Does anybody have a torrent of this game (Greece vs Lithuania)? I tried watching it online, but it stuttered way too much.
If you are willing to pay 20 bucks you can go to fiba.com and download any game you want or watch live. I've already watched both of Greece's games that way.
Greece beats Australia 72-69 Kill Bill had 10 pts on 3-10 FG 3-5 2p 0-5 3p 4-4 ft with 1 ast 1 rb 2 to 2 st.
Spanoulis looks like he sucked it up against Brazil going 0-3 for the field and scoring 0 pts and grabbing a whopping 1 rebound. Did anybody watch the game? Wondered why his stats looked so crappy...
Greece took a comfortable lead early on so his usual heroics and penetrations weren't required and as a result he never got into the flow of the game, it was evident that he was having a bad night, I saw the ball slipping from his hands a couple of times without any pressure which isn't like him at all. Then Varejao criminally elbowed Zisis and broke his jaw and zygomatic and Spanoulis was clearly shaken as Zisis is his roomate and best friend since they were playing together in the junior national teams. Oh and Barbosa was a joke, if I didn't know there's no way I would believe that he's playing in the NBA.
I only watched the 4th quarter and he only played half of that. But he looked tired like he hit the rookie wall or something. In the earlier games he had so much energy and played so hard but he just didn't have that this game. I think the coach realized that and played the other pg most of the minutes. If it's any consolation Barbosa who ran all over USA and scored only 26 points the night before scored only 6 points against greece. I think people forget this is Vspans first real experience playing on the National team. Before he was primarily a bench warmer. And now he is thrown into the spotlight and asked to do too much awfully fast and be there energy guy off the bench. Add that to the fact that this is his 4th game in 5 days and I think he is just worn out. Edit: I just watched the first half and Vspan didn't play much. It's like someone else said, Greece got off to a big lead and the coach didn't see the need to bring in Vspan as early. Vspan didn't look as tired in the first half but still not as agressive as before. He did manage 2 steals from Barbosa at the end of the half and gave up only 1 basket from him. Remember Barbosa is arguably the fastest PG in the NBA and scored 26 points against Turkey the night before. So that should put an end to those critics who think he is not fast enough to play in the NBA.
Greece defeated Turkey 76-69 and will play against China on Sunday. Spanoulis had 3 bad quarters where he had scored only 2 points from the free throw line but then he scored 9 points in the last quarter, including a huge 3-pointer with the score tied at 69-69 2 mins before the end which essentialy won the game as Turkey never recovered after that.
The score was 69-69 and then Spanoulis scored 7 points and Greece won 76-69. He was playing for his "brother" Zisis as well who was injured after Varejao hit him.
That explains why he is not running the point as much. They have been running more at the 2 guard when he was in there and he doesn't get to create near as much. In the the game against Brazil he looked at of place and it sounds like the same in this game. Of course I couldn't watch it because it is NBA tv tonight and thus blocked. Next game China. Should be fun to watch. Let's see how he plays against his idol.
The truth is that he hasn't been playing well in the last two games. I think the injury of Zisis by Varejao has really affected him because they've been friends since they were little kids. He wrote the following in his blog: "Since Nikos was hurt I have closed the door in my room and I haven't spoken to anyone. He is my brother, we've been through a lot together and I can't believe this criminal act will make him miss the rest of the championship. I'm about to blow up when I think about it."
By Netease (http://sports.163.com/06/0825/21/2PDDNNML00051H3B.html) Saitama, Japan-- China's won the Slovenia team, finished fourth in Group D, and get the change to play the 16-team knockout rounds at Saitama. CNT left Sapporo in 87[sic] am, and arrived the 20,000-seat[sic] Saitama Super Arena for pre match training. Yao staged 40 minutes in the last match, a new record since his recovery. A tired Yao asked for rest. While his teammates were training, he was receiving some physical therapy from a therapist. The injuried Liu Wei (ankle strains) was also resting. The CNT was doing simple trainning to get used to the arena. "Greek is too strong. so we need to fight them with the aura that we fight Slovenia." said Hu Jiashi, vice president of the China Basketball Association. "Although Jonas Kazlauskas knows the Greeks a lot," Hu added, " CNT still need to fight the match on tomorrow as a weak team". Hu also said, in the mobilizing meeting of CNT, CBA conveyed a slogan:"Show your bloodthursty, fight like a man!" Wang Shipeng beat the buzzer for the game-winning 3-pointer in the game against Slovenia and won the praise of many Chinese fans. Some even call him "Great Guard". Today's training focused on 3-pointers, so even the big men such as Wang Zhizhi and Zhang Songtao are practising 3-pointers. Because Greeks attacks from outside, the CNT need to have good performance in both inside and outside for victory.
Mobley and Francis, if they knew of his plight, out of a deep understanding and sympathy, would send KillBill, flowers and homemade cookies
I just finished watching the Greece-Turkey game. Very impressed with Spanoulis' performance in the 4th quarter (didn't play much earlier). Extremely clutch -- they would have probably lost that game if not for him. He seems to be more explosive off the pick and roll than I initially thought, and he hit a clutch 3 pointer in the waning minutes to seal the deal (the entire team as a whole went like 4-14 beyond the arc before then). Another thing I really liked about his play -- he got the team into good offensive sets, and showed an ability to drive into the lane and either dish or pick/roll with a big man. I saw him do this about three different times in the 4th. He looked good overall in half-court sets. He could end up being very valuable to this team once he acclimates to the NBA.
