Great Britain National Team

[HIGHLANDER]

I think the signs are pretty good so far.
Ok they lost all the games in London and lost by 20 to the world champions last night but it looks as though with some key players just coming back they might peak their performance just at the right time.
I think they need to knock down those 3 point shots to be competitive though which will give space for the low post game. Defensively it looks like they will be ok.

[inaminute23]

Read the report at the website below. What did improve was our free throw shooting (72%), and we out rebounded them heavily. It should’ve been closer if it wasn’t for some appalling refereeing.

[HIGHLANDER]

Read the report at the website below. What did improve was our free throw shooting (72%), and we out rebounded them heavily. It should’ve been closer if it wasn’t for some appalling refereeing.

Where are the stats? Don't see them...

[auris1]

Very decent second quarter for team GB – still, you cant call it a close game.
and yes,is there any stats on the website mentioned?

[Dtown]

Wow Britain got a win over Slovenia. Maybe there's some hope of them accomplishing something in the tournament after all.

[sunara]

Someone remember in what year England win a game against Slovenia? Thanks

[AirBall]

Someone remember in what year England win a game against Slovenia? Thanks

It has nothing to do with quality of Slovenian players...

The problem is with mentality imo, seems that they dont have normal conversation between players and Zdovc has serious problem. He must cut troublemakers or he must be ready for catastrophy at Eurobasket

[inaminute23]

Someone remember in what year England win a game against Slovenia? Thanks

It was in 2001, Division A, Coventry, England

[Alyosha12]

It has nothing to do with quality of Slovenian players...

The problem is with mentality imo, seems that they dont have normal conversation between players and Zdovc has serious problem. He must cut troublemakers or he must be ready for catastrophy at Eurobasket

Nah it has nothing to do with team spirit. Everybody is getting along very well.

The problem today was that nobody could make a damn 3 to save their lives.
We missed about 25 open three point attempts and when i say open i mean OPEN.
That right there is the diference maker, once GB saw we couldn't hit the ocean in the middle of the Atlantic they packed the paint, and there was no more inside game.
Now i would be scared if our missed shots were the result of great GB defense but they were really not, their shots were clear as day, but they just didn't go in.

I am not worried yet, and am not sounding the alarm. Even Serbia lost to Germany and Lithuania for example lost to Spain today by almost 30.

[g.g]

Nah it has nothing to do with team spirit. Everybody is getting along very well.

The problem today was that nobody could make a damn 3 to save their lives.
We missed about 25 open three point attempts and when i say open i mean OPEN.
That right there is the diference maker, once GB saw we couldn't hit the ocean in the middle of the Atlantic they packed the paint, and there was no more inside game.
Now i would be scared if our missed shots were the result of great GB defense but they were really not, their shots were clear as day, but they just didn't go in.

I am not worried yet, and am not sounding the alarm. Even Serbia lost to Germany and Lithuania for example lost to Spain today by almost 30.

Oh you should be worried as I am, Greece played uninspired bb tonight and lost to Serbia having received 30 points on the last quarter. One thing for sure, what even if your name is Greece or Slovenia, or Lithuania...with performances like tonight you do not win medals

[Alyosha12]

Oh you should be worried as I am, Greece played uninspired bb tonight and lost to Serbia having received 30 points on the last quarter. One thing for sure, what even if your name is Greece or Slovenia, or Lithuania...with performances like tonight you do not win medals

Oh that is very true. But the reason i am not worried is because i see a lot of good things in out game.
I see excellent and very unselfish ball movement when Lakovic is not at the point, i see some nice defensive flashes, i see Lorbek will be hard to stop, i see a lot of open shots, i see a lot of off the ball movement which results in open cuts to the basket for easy 2s, i see that Vujačič and Udrih just got back from 2 weeks of not playing so they have room to grow, i see Dragic playing awesome and playing shut down D, i see Nachbar still has room to improve on his shot at least a bit, i see Zdovc experimenting with the lineups which result in some confusion on offense which wont happen in 3 weeks time.

Those are all good things i see and those things lead me to believe that its not as bad
As you see i am a very optimistic person

[Mindozas]

Oh you should be worried as I am, Greece played uninspired bb tonight and lost to Serbia having received 30 points on the last quarter. One thing for sure, what even if your name is Greece or Slovenia, or Lithuania...with performances like tonight you do not win medals

Two years ago we lost against Sweden at home, then we lost against Spain twice, both times with big margins, but still managed to win a medals. Preparations means nothing, still more than two weeks till EC and you don't need to be in good shape right now.

[HIGHLANDER]

You can sit and talk about Slovenia missing shots all day if you want, but i don't care.
Great result for Team GB and great for the confidence.

I am delighted to see Achara having a good game.

[Alyosha12]

You can sit and talk about Slovenia missing shots all day if you want, but i don't care.
Great result for Team GB and great for the confidence.

I am delighted to see Achara having a good game.

Don't worry i wasn't trying tot ake anything away from GB. They played shorthanded and won and i congratulated them in another thread.
I was just replying to someone who was saying that the win was due to bad player relations and bad chemistry but that is really not the case at all.

[rikhardur]

Brits Hopeful Of Getting Pops Soon

Nothing would make British basketball fans happier than to discover that big man Pops Mensah-Bonsu will join the team for the EuroBasket.

Mensah-Bonsu has had protracted contract talks in the NBA and has reached a verbal agreement with the Houston Rockets but so far, he hasn't been given the all clear to join up with Chris Finch's British side with the EuroBasket tipping off in Poland in less than two weeks.

Finch, whose team is about to take part in the Efes Pilsen Cup in Turkey, said: "We are currently working with the Rockets and the NBA to sort out the details that will allow Pops to play. He is keen to join his teammates.

"Hopefully, he will be able to join the team in Turkey."

Mensah-Bonsu averaged 12.2 points, 10 rebounds and 1.8 blocked shots per game last year for the Brits in their successful qualifying campaign.

Finch was very happy that Britain were able to bounce back from five straight defeats and beat Slovenia in their final game at a four nations tournament in Spain.

They did so without their Unicaja Malaga stars Robert Archibald and Joel Freeland.

"The win on Friday was very important," Finch said.

"The guys were pretty tired, it's been pretty long stretch with six games in eight days.

"We got beat pretty bad the night before [against Lithuania]. Throughout the tournament, we played pretty well from time to time - just not long enough.

"However against Slovenia we managed to play better for longer. The guys deserved that win. It was a good statement.

"It was a big effort from Kieron [Achara] and also the guards; Mike [Lenzly] and Nate [Reinking] who have played a lot of minutes."

Britain were due to arrive in Ankara, Turkey, on Tuesday for the Efes Pilsen World Cup.

They will play Latvia on Wednesday and F.Y.R. of Macedonia on Friday.

"We just need to keep getting better," Finch said.

"I told the guys after the Lithuania game that it is a process. We will take some steps forwards and some steps backwards but we have to keep trying to continue to get better.

"The key now is starting to get a picture of how to play to be successful and how we're going to do that.

"We need to play more towards our strengths and away from our weaknesses. I think the biggest thing is coming up with an identity, our team needs an identity."

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