Day 1 Review

[Buzissa]

Pick the best and the worst of each day. MVP, most surprising performance...
Need some more ideas.

[g.g]

Pick the best and the worst of each day. MVP, most surprising performance...
Need some more ideas.

I believe the match of the day would be Lebanon v Canada along with PR v Russia. Both games may determine from the first day qualifiers in the groups. I have vote for PR and Lebanon to win but its pure speculation and can go either way just as easy.

[Perseus]

what is the best result for us in PR - Russia if we decide to finish 3rd?

[christodoulou76]

what is the best result for us in PR - Russia if we decide to finish 3rd?

scenario for Greece in 3rd:
PR beats Russia. Then PR beats us. We lose to Turkey and we beat Russia. Turkey beats PR and Russia.

1. Turkey
2. PR
3. Greece
4. Russia

this is not ideal for us, because we would probably play dangerous Lithuania team in 1/8, but at least we would avoid US in QF. also in this scenario, we risk finishing in 4th (and facing Spain in 1/8) if we lose to Russia on the last day (Russia will have Khryapa back by then). The better plan is to finish first obviously. Let's hope we can do it!

[Dtown]

Disappointment of the day

Spain.

How could it not be them? I don't buy the conspiracy talk (hoping for France to win out is just too random). Spain just might be replaying Eurobasket in their heads with a slow start and turning it on later. That doesn't excuse them for being disappointing though.

[aussieasker]

Well I only saw Australia vs. Jordan and bits of USA vs. Croatia, so I'll give my thoughts on the Australia-Jordan game.

Pick the best and the worst of each day.
Best- Australia's big men. Andersen, Maric and Andersen scored the majority of our points.
Worst- The rest of the Australians. Did nothing.
MVP- Aleks Maric, we would've lost without him.
Most surprising performance- Jordan. No one would have expected them to challenge Australia so much.

[dxjayrock2008]

¿Qué te pasó en España?/What happened to you Spain? Lol.

A major shocker in FIBA WC.

[Perseus]

i watched Greece-China ,PR-Russia,USA -Crotia ,Turkey- IC,Spain-France,only few minutes from Arg-Ger.

i am very disappointed with the quality of basket.
My team was awful,very slow, no defence ,no tactic,no shooting,absolutely zero ,it was a miracle that we won,i can't imagine what will happen if Turkey or PR play zone for 40 min(Tutkey did it).

China was surpsingly good they were focused (they lost their concetration when they were 1 pt ahead-and they lost the game) i believe that if China play this way they will be in qfinals

PR ,i was expecting more ,Ramos was a great disappointment ,very heavy and slow maybe score points but he lost many easy shots,Barrea was great but an anarchist ,Lee and Arroyo disappoint me too ,iwas expecting more from Vasallo,and Pivey played only in 1st qurter.

Classic Russia ...


USA-Croatia

USA they were very good ,but if you get 80 pts from a team that played very bad you must be cautious,i think the refs protected the players ,anyway you can't win USA with 33% in 3pts and 42% in FT.

Croatia,Roko did 15 shots and succeeded in 3(2 2pts-1 FT) ,nothing else
Good ball hadling from Crotia.

Turkey-IC ,Hedo was auful ,they succeded in many 3pts ,but for god's sake 17/44 2pts ? aginst IC ?and 7 blocks? (there were more) and 13 TO's? Russia will destroy them if the play like this.

I liked IC a very sympathetic team.

Spain -France

Exactly the France i saw in friedlies,tough defence athletic guys and Gelabal to score ,i was xpecting more from Diaw and De colo ,but Albicy did his job.
Spain was very bad ,only Navarro tried to save the game but it was too late,the refs did their best to help Spain but the FT killed them,10 pts toLLul for what he did in front of the ref.

Why S.Emeterio was out?

[T.W.Is.M.]

Group A
Argentina had trouble against Germany; it looks like Argentina is not the powerhouse we r used 2(still they r a very good team) and Germany is a fighting team. Serbia had the best start against Angola, served the 1st day of suspension without trouble, but the real deal was Australia vs Jordan. Australia was disappointing, but was saved by Andersen at the end, so nothing lost 4 them point-wise. Jordan now must aim 4 qualification. They will probably beat Angola and put it all on the line against Germany. I think they can make it. It looks like Argentina and Serbia will fight 4 the top spot.

Group B
USA had no problem against Croatia, I wouldn't worry so much about their 78 pts in defense, as they conceded 30 in the last quarter when Popovic and Bogdanovic started hitting one 3p after another. Good game by USA and balanced time 2 all players, if they continue like this, they will have no problems in the group. Slovenia did its duty, so did Brazil, the difference was that Iran must have put up a bigger fight than Tunisia. We probably know the 4 advancing teams(unless Iran and Haddadi have serious objections and a european team gives them the opportunity), the big games r yet 2 come and conclusions should be made then.

Group C
Greece found more trouble than expected, but kept victory, while Turkey had no problem against another African team. Africans disappointed in the opening day. I think they will surprise us at some point of the tournament. but I don't know which team and how(a victory, a strong performance against a stronger opponent, who knows...). Russia won the important match of the day, mostly because Puerto Rico was dissapointing. Russia looks poor in quality, but excellent in tactics. They took advantage of their strong aspects of the game and won, so now they r in contention 4 one of the top 2 spots. Puerto Rico has a chance of redemption today against Greece, if they do it, the group gets too complicated, if they don't, they should prepare themselves 4 a knock-out game vs China.

Group D
Spain was the disappointment of the opening day. It may resemble 2 last year's EC when they lost 2 Serbia in the opening match, but I somehow think the problem is bigger now. They will definitely appear better in the process, but now they can't afford another loss. I also don't buy the scenario of handing out the 1st place of the group in order 2 avoid USA in the semis, because they couldn't know whether France will beat Lithuania. As 4 France, I'm still not convinced they will beat Lebanon today. Lebanon was the team that recorded the biggest victory of the day after France. They r in a very good position now concerning qualification and they seem 2 have shown progress during the last years. Lithuania did nothing more than its duty against New Zealand, it looks though that this group has no punching bag, because New Zealand is a team of fighters and they r capable of winning 1 or 2 matches.

[Luíz for 3]

Day 1 Review:

Best Team: Jordan, they were very close to an historical win, against a traditional WC team.
Most Disappointing Team: Spain, again started losing, with a limitated France NT, I hope they repeat the history from the last year in Poland.

MVP: Fadi El Khatib, Linas Kleika. Two great performances leading their NT's to the win.
Most surprising performance: Kirk Penney, I didn't think he was able to post 37 against one of the best teams on defense, Lithuania.