When we are witnessing a lockout this maybe is the only thing that can look like a competitive high level basketball in more than a year, so it definitely deserves a lot of attention, especially when almost all of the teams are at their best in terms of rosters.
Spanish team were the certainly the clear favorites (they added Ibaka to their roster this offseason) but both Rubio and Fernandez have suffered a serious injuries in their last friendly game with Slovenia and there is a huge chance of missing the whole tournament for both of them Russia team with Kirilenko and Mozgov has shown pretty good basketball in all those friendlies. They are dark horses to win it all
rubio doesn't bring anything to their team anyway, rudy is a key part of the team but Spain still has enough firepower to coast to the finals and likely win
Do you have a link saying their injuries are serious? Not my impression. I saw Rudy holding his arm but he remained on the bench. I will also second the opinion above they won't miss Ricky at all. Whoop dee doo. Watching these "friendly" games, I'm really surprised how low Ricky is on the totem poll. I don't mean to trash the guy at all, but people who believe he will be a top 5 PG in the NBA as a rookie will be severely disappointed. He has a very long way to go. I hope the weight of unrealistic expectations don't crush him.
I don't know about Rudy, but they said Rubio's ankle sprain wasn't serious and he might even play by Friday's exhibition game. And nobody thinks Rubio is going to be a top 5 point guard next season. That is just what OHMSS writes all over the place about what stupid Americans think.
The Spanish League's official website has the records of all the teams so far, plus the game scores, and links to the box scores: http://www.acb.com/redaccion.php?id=77786
http://www.firstrowsports.eu/watch/80174/1/watch-slovenia-vs-lithuania.html Dragic and Slovenia's last friendly match, playing against Lithuania. English commentary too!
Can you believe they tossed him for that hard foul on Sergio Llul? I thought FIBA was supposed to be more macho than the NBA.
I didn’t get to watch the Slovenia vs Spain games. Sounds like Spain was getting some extra home court lovin’.
As I have said over and over here, Rubio was one of the worst point guards in the Euroleague and maybe possibly even the worst rotation point guard in the Euroleague. The only reason he is even on Spain's national team is for marketing reasons. They could easily have better players than him instead on their team. He is certainly not as good as Spain's other two point guards Calderon and Sada. All the people saying things here in this forum like, "he will be the next great NBA point guard" have obviously never seen him play. The people like DD that say things here like, "it is just because he had no good teammates and played with minor league scrubs in the Euroelague. If he played with NBA players he would be a superstar" - are just delusional.
how about lior eliyahu?? hes been the high scorer in Israel's games a couple of times. no boxscores unfortunately
Not in the Euroleague. Not even close. They almost lost to CSKA at home last year. The same CSKA that was one of the worst teams in Euroleague last year and was playing the game without several of their best players.
