Fantastic finish and an “upset.”
The second game was a rematch of the 2006 World Basketball Championship as Sp
ain faced off against Greece, this time in the first round of the elimination bracket. Both teams started out hot early, as Juan Carlos Navarro (22 points) hit his signature runner in the lane and Jorge Garbajosa (5 points) knocked down a three for Spain off of a quick ball reversal by Ricky Rubio (6 points, 6 assists). Unfortunately for them, Greek guards Dimitris Diamantidis(16 points, 4 rebounds, 2 steals, 2 blocks) and Vasileios Spanoulis (12 points, 3 assists, 2 boards, 4 turnovers) were playing excellent basketball themselves, creating for themselves and others to help the Greeks get out to an early 17-11 lead before Alex Mumbru (3 points), Sergio Llull (9 points, 2 assists) and Raul Lopez (5 points, 3 assists) knocked in three’s for Spain, sparking the former World Champions to a 22-19 lead after one.
Fran Vasquez (6 points, 7 rebounds, steals) activity around the rim on both ends helped to keep Spain in front midway through the second quarter. He hit a short corner shot, had a putback dunk and was aggressive on defense to help Spain push their lead up to 28-21. Nikos Zisis (16 points, 4 rebounds) helped get the Greeks stay in the game with two midrange jumpers to make it 28-25 with 4:30 to go in the half. Big man Sofoklis Schortsanitis (13 point, 4 rebounds) got involved next with an easy bucket in the pick and roll and a great duck-in for an easy bucket to cut Spain’s hard earned lead to a tender point at 30-29, but Navarro hit a deep three to re-extend the Spanish lead to four. After a Greek miscue, Ricky Rubio had a fantastic no-look pass to Marc Gasol (4 points, 2 rebounds) in the middle of the court, which extended the lead back up to six. The Spanish held on to their healthy advantage 37-31 going into halftime and scored and extra advantage when Spanoulis picked up his third foul with 15 seconds remaining in the first half.
Greece came out extremely aggressive in the second half as Zisis hit a short jumper, Diamantidis hit a shot in traffic and Antonis Fotsis (12 points, 7 boards, 2 steals) hit the Greek’s first three pointer to cap a quick 7-0 run and a one point lead just 2:40 into the second half, clearly turning the momentum in their favor until Navarro hit another patented runner and Rudy Fernandez finished a layup in traffic to finally ignite the Spanish team. Greece finally started to get in rhythm from the perimeter as Diamantidis hit one off the bounce, Fotsis hit one off of a Diamantidis swing and Diamantidis hit another from deep late in the shot clock to turn the tide in Greece’ favor 49-45 with 3 minutes remaining in the third quarter. Zisis kept his hot hand by finishing layups and hitting midrange jumpers but Spain wouldn’t back down as Rudy Fernandez finally started to assert himself, hitting a three of his own to bring Spain back within three at 51-48. Raul Lopez checked in, cut the Greek’s lead to one and after a turnover by Greece the Spanish reclaimed the lead 52-51 going into the final quarter of action.
Diamantidis picked up where he left off in the third quarter, nailing a trey to start the quarter but Spain came right back with an alley-oop of their own, Vasquez on the receiving end to tie the score at 54-54. Spain’s Vasquez battled inside for a second chance opportunity and on the next possession deflected a ball that led to a steal and easy layup for Spain, making the score 58-54 going into a timeout with 8 minutes to play. Spain switched to a 2-3 zone but Sofoklis Schortsanitis still found a seam to work with, cutting the lead to two. After a free throw by Sofoklis Schortsanitis Rudy Fernandez converted a three pointer after a methodical pump fake to create space, pushing the lead back up to four 61-57 with 5 minutes to play. After a timeout Fernandez made another intelligent pump fake, forcing his man into the air and drawing a three shot foul, of which he made two to push the lead up to 63-57. On the ensuing Greek possession, Zisis made a crucial turnover which Navarro took advantage of on the other end, helping to push the Spanish lead back up to their largest margin of the game at 8. After another Spanish bucket, Greece finally responded with a three of their own but it was too late, as Navarro put his own finishing touch on the Greeks with a deep three from the left side with about 1:30 to go, which put Spain in front 70-60. The Greeks fought valiantly down the stretch to keep the game within reach, but there simply wasn’t enough time for them to get the job done. After a rough start in pool play the former FIBA World Champion Spanish team prevailed in the end by the score of 80-72, advancing forward to the Quarterfinals.
