Group D, Day 1, New Zealand vs Lithuania

[Khalid80]

Congrats to Lietuva on the great win yesterday

I have to say i'm really impressed with ur fans. I was surprised to see the fans right in front of the hotel in the morning. They were all dressed up and ready as if going to war (Many of them had already started drinking and this was like at 12 noon ) One guy was actually drunk and he came to take a pic with me since I was wearing a wig and t-shirt of the Lebanese NT)

Here are a few pics from yesterday of Lithuanian fans at the court in Izmir

[Darknemo2000]

Maybe im blind but i don't see how can some1 compare kalnieti ir geceviciu... kalnietis more athletic, better defender, maybe he aint jasikevicius but atleast he isn't making any stupid mistakes.

If Kalnietis was so much better defender then there would have been no need to do Kemzura's show in the 4th quarter where he kept on substituting Kalnietis in defense with Maciulis and Maciulis with Kalnietis on offense (Kalnietis didnt have 4 fouls so there was no need in that aspect).

Kalnietis isnt so good defensively. In fact Gecevicius is better defender than Kalnietis as he stays close to his defender while Kalnietis tend to loose them more often. Kalnietis can black shots much better obviously but as an overall defender I would take Gecevicius any-day. Though I would prefer Seibutis over either of them on a defensive end.

[Migelitas]

Yesterday one point has been stolen from Lithuania
In play-by play FIBA wrote, that Kalnietis missed second FT

[lafa]

Yesterday one point has been stolen from Lithuania
In play-by play FIBA wrote, that Kalnietis missed second FT

I noticed that during the game but I thought maybe the score on screen wasn't correct before free throws...

[lafa]

Kalnietis isnt so good defensively. In fact Gecevicius is better defender than Kalnietis as he stays close to his defender while Kalnietis tend to loose them more often. Kalnietis can black shots much better obviously but as an overall defender I would take Gecevicius any-day. Though I would prefer Seibutis over either of them on a defensive end.

Are you serious? I don't think I have ever seen Gecevicius strip the ball, while Kalnietis is doing that quite often. On the other hand I, as well as you, don't get why Seibutis wasn't used as much...

[Darknemo2000]

Are you serious? I don't think I have ever seen Gecevicius strip the ball, while Kalnietis is doing that quite often. On the other hand I, as well as you, don't get why Seibutis wasn't used as much...

Yes I am serious it is because Kalnietis tries to do that stripping is the reason why he allows so many drives as he often looses his balance with his feet to go with his opponent. And how many steals is he able to get? In yesterday game - 0.

If he would be getting steals like Rubio, then yeah because you would get at least 2-3 fastbreaks this way but he doesn't and one steal per game at best doesn't really make it worthwhile when you keep having those drives while Kalnietis is running from the back hoping the front court to cover him - sometimes they do, but sometimes they don't.

Gecas do not risk to go off balance with steals, he prefers staying on his feet and keeps up with his opponent. Sometimes he gets fouls for blocking like yesterday but if he were a good flopper like Spains guards or like Macijauskas was he could get more offensive fouls called. Still, he usually get at least one offensive foul called on his opponent because of his footwork.

[JGX]

Do you have any idea who the announcer is? He's doing play-by-play and color commentary. He's great. He knows the players and the game very well. He's a really smart announcer. I like him a lot....although I think this announcer is a little biased for New Zealand (probably underdog syndrome).

He's become a cult favorite on ESPN's Daily Dime chats:

http://espn.go.com/nba/dailydime/_/page/dimelive-100831/daily-dime-live