The Final: Spain - France

[Levenspiel]

Sun 18 Sep - 20:30 (GMT+2)

[usagre]

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.

[Breogan]

Collet is our hope

[Jon_Koncak]

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.

[Victorious]

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.

[Straight forward]

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.

2 best defensive teams in the final. 20's will be ruled by the teams which can get their shit together defensively; make excessive relying on threes look shallow. Kinda feel that France might find ways to make Brown's life a bit harder. But overall Spain has been looking more convincing during the tournament.

[Darrell Armstrong]

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 has no chance: we don't miss FTs when the game is on the line. Their best weapon is useless against us.

[achinet]

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.

[Serbian_Layup]

If Spain gets another MVP performance from Brown, they will be closer to win, because Brown creates a lot of space for other players that are not known as shot creators. If I'm Collet, then I'm playing all my defense on Brown as soon as he steps on my halfcourt.

France is not a good offensive team and has a lot of empty minutes throughout game, which is a chance for Spain to make significant runs aganstt them. The troubling part for Spain is that it feels like France still hasn't played their best game of the tournament (not counting Poland), and they might have found the bast form when it matters the most.

[Breogan]

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.

[paspalj]

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.

[Toruko]

Check the power rankings thread and you will revisit your comment.

This might be thought before the tournament but after the first games everyone knew that France is not a top 3 team FiBA as well.

[Furkan Korkmaz]

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.

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.

[Cojayar]

Most of you are missing what made Spain so successful in this championship. It is two things. Scariolo and the bench. Spain has no stars but the best coach and the best bench.

One figure from the semifinals. Lorenzo Brown a +/- of -7, while Alberto Díaz had a +25.

Stop nonsense about naturalization. This has help a bitto compensate the injuryof Ricky Rubio, but it is not a big impact.

[Victorious]

The truth of the matter is that Spain, so far, has beaten only three reasonable teams. That's Turkey, Germany, and Lithuania in OT. Most people put Spain close to those teams in rankings. So nothing remarkable there. They never beat, France (yet), Serbia, Slovenia or Greece. Spain in my view is still second tier. And France never played according to their potential, until the semi's. If this tournament is going to be played out 5 times, we could have had 5 different results. Being in the final does not mean you are top 2 in power rankings. Although Spain's record is quite good.

In an annual competition system the standings would be:
Spain 7-1
Greece 6-1
France 6-2
Germany 6-2
Serbia 5-1
Slovenia 5-2
Poland 5-3

Followed by teams with more losses and less games. The power rankings were not far off.