Diamantidis was all over the place on both ends. He made impossible steals look simple and had a few incredible blocks, one where he used his length perfectly to reject Ricky Rubio and another to snub Sergio Llull on the break. All in all, the point forward is a pleasure to watch thanks to his amazingly well-rounded game.
The Spanish were 5-13 from deep while Greece was just 0-3 in the first half, a major reason Spain held the advantage.
The Spanish bench flat out killed the Greek bench. I do not have the exact numbers but midway through the fourth quarter they had a 25-2 advantage.
Nick Calathes defense was clearly not up to par with the rest of his Greek team. He had trouble staying in front of his man, contesting shot and getting through high ball screens.
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THE GAME: We lost this game because Spain is one of the 2 teams in this world that are basically better than us and we know it. When we play focused we usually win against anybody (something repeatedly proven the last decade) but we can’t do it against U.S. and Spain because of size&athletic abilities. Of course there are other teams that are also more athletic/bigger than ours (France,Puerto Rico,Russia,Australia) but we usually win against them by playing smarter and having more skilled players(a U.S. assistant 2 months ago called the greek team “the smartest bball team in the world”). We cannot do this against those 2 teams cause they combine superior athletisism/size with really skilled/complete players. In the game against Spain this became once again clear since whenever we had to go to our bench in order to give a rest to our best 5 the dropoff in performance was huge. At the same time Spain was bringing from its bench better players than the starters (Spain’s bench was up 25-2 near the end of the gmae…). The defference in athletisism between our guards and theirs,and the defference in size between our big’s and their(especially when both Gasol’s are playing) is what determines the end result every year.To me this team didn’t fail this year cause it didn’t finished for the first time in the last 8 years in the top-6. If we had to go against those two teams so early in the tournaments in any of the previous years the result would have been most propably the same. This is what the players/coaches knew and tihs is why they tried to avoid it by losing to Russia. Agianst Spain we had our best game in this tournament and our team was actually what everybody expected from it. Unfortunatelly in bball (and life),sometimes giving your absolute 100% is not enough. I’m really sad NOT for the loss(i expected it and i wrote tihs also here) but for the feelings that some of our players must have after giving their absolutely all and finding out that it was not enough. I have to make a final note about Diamatidis. Yesterday he had one of the best games of his life. Whoever wants to see why this guy is the closest Europe ever prodused to Scottie Pippen should see this game. His defense is off the charts and on offence he is almost equally great. Being our best/most complete player the last decade (along with Papaloukas) and leaving the team now(we hope they change their mind), basically means that greek bball is entering a rough period for the next few years (the guys behind him, Kalathis,Pappas,etc do not posses that kind of talent). At least both him and Papaloukas (long with Fotsis&Spanoulis) gave us the best 5 year period in the history of our team. All we got to do is to thank them.
But in one stretch he was vastly overplayed by Rudy… with that pump fake when Diamantidis jumped and Rudy drilled a three like a cold blooded killer and the one when Rudy once more pupmed faked Dimantidis in the air and managed to draw a foul by shooting three… But otherwise very much respect to greece and I for one should know how great the team is, since we Slovenians lost to them when leading by 16 points aproximately 3-4 minutes till the end of the game a couple of years ago and then Papaloukas and Dimantidis staged a great comeback… But don´t chear just for the U.S.A…. go for the underdogs… SLOVENIA all the way;))
@Dark….:welcome to the reality of France bball (no wonder they are our loyal ‘clients’ for the last 25 years, although they can out jump/run us any day).
I hope Greece keeps coming strong, as this is more interesting with you guys. And somebody has to stop the US team LOL
it’s still sad those racist coments like the borat one by dacre and some others who don’t respect you and your analisys (a good analisys BTW, I enjoyed it)
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