I didn't see any thread on this. Is anyone watching? It's still on the group stages but there are many interesting matches. Yesterday France almost lost to Finland lol and Spain lost to Serbia. So the two favourites don't look as strong as expected.
Definitely interested in checking it out, but (like many Americans) i'm preoccupied with the launch of College Football and the NFL. If I'm not mistaken, the matches are on ESPN3 and this is the farewell tour of Parker and Nowitzki. Lots of good young talent as well. I'm pretty sure we would have checked in if DMo was playing or Llull had come over.
No Rocket there, but you can at least check out Alessandro Gentile, who plays for Italy. Doesn't look NBA-ready though. Spain demolishing Turkey right now. Germany earlier almost made the upset against Serbia, but Bjelica, who plays for the Timberwolves coming season, hit a game winning floater. Hope our guys make it to the next round to stay in touch with the Olympic Qualifiers. With Dirk, Schröder and Pleiss, this team should stand a chance.
Greece-Croatia is a lot of fun. Spanoulis still has it and Koufas is playing frustrated. Lots of ticky-tack stuff Hezonja and Saric are showing up http://live.fibaeurope.com/www/Game.aspx?acc=1&gameID=69775&lng=en
^He's incredible on these big stages. Greece's comeback is entirely due to him. Hezonja and Saric are very talented and have a bright future, but unfortunately it seems like veteran experience pays off more in these kinds of tournaments
Good game. The Hezonja-J.R. Smith comparison lives on. Croatia should have doubled Bourousis in paint earlier. Apparently Bogdanovic was out with a head injury, any one know when/if he'll be back?
He will be back in two days. He had a minor concussion. Such frustrating game. I almost switched off the tv at the third. Bricks everywhere. lol
I wanted to slap Pleiß for his r****ded defense on Bjelica in the last seconds. Bjelica receives the ball at roughly 20ft from the basket and Pleiß moronically makes a step forward to contest the shot, enabling Bjelica to take a drive and much easier shot, instead of a contested long 2. Same with Shaffartzik seconds earlier. Serbian player receives the ball behind the 3pt line and Shaffartzik makes a step forward, enabling the player to drive past him, it's just mind boggling. Our German guys are terrible defensive-iq wise, if Serbia would've hit a normal 12/30 on their threes (most wide-open) instead of a horrible 4/30, this game would've been a blowout. Really pessimistic regarding our chances to advance.
Serbia is runner-up from last world championship, so I wouldn't exactly call Spain the favourite in their matchup. If they find their groove, Serbia can go all the way.
In these situations our guys indeed show lack of experience and quality. Bjelica's shot was way too easy. But to be fair, not just the Serbians missed a lot open threes and the overall defense on Teodosic was great. I'm not too pessimistic, neither Turkey nor Italy do pretty well so far. There might be a chance to conquer the third spot.
I didn't see any german matches yet, but I have read that Pleiss was awful from others too. And next year he's supposed to join Utah? I think Germany will still make it though! How is Shroeder playing? Spain is favourite over Serbia but the margin is MUCH smaller. The reason? Teodosic. You don't knwo which will show up.
BTW It's the third day today and there have been two consecutive buzzer beaters! Belgium beat Lithuania !!!!!!! and now Israel Bosnia in OT.
Always fun to watch this kid play: <iframe width="560" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/j1eGfHny9TY" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>
Doing their job against Iceland but nothing more and quite well against sloppy Serbians. Pleiß had his moments against Serbia. Guess Utah hopes for the Gobert effect, but I don't see the potential. Schröder on the other hand is our best player so far. Of course shows his youth every now and then, but he's very confident and brings the speed, this team lacked the last tournaments.
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that's great news about Dennis. I hope he has a breakout year next season. I definitely have to watch some german matches. Dirk is very close to reach Parker for the first scorer in Eurobasket history as well. He must not miss it before he retires from international competition! And the Serbs have a quite good frontcourt.
The next three days we've got a back-to-back-to-back versus Turkey, Italy and Spain coming up, could be really interesting. But don't expect too much from Dirk. He's just a shooter now, gets substituted in late defensive plays.
