Day 5 Group B: Lithuania - Croatia

[judasmartel]

Battle between two traditional European basketball powers.

Potential tanking scenario for Croatia if Argentina and Brazil wins the first two games as the 3rd seed in Group B avoids the US until the final, while the 2nd seed faces the US in the semifinals.

Anyone here in favor of reseeding for the next Olympic Games? In reseeding, the higher seeds from each bracket are paired against the lower seeds from the other bracket. i think this system will eliminate tanking entirely.

[Shawshank]

We always beating Croatia i mean always...i dont remember a single lost starting from 1992 qualification tournament and we played like 7-8 games in official tournaments.This generations players have met in eurobasket2013 semifinal...But what happend yesterday i dont know what to say...

it could easily repeat what happend with Petrovics bosnians in eurobasket 2013 last group game...Croatian player already said in press: they will give everything they have,because lost meant playing Usa in 1/4...

[Dreamcatcher]

Our frontcourt is so much stronger on paper, but JV playing so bad in this tournament. I also don't remember us loosing to Chroatia. Anything happens, Bogdanovic may score 30 pts, but we should take this...

[Picek]

I also don't remember us loosing to Chroatia. .

not counting friendlies or?

[Mindozas]

not counting friendlies or?

Not counting of course. Friendlies are friendlies. But I also don't see historical h2h as somekind of advantage. Players are changing, coaches are changing, whole generations are changing. Even since last official game in 2013, both teams changed half of their roster or even more

[Picek]

Not counting of course. Friendlies are friendlies. But I also don't see historical h2h as somekind of advantage. Players are changing, coaches are changing, whole generations are changing. Even since last official game in 2013, both teams changed half of their roster or even more

I agree of course, I was just waiting to troll with that friendly from last year..

quality wise, Lithuania is deeper but we have our advantages. at least I hope we do.
a lot will depend on how will teams recover after yesterdays fiasco.
as big blow our L was yesterday, a huge loss to Spain was also a thing that can mess your head even if the loss itself was irrelevant.
who will recover better?

[Hepcat]

Lithuania is 9-1 in official games versus Croatia. Croatia won a qualifying game for Eurobasket back in the late nineties.

All of that though is entirely irrelevant. Tomorrow is a new day and the score starts at 0-0.

All we know right now is that Croatia was handled yesterday by a team it should have beaten and that Lithuania absolutely didn't show up for a game and suffered its worse loss ever in international play. So fuck, what a way for the two teams to come into an important game.

[Picek]

don't worry.
if JV won't shine against our frontcourt then he never will.

[Straight forward]

Good game. Competitive. Can go both ways, but Lithuania is favourite. Maciulis' defence will be a key of the game.

I think JV should come down to the earth. Most of all I think it's attitude issues. After nearly amazing playoffs run he obviously had a bad time trying to stay on the earth, on the floor if you want. If he can't get down to the earth - Kazlauskas should give a hand to him. And I hate how Kazlauskas being too soft on JV, I can tolerate overusing and overtrusting Maciulis in some games not in favour for Lithuania and Kuzminskas' abilities, but JV is still a kid at the end of the day. There were too many minutes already when JV had to be on the bench because of being really bad. Kazlaskas will wake up eventually as well - it's not like Lithuania can't play without JV. Or JV will wake up himself.

[Mindozas]

Good game. Competitive. Can go both ways, but Lithuania is favourite. Maciulis' defence will be a key of the game.

I think JV should come down to the earth. Most of all I think it's attitude issues. After nearly amazing playoffs run he obviously had a bad time trying to stay on the earth, on the floor if you want. If he can't get down to the earth - Kazlauskas should give a hand to him. And I hate how Kazlauskas being too soft on JV, I can tolerate overusing and overtrusting Maciulis in some games not in favour for Lithuania and Kuzminskas' abilities, but JV is still a kid at the end of the day. There were too many minutes already when JV had to be on the bench because of being really bad. Kazlaskas will wake up eventually as well - it's not like Lithuania can't play without JV. Or JV will wake up himself.

