2020 Men's Olympic Tournament

[Killer Bob]

Luka was good. The Slovenian coach may want to rest him in the last match of the 1st round to have him fresh for the elimination games. Yes?

No. They would have lost by 30. Nobody wants that. Luka played 5 games/week schedule in Nba, with more minutes and travelling. I believe he can easily play every 2/3 days.

[Darrell Armstrong]

No. They would have lost by 30. Nobody wants that. Luka played 5 games/week schedule in Nba, with more minutes and travelling. I believe he can easily play every 2/3 days.

But that last game is potentially meaningless. Why risk an injury and being forced to play quarterfinals without Luka? If Slovenia manages another +20 points win against Japan, they have the best 2nd place finish in the bag. Exactly the same QFs matchups as if they had won the group.

Load management.

[Killer Bob]

But that last game is potentially meaningless. Why risk an injury and being forced to play quarterfinals without Luka? If Slovenia manages another +20 points win against Japan, they have the best 2nd place finish in the bag. Exactly the same QFs matchups as if they had won the group.

Load management.

Slovenia was + 34 with Luka and - 16 without him in 9 minutes. Nobody wants to go in elimination games with 30-40 points loss. He might play a little less but not much.

[Darrell Armstrong]

Slovenia was + 34 with Luka and - 16 without him in 9 minutes. Nobody wants to go in elimination games with 30-40 points loss. He might play a little less but not much.

Now that I'm checking potential QFs matchups, I'm afraid you're right. I was under the impression that both Spain and Slovenia would benefit by qualifying 1st and best 2nd (which could be achieved by a close game, regardless of the winner). But that outcome will give both teams a 33% chance of facing Team USA in the QFs. By winning by a big margin, either Spain or Slovenia can ensure not only the 1st place, but help Team USA to qualify as best 2nd, and thus remove them from the pool of QFs rivals.

This is a bit like the prisoner's dilemma: the best outcome is the one that demands taking more risks. If any of these two teams go all out and lose some key player to injury, they can win but still face the same team in QFs as if they had rested and lost.

[LuDux]

My imaginary sources confirm: after the game Sergio Scariolo called Darius Maskoliunas asking for advice how to contain Doncic

[Nemanja95]

Could anybody post full game replay or web site on who could be seen full game replay. Tomorrow I didnt watch Italy- Germany, like today Slovenia- Argentina. There is no chance to wake up at 6 A.M. or to be awake untill 5 A.M. to watch first game. So,I cannot watch first two games, I try to find full game replay and find almost every sport on Olympics except basketball.

[Serbian_Layup]

French team is pretty good. Batum-Yabusele-Gobert is a huge defensive block that can cover everything. Plus some combos with Gobert/Poirier or Fall/Poirier worked out pretty well giving them huge advantage on the glass. If they can be consistently good on defense, I think they can make it to the finals and maybe win it all if USA don't recover from this meltdown.

Slovenia reminds me of Phoenix Suns during Nash/Stoudemire years. One mastermind and bunch of role players with good finishing abilities that keep on playing simple plays. They can score a lot, but they also get scored on a lot. Extremely fun, but not sure if that's good enough for medal. Size and toughness still matter a lot in knockout games. They have good chances though.

[Stevy]

Link for Japan vs Spain game, if you guys don't have a source.

https://www.olympicstreams.me/men-s-basketball-japan-vs-spain-live-stream/1/

[madmax]

My imaginary sources confirm: after the game Sergio Scariolo called Darius Maskoliunas asking for advice how to contain Doncic

well, he did "contain" him to abysmal 31, 11 and 13 after all...that's already an achievement in itself I guess lol

[Nemanja95]

I was in Slovenia for Eurobasket 2013 and saw first hand what a beautiful basketball country it was. Very happy for the Slovenes. Shout out Erazem Lorbek and Matjaz Smodis.

They had probably better generation between 2005-10. Smodis, Lorbek, Becirovic, Dragic, Lakovic, Nachbar, but rarely they had complete squad. Now, they created synergy on wawes of winning Eurobasket 2017. Prepelic, Blazic, Zoran Dragic play better for nt in comparison with their clubs, Doncic is miraculous, so surprisingly they came in situation where are close for some medal.

[Killer Bob]

They had probably better generation between 2005-10. Smodis, Lorbek, Becirovic, Dragic, Lakovic, Nachbar, but rarely they had complete squad. Now, they created synergy on wawes of winning Eurobasket 2017. Prepelic, Blazic, Zoran Dragic play better for nt in comparison with their clubs, Doncic is miraculous, so surprisingly they came in situation where are close for some medal.

Nobody is beating Slovenia when Luka plays like today. The problem will start, when he has an average game by his standards, because there's nobody, who can replace his scoring and playmaking. If Goran was playing, Slovenia would have been favourite for the medal, maybe even gold, now this team is Luka and friends, Luka will need to have 3 great games in elimination phase.

[Darrell Armstrong]

Nobody is beating Slovenia when Luka plays like today. The problem will start, when he has an average game by his standards, because there's nobody, who can replace his scoring and playmaking. If Goran was playing, Slovenia would have been favourite for the medal, maybe even gold, now this team is Luka and friends, Luka will need to have 3 great games in elimination phase.

Reminds me to Dirk's Germany. They had some success but never won it all.

[Hepcat]

No. They would have lost by 30. Nobody wants that. Luka played 5 games/week schedule in Nba, with more minutes and travelling. I believe he can easily play every 2/3 days.

These fellows are supposed to be superbly conditioned professional athletes. Playing every two to three days should NOT tax a basketball player, unless perhaps he's well beyond the age of forty.

[Nemanja95]

Nobody is beating Slovenia when Luka plays like today. The problem will start, when he has an average game by his standards, because there's nobody, who can replace his scoring and playmaking. If Goran was playing, Slovenia would have been favourite for the medal, maybe even gold, now this team is Luka and friends, Luka will need to have 3 great games in elimination phase.

Mostly, I agree. But this year circumstances match to Slovenia, Usa will take medal, one of Spain and France, one of them could fail and if fail, opponents for medal will be Argentina, Italy, Germany and Australia. This is not so tough.

[Killer Bob]

Mostly, I agree. But this year circumstances match to Slovenia, Usa will take medal, one of Spain and France, one of them could fail and if fail, opponents for medal will be Argentina, Italy, Germany and Australia. This is not so tough.

Before we see quarterfinal schedule, we cannot even guess anything. Anyone can go out before semis, USA included. I'm not even sure that USA is worse matchup for Slovenia than France. Gobert closing the paint looks more scary to me than those American superstar chuckers.