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South Africa winning Egypt is not shock for me. Yes, surprise, but not shock, Egypt is with pretty poor roster here.
Shock was Cote d'Ivoire losing to Egypt. That came as result of CIV missing first 17 three-point attempts (maybe it was even more than 17, that is what they showed at TV in one moment, I think at end of 3rd quarter).
That allowed Egypt to play zone defense for 30+ minutes. And it is not missed shots only, at some point CIV players started to doubt themselves - having completely open looks they decided to pass (not unselfishly, but "let someone else misses this time"), then there was 3 or 4 extra passes (where 0 or 1 would be appropriate), then it increased chance of turnovers ... indeed Egyptians took advantage of that endless passing for some nice steals and easy fast break points.
Point being:
Even without badly missed Amagou, CIV should be able to score some 30% of 3-pointers (at least versus Egypt and dared by zone defense). So this was aberration, normally CIV would hit some 5/17 3-pointers through three quarters, instead of being down 52-54 at end of 3rd period, they would be up 67-54. Then Egypt would be forced to give up on zone and switch back to man-to-man. They would then exposed in paint + would not score some of those points from turnovers caused by Ivory Coast players being afraid to shoot. On a normal day, that would be 20 points win by CIV ... but games like that are exactly why I watch a lot of sports and none of "reality" shows (yeah, real, those are more "fakeity" shows).
Shock was Cote d'Ivoire losing to Egypt. That came as result of CIV missing first 17 three-point attempts (maybe it was even more than 17, that is what they showed at TV in one moment, I think at end of 3rd quarter).
That allowed Egypt to play zone defense for 30+ minutes. And it is not missed shots only, at some point CIV players started to doubt themselves - having completely open looks they decided to pass (not unselfishly, but "let someone else misses this time"), then there was 3 or 4 extra passes (where 0 or 1 would be appropriate), then it increased chance of turnovers ... indeed Egyptians took advantage of that endless passing for some nice steals and easy fast break points.
Point being:
Even without badly missed Amagou, CIV should be able to score some 30% of 3-pointers (at least versus Egypt and dared by zone defense). So this was aberration, normally CIV would hit some 5/17 3-pointers through three quarters, instead of being down 52-54 at end of 3rd period, they would be up 67-54. Then Egypt would be forced to give up on zone and switch back to man-to-man. They would then exposed in paint + would not score some of those points from turnovers caused by Ivory Coast players being afraid to shoot. On a normal day, that would be 20 points win by CIV ... but games like that are exactly why I watch a lot of sports and none of "reality" shows (yeah, real, those are more "fakeity" shows).
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