FIBA Americas - Day 11 (Finals & Third Place)

[JGX]

The tournament didn't end yesterday

DR gets their long-awaited win over PR in the third-place game, 103-89.

Argentina up 35-27 on Brazil at halftime...game is actually on ESPN2 in the US. Fran Fraschilla and everything.

[Dtown]

Basically pride games, but entertaining none the less. It makes me wonder if ESPN2 will show the Eurobasket final.

[tres equis]

Congratulations to the dominicans, you guys deserve the bronce medal , puerto rico obviously didn't came to play tonigh...it was embarrassing honestly the way they played.

[JGX]

It makes me wonder if ESPN2 will show the Eurobasket final.

It's in my program guide for 12:30 AM on the 19th, so I guess they'll show it on tape. I hope it'll still be available live on ESPN3.

They're showing the DR-PR game at midnight.

[JGX]

So Argentina's tactics with the full team are pretty much the same as with the weakened team...give the ball to Scola.

[Duncan]

Enjoy this victory Argentina, because it will be your last for a looooooong time. On the other hand, Brazil has a nice crop of young players plus Nene[maybe], Barbosa, and Varajao waiting in the wings!

Forza Brasil!!!!!!

[Dtown]

Congrats to Argentina, if this is their last moment in the sun, at least they did it in style and in front of a home crowd.

[Federoy]

Fantastic gold medal game to cap-off a great tournament. Congrats to Argentina. They were the more composed team down the stretch in a game that see-sawed for most of the 40 minutes. Although Argentina gutted it out for the win, this was a game Brazil had firm control of through much of the 3rd quarter, but once again, as in last year's loss to the US and Argentina at the WC, late game execution failed them again. Despite that, kudos to the Brazilians for going into a hostile environment and nearly defeating the Argentines on their homecourt. There's no shame in second place under the circumstances.

[tres equis]

Congratulations to Argentina and Brazil! for having a great tournament and qualifying for the olympic games.

[Kutsuit]

Hello.

Call me crazy but I sat through the whole game and it's now almost 6 AM around here. I guess that's what happens when you're bored, LOL. I really must fix my sleeping pattern, before university starts again.

Anyway, I watched the game and I must say it was quite entertaining, especially near the end of the 4th quarter. If you read anything stupid from my match analysis, please forgive me, as I'm still not familiarized with basketball. I follow up with the sport from time to time, and I do love my Boston Celtics, but I'm not really a basketball 'expert'.

One thing I've really noticed about the Argentinian players is that they are very slow at times. Basketball is a fast-paced game; that's the nature of the sport. But of course, there are different grades of speed, and the Argentinians performed at the lower end of the scale throughout all 4 quarters, in my opinion. But they got their win, and that's mostly due to their excellent clinical finishing (PS: please excuse my soccer terminologies).

In my opinion, the Brazilian players were much faster with the ball. They passed it around a lot and, subsequently, they were more efficient in penetrating through Argentina's three-point line and into the 'key'. Their quickness also meant they had more time to create chances, when they possessed the ball. For instance, it took the Brazilian players no more than 4 seconds to reach Argentina's half of the basketball court. That gave them at least 20 seconds to string an attack. Argentina, on the other hand, took their sweet time to reach Brazil's end. And when they got there, they mostly passed the ball back, as though they were regrouping or something. I didn't really like it. It was nice, soft basketball, which was easy on the eye, but for some reason it didn't feel right. Brazil's attacking display was more exciting to watch, and it felt energizing. Maybe I'm just imagining things.

Nevertheless, Argentina's experience and fabulous fan support made them seal the victory. Their finishing was also better. Oberto was one of the few Argentinian players who knew how to penetrate Brazil's defensive zones and Scola was Argentina's lifeline. As for Kammerichs, he only stood out because of his mustache.

Anyway, congratulations to Argentina for getting the gold medal. The Brazilians shouldn't feel too heartbroken by this defeat. I believe their youngsters have a bright future ahead of themselves.

[asdzas]

Congrats to Argentina, altought is ''sad'' to see a great team, like they were, in the end of their prime. Playing at home, and with all their players, they had a lot of trouble to beat all the other teams who missed a lot of important players.Let's see what they can do next year...If they play like this, not much.


Brazil...well, we improved a lot with Magnano, good defense, playing like a team..and I know that Nene, Leandrinho, Varejão don't deserve to be on the team(only Varejao deserves it), but without them we have no chance against top teams, no chance at all...let's see what Magnano will decide about them.

[Ciscorlie Horford]

does the positive doping of Bimo Carmona put in jeopady the Puerto Rican Qualification to the Olympic Qualifier now? or will Fiba not strip Puerto Rico their fourth place and give the spot for the World-Wide Olympic Qualifier to Uguruay?

can someone find some information about this if any of you could, please?

on hindsight, when Carmona made the Puerto Rican team last cut, right away the first thing I thought was he is going to get a positive doping test on that tournament. I just saw coming from a mile away, I don't understand whose decision was to give a spot on the team to someone who's always had drug problems, and knowing that he has done it like 3 times already.


att. I'm glad the cheaters lost the gold medal. Good prevails evil was defeated and the world is restored back to its natural balance

[guilherme.rcf]

After the game I was like: Well, Nice to see Argentina winning this one. They deserve it, they are a great team. Once it is finished, I just don't care about this medal.

Our final was against Rep. Dominicana.

[GustavoGanso]

Argentina deserved the victory, they need to celebrate with his people!

[Duncan]

Screw them, they got a lot of home cooking calls, and will get no where at the Olympics. No young players of any worth coming thru either

On the other hand, Brazil was 1-1 against them in Argentina, with all the so-called golden generation playing against a Brazil team without 3 of their best players. Plus, a lot of promising younger players coming thru.

If the "other 3" are let on the team by Magnano, Brazil will make noise at the Olympics.

So, the future looks pretty good for the Selecao right now. For Argentina, I am afraid not.

I really hope PR and the Dominican R. can make a good showing at the qualifiers next year!