L
Levenspiel2
Guest
Sun 18 Sep - 20:30 (GMT+2)
France confuses me.They are capable of playing the most suffocating defense out of all teams and then find rhythm on offence,but they make so many dumb and cheap turnovers,they remind second division teams sometimes.Spain has the momentum and have looked way more convincing in the knock out stage but i hope for the sake of European basketball that France wins.If FIBA windows Spain plus a D level USA player win,it says it all about the current state of European basketball.
France 4.5 favorite and I think rightfully so. Much has been made of the series history but in all fairness this Spanish version besides Rudy doesn’t have much of a history with France. Those guys are gone. Spain is going to need another similar MVP like performance from Brown and probably Willy’s best game of the tournament to win. I don’t see it. France is one year removed from winning the Olympic silver medal and although missing Nando and Batum they still have the other key players like Fournier, Yabusele and Gobert back.
France, one of the top 2 favorites from the start, is going to win the title. As the trounament progresses, surprises and cinderella teams decrease accordingly. Yes, you can eliminate a better team in a K.O. game, but you can't don that indefinitely. Hence the final between France and Spain. But France is the strongest one. The talent and skillset will eventually pull through. Much the same like the final between Argentina and Spain in the previous World Cup.
Eventually that's all that matters. It's about winning the title.
France never was top 2 favorite: Serbia, Slovenia and Greece were the trio. Really clear before the Eurobasket and also before the elimination rounds.
Check the power rankings thread and you will revisit your comment.
Whatever you think, this championship is already a resounding success for Spain. Initially nobody gave anything for Spain in this championship (as in the World Cup). It's about time the gallons were respected.
One figure from the semifinals. Lorenzo Brown a +/- of -7, while Alberto Díaz had a +25.
.
Excellent evidence of how plus minus is the most overrated stat. Brown played 34 of the 40 minutes while Diaz played half that amount at only 17. Basically he was a spectator for a majority of the game. Plus minus numbers don’t tell the story especially for bench players because their playing time is limited and the time that they actually do play in many cases is against the other players bench. The stats is a good indicator to see if your bench was a positive or a negative but never the main determining factor in a game. That’s why they are in the bench. If they were good enough they would log the starters minutes. In this specific case Diaz played under 3 minutes in the entire first half. He was excellent in the second half and a big part of the victory. But Alonzo Brown played 34 minutes basically the entire game. Nobody else even played more than 23 minutes lol. It was Brown reason A for the win and a team effort reason B.
Absolutely! I'm so hating people who just sneak in for +/- stat (or efficiency) and they make conclusions. Just watch the game. Sometimes a player who has few efficiency points is the most hardworking defensive player on the court, receiving all the fouls at the right moment, etc.
Yeah I think I was the only one who put Spain in my top 4 power ranking before the tournament started, but as 4th, definitely not as top 2 lol. Everyone else put Greece in there for some reason I never understand. I had put France as 1... Though neither France or Spain necessarily impressed what matters are the results, and in that regard they’re right back at the top.