jasaitis 4, Zukauskas 3, K. Lavrinovic 1+6reb, Delininkaitis 0, Javtokas 0.
Turkey: Kurtoglu 24, Arslan 18+5ast, Ilyasova 13, Erdogan12, Gonlum 9+8reb, Atsur 9, Akyol 8, Demirel 2, Kutluay 0, Solak 0, Erden 0, Peker 0.
The classification games for 5th to 8th place were held in Japan, Turkey squeaked pass Lithuania by Overtime 95-84.
It was the second loss with Turkey after Lithuania was beaten by Turkey in the preliminary round. Turkey became the biggest dark horse in this tournament.
Turkey led the score 19-10 in the first quarter. Lithuania fought back immediately in the second half 17-4 and got the 4 points lead.
In the last 5 minutes, Lithuania had the 12 points advantage, but Turkey fulfilled the impossible mission from then on. Turkey made a 6-0 run and took the competition into the overtime.
Turkey did not give Lithuania any chance in the overtime game. With the 20-9 run, they won the furious game in the end.

France - Germany 75-73 (17-16, 21-15, 15-26, 22-16)

  Greece and USA Continue winning ways - Aug. 30, 2006
1/4 Final Games:

Greece - France 73-56 (12-8, 22-16, 19-19, 20-13)
Greece: Papadopoulos 14, Fotsis 14, Diamantidis 13, Spanoulis 11, Schortsianitis 10, Hatzivrettas 5, Papaloukas 4, Tsartsaris 2, Dikoudis 0, Zisis 0, Kakiouzis 0, Vassilopoulos 0.
France: Gelabale 12+5reb, Diaw 9+6reb, Jeanneau 8, Bokolo 7, F. Pietrus 6+6reb, M. Pietrus 5, Turiaf 4+6reb, Gomis 3, Weis 2+5reb, Petro 0, Diarra 0, Foirest 0.
The third game of semi-final was held between Greece and France. France edged Angola 68-62 previously and Greece kept winning ways till now. Greece won the defense fight with France 73-56.
In the 7:08 of the first quarter, Gelabale got the first two points of the game. Then Greece made a 7-0 run. The two teams totally scored 20 points in the first quarter, they missed a lot of opportunity to shoot the ball.
After the first half competition, Greece's 2P FG percentage reached 50%, on the other hand, France only in 30%.
The France didn't get better in offense of the second half.
The Greece's defense was always well-known in this tournament. They only let Brazil score over 70 points in the preliminary round.

USA - German 85-65 (23-21, 17-18, 27-13, 18-13)

  Spain and Argentina clinch to the semi-final - Aug 29, 2006
1/4 Final Games:

Spain - Lithuania 89-67 (28-11, 19-19, 18-12, 24-25)
Spain: P. Gasol 25+9reb, Navarro 22, Fernandez 10, M. Gasol 7, Jimenez 5+6reb, Reyes 4+5reb, Calderon 4, Mumbru 4, Garbajosa 4, S. Rodriguez 2, B. Rodriguez 2, Cabezas 0.
Lithuania: Lavrinovic 17, Aleiza 15+14reb, Kalnietis 14, K. Lavrinovic 8, Zukauskas 5, Delininkaitis 4, Songaila 2+5reb, Gustas 2, Macijauskas 0, Jasaitis 0, Jankunas 0, Javtokas 0.
Spain destroyed Lithuania to reach the semi-finals of the FIBA World Championship for the first time in 24 years.
The Spaniards, one of the most talented sides in international basketball, forced the Baltic giants into 15 first-half turnovers and Juan Carlos Carlos Navarro and Pau Gasol (214-F-80) each poured in 15 points before the break as they rolled to an 89-67 victory.
Spain began with a brilliant start 28-11 in the first quarter, Navarro scored 10 point of the 28.
Spain got at least 20 scores' lead after the third quarter. The two teams contest their fourth quarter games without any suspense.
Spanish aggressive defense made Lithuania 28 turnovers of the game. The 17 steals broke the rhythm of game completely.
Gasol played 28 minutes and was eight of 16 from the floor. He was magnficent on defense as well, blocking three shots and coming up with one of Spain's 17 steals.

Argentina - Turkey