You mean JV is cocky? Don't think so. I'm not some fanboy of him and goin' to look for cheap excuses, but he obviously is under huge pressure and can't deal with it for now, especially when few games went wrong. It's Olympics afterall too, not everyone can cope with it. Look at his body language, reactions, silly mistakes, easiest shots missed, it's not usual JV. Moreover it's not easy to be a leader, when whole season you are forced to be some guy behind few ballhogs. He needs to clear his head first of all and have a good game finally, Croatian frontourt is kinda soft, so if not now, it might be too late later

[Hepcat]

You mean JV is cocky? Don't think so. I'm not some fanboy of him and goin' to look for cheap excuses, but he obviously is under huge pressure and can't deal with it for now, especially when few games went wrong. It's Olympics afterall too, not everyone can cope with it.

I agree. He's certainly not cocky. He's just crumbling under all the pressure. Hopefully Coach Kazlauskas knows how to handle such situations. I certainly don't.

[Straight forward]

You mean JV is cocky? Don't think so. I'm not some fanboy of him and goin' to look for cheap excuses, but he obviously is under huge pressure and can't deal with it for now, especially when few games went wrong. It's Olympics afterall too, not everyone can cope with it. Look at his body language, reactions, silly mistakes, easiest shots missed, it's not usual JV. Moreover it's not easy to be a leader, when whole season you are forced to be some guy behind few ballhogs. He needs to clear his head first of all and have a good game finally, Croatian frontourt is kinda soft, so if not now, it might be too late later

No, not cocky, even though it's a little bit of that as well, but more like overrating his abilities, underrating opponents, imagining that he can overpower all defenders (the same naive idea that didn't work in 2013 and I didn't expect to see him playing like this again). He's playing too primitive offence, doesn't use those little things that he added last summer, like spin moves, a bit of face up game, most importantly trying to move, to be flexible and agile instead of pretending to be a mountain man, lumberjack. Also he still is very unwilling passer. Off course, a bad first games playing games with his confidence and opponents go extremely hard on him, but that's not the problem as he usually is able to bounce back, I doubt he's overstressed. The problem is that he somehow too stubborn to admit that only mixture of agility and power game can make him successful. He seems not be focused and not ready to work hard for every spot on the court and to be patient with details of the game. Kazlauskas said hat he just trying to throw punches back to his opponents instead of playing. He's not in his own skin. He must be humble, concentrated and vigilant as hunting wolf, and that's JV of the NBA playoffs, he was controlling every spot of his territory and looked like most focused Raptor in the first round. Off course, it's different role and environment, but I have a feeling JV expected easier life in OG games than NBA playoffs and he sort wants just to crash opponents, but that's just not happening. It's not like he wasn't the key player last year and opponents didn't pay attention to him. He just played smarter, didn't force things, played his game. Now he's forcing things and gives too much love for power game. He's not that tough.

[thegreekmeister]

For Lithuania it is either 1st or 3d spot, does not matter much (3d may even be better), so it won't be "do or die" mentality once again. I may even pass the game (4:30 am) due to the fact that win is not that important (except pshychologically maybe)/

[Straight forward]

For Lithuania it is either 1st or 3d spot, does not matter much (3d may even be better), so it won't be "do or die" mentality once again. I may even pass the game (4:30 am) due to the fact that win is not that important (except pshychologically maybe)/

It's not do or die game, but surely important because Lithuania wants to end 1 in the the group. And even more importantly, losing 2 games in a row would surely harm team's mentality and not the thing you want before 4finals. Also 1 place would probably mean Serbia and Serbia is still better opponent than France for example, maybe even better than Australia. I surely don't want France because it's a bad matchup for Lithuania and I think it's still second best team of group A.

[thegreekmeister]

It's not do or die game, but surely important because Lithuania wants to end 1 in the the group. And even more importantly, losing 2 games in a row would surely harm team's mentality and not the thing you want before 4finals. Also 1 place would probably mean Serbia and Serbia is still better opponent than France for example, maybe even better than Australia. I surely don't want France because it's a bad matchup for Lithuania and I think it's still second best team of group A.

France? It is either Serbia or Australia. Not sure which is better, Serbians have more experience for serious knockout games, Australia's miracle might be over.

I am not sure if 1st spot is better than the third, and I am not sure if the team thinks that as well. So not sure where you coming from "wants to end 1st" (except, maybe polite public statements.
It may also depend on who would take 1st in our group - potential semi final opponent.
Our game will be the last, so lets see