Greece (V-Span) vs. United States (Battier), 6:30 a.m, Friday, Sept. 1

no they dont. period.

 

Get over it. We do not produce the best basketball team in the world.

 

Its just my opinion that USA would beat Greece if it would have been best out of 3.

 

By the way, does anyone have the box score for the game. Thx

 

And when they eventually lose, should they use a best of 7 system? A best of 20? Maybe playing every day for the whole year to determine who wins?

Somehow, I don't think the Brazilians blamed the elimination system when they lost to France in this year's football World Cup. And if there's something both World Cups taught us, with the defeats of the heavy favorites (Brazil & USA) is that talent alone can get you up, but it's not enough. You also need teamwork, moral standards, soul, guts, character, humility and faith that you can do the impossible. Greece possesses all those qualities and that's why they'll be the best team in the world two days from now (yeah, I'm getting ahead of myself but whenever Greece reaches a final in any sport, we win it. It's the semifinals that are difficult )

 

what moneyball? we have Spam version of goldenball!

 

I wish the management of team USA won't replace the entire roster after this game. I heard the same team will play in 2008 Olympics so you have enough time to develop these youngsters.

I think USA players' eyes are opened after this tournament. Give them one more chance, get them together in the coming 2 off seasons and practise. The 2008 episode will be very exciting to watch the USA team strikes back.

 

I think I heard this at least two times somewhere before.

 

Are you nuts?

 

eh

I called off!

I want to smoothly enjoy this great game by Spanoulis

and sleep all day!

 

I think Slovenian coach will agree with you after they lost to China becos of last second shot!

 

Well lets just say that USA wins this game by 2 points by coming back on Greece and you see that it just wasn't Greece's shooting night. It would suck because you know that they are the better team and should be moving forward. Same goes in this situation.

Basketball is a game where you cannot determine which team is better with one game because alot could go wrong in one game. A player could get injured or some calls don't go your way.

All i am saying is in order for Fiba to truly evaluate a teams ranking than they should do that by have a best out of 3. Again just my opinion.

 

I guess it's just a case of different approaches to the system, I'm totally used to the elimination system being used for all major national team tournaments in every team sport and most individual sports as well. What about tennis? Should they use a best-of series there? Or at 100 meters racing, should they race 10 times to determine who's the fastest? Sure, anything can happen in one game and the best team might lose because of a lucky shot, but that's the beauty and appeal of sports, isn't it? The fact that the underdog always has a chance, no matter how slim. If the best team or favorite always won then it wouldn't be interesting. And in the end, whichever team is first always deserves it. They all agree to the same rules anyway. The best team, is the team that played better for the period of time the tournament took place. It's that simple.

Greece's win is even bigger if you take into consideration that they could field only 11 players and the fact that they won not by playing defence and destroying the game but they used the USA's major weapon against them, i.e. offence.

 

here are the PICTURES

here is the player of the game, cot damn he needs to shave his armpits asap





and here are some PICS from other games

 

http://sports.espn.go.com/oly/wbc2006/news/story?id=2568543

SAITAMA, Japan -- The European champions are playing for a much bigger prize.

The best the United States can hope for is yet another bronze medal.

The Greeks (8-0) can add a world title to the European championship they won in 2005 with a victory over either Spain or Argentina in the gold medal game Sunday. Those teams, also undefeated, met in Friday's second game.

The Greeks -- with no current NBA players on their roster -- danced in a circle at halfcourt after their victory over an American team put together after a series of recent failures.

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.

The U.S. (7-1) will return to the court Saturday against the loser of the Argentina-Spain game, hoping to match the bronze medal it left Athens with in 2004.

Carmelo 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 avenge their disappointment from Athens.

Vassilis Spanoulis, bound for the Houston Rockets, scored 22 points for Greece. Mihalis Kakiouzis added 15 and 6-foot-10 Sofoklis Schortsianitis -- nicknamed "Baby Shaq" -- added 14, shooting 6-of-7. The Greeks shot 63 percent (35-of-56) from the field and made 31 of 44 shots across the final three periods.

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. quickly headed to the locker room.

The Americans, who put together a national team program this year for the first time after their recent failures, now will be forced to qualify for the 2008 Olympics next summer in the FIBA Americas tournament in Venezuela.

The U.S. seemed in control after Joe Johnson's 3-pointer gave the Americans a 33-21 lead with about 6½ 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 Theodoros Papaloukas' drive with 3:51 left and forcing Krzyzewski to call timeout. Dwight Howard converted a three-point play, but the Greeks answered with a 13-2 surge, featuring eight points from Schortsianitis, to open a 43-38 advantage 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' 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.

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'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.

 

Sure its more exciting to see the underdog have the chance to win and all that stuff. Its always exciting to watch any elimination games, but what i am saying is that in order for FIBA to truly evaluate the top teams and rank them accordingly and say that this is the best team in the world then i would prefer a best out of 3 system.

And its not just this time i have said this. I also said when China won against Slovenia. I said repeatedly that Slovenia and Puerto Rico are better teams and should deserve to go the next round. If you are calling this tourament a World Championship tournament than you need to let the best team move forward to determine the BEST team in the world, not the team that won because of luck.

 

I totaly disagree. If a team is the best, they should be able to lift their game for those importent games. If they were not able to lift there game when it mattered they were not good enough during that tournament. Greece lifted their game when they needed it. And therefor they didn't loose any game so far.

I do not think luck is that importent in Basketbal. With soccer one lucky goal can get you a win. But with basketbal you have a lot of possesions to stop the opponent, and a lot of chances to score. If you cannot stop your opponent during an entire match you were not as good as they were. So Greece deserved the victory, they were a better team then the USA in this tournament.

 

like this?

 

Well then you must have not seen this game of Greece versus USA, if you think Greece won purely out of luck. IMHO, they defeated USA with some of the best team basketball of the highest order. And as far as I'm concerned, I was not surprised a bit, and I won't even term this as an upset, after watching how Greece came from 14 points behind in early 2Q to be 4 points ahead by end of 1H.

The NBAers thought they had the game in their pocket right after their 14 points lead....but suddenly, they found themselves being caught up, and exceeded, and then I guess they started to panic and lost their composure......

And whenever the USA came back within 9 points, 7 points, 5 points, there would then be some Greek players stepping up to get back into a double-digit lead in 3Q.

No.....this is not an upset. And Greece did not win by luck. They beat a bunch of NBA All Stars convincingly in this semi-final.

 

That is total BS.

I hate that team USA lost but the champion must earn it on the floor not because someone like you says they are better.

If we are just going to send the team we think is better to the next round then why play the games at all.

I was a huge Phi Slamma Jamma fan when Dream played for the Cougs but don't think for an instant that I would champion the cause of giving that team the NCAA championship for the 82 season when they lost to an inferior NCState. It would be completely hollow to give out championships or advance a team with out making them prove it on the floor.

Greece deserves to go on.