Quarter-finals: Argentina vs Greece

[bobo81]

I wish Argentina good luck for the game against the US, I will cheer for them, just hoping that our knock-out didn't go unjsutified, because I believe we could have pushed the US a lot in the semi (even though the outcome would 90% be a loss).
Also I think that maybe they deserved to have luck in their favor for htis game, as they are a team in its ending phase, and we stil got plenty more challenges! Eurobasket 2009 Poland here we come!

I am sure if US blows them out people will not be happy. But I am expecting a pretty difficult game so you might get your wish. If Argentina wins than most of this forum will be Argentinian for a day, along with a good portion of the basketball world.

[tiro1]

Ah! Delfino! A great player indeed, but performances like the one in the quarters wont come often...

It was tough to lose this game for us. Despite our mediocre performance we were so close. I would love to see us against the Usa tonight.

[oranJe]

All his opponents??
Vasilopoulos didn't manage to stop neither Prigioni (he had maybe only one turnover in this game) and definately not Ginobili when he guarded him.

Don't get confused.. The matchups you refer to are mis-matches after screens, he never did guard those players. Most screens are set to Prigioni at the top to begin the offense with the pick and roll, and Greece switches.

The players he did guard were Scola and Nocioni.. oh well whatever

[GR8BBALL]

I will second those who said that Greece didn't use it's depth and press defense to exhaust the Argentines.
Actually we played the game that suited best for them with minimal wear-down of their important players.
In addition to that our perimeter defense was just not there.
Our backcourt was below average and I mean Papaloukas, DIamantidis and Spanoulis. All of them made crucial turnovers in the 3rd and 4th half--maybe they were tired-who knows.
Yiannakis coaching was not good, he did nothing to change the momentum of Argentines in the 3rd quarter, the rotations were limited and I think he could have used Pelekanos to D up Ginobili or Delfino and get Spanoulis some rest.

Despite all this the game was decide by a late 3pt by Greece because they managed to keep up with the Argentines. That was good but was it good enough? In my opinion, no.

[Levenspiel]

This was the only game that I thought I cannot miss, and I missed it .

Delfino has been playing extraordinarily throughout this tournament. Looks like this game was not an exception.

[Blinky]

I will second those who said that Greece didn't use it's depth and press defense to exhaust the Argentines.
Actually we played the game that suited best for them with minimal wear-down of their important players.
In addition to that our perimeter defense was just not there.
Our backcourt was below average and I mean Papaloukas, DIamantidis and Spanoulis. All of them made crucial turnovers in the 3rd and 4th half--maybe they were tired-who knows.
Yiannakis coaching was not good, he did nothing to change the momentum of Argentines in the 3rd quarter, the rotations were limited and I think he could have used Pelekanos to D up Ginobili or Delfino and get Spanoulis some rest.

Despite all this the game was decide by a late 3pt by Greece because they managed to keep up with the Argentines. That was good but was it good enough? In my opinion, no.

Actually there was a lot of physical play by both teams, it's just that the refs didn't want to whistle easily, and htey are this way the whole tourney. So it's not like we didn't try to force them to get many fouls, it's jsut that it was not possible. And I can't say this was to their favour, because our team likes physical play a lot too! So, with this out of the way, it was ultimately a matter of shot accuracy, and I am surprised we managed to keep up.
Also, many people say Yannakis should have benched Spanoulis at 3rd wuarter after his 1-2 mistakes, and we would have avoided the next 3 , or that the last shot shoudl have been made by diamantidis, or anyway another player that was in a better day. Well, I don't like the guy much (spanoulis), but truth is, in those cases you gamble a bit. After 2-3 errors in a row, you can't really expect a top tier player to make more, so there is not much point in benching him other than hurting his confidence for the rest of the game. So you keep him in and hope to see his positive side. It didn;t happen and he made 2-3 more mistakes in a row, but it certainly could have happenned! Also, the last shot was a shot under good conditions, and we've seen many times the player who has played badly the whole game, nail that crucial shot in the end, so again, I am not against him for trying that. It jsut can't go in everytime, and we've had our fair share of luck in those last second shots in the last years, it was time for one not to go in!

All in all, I think the game was lost because Delfino played the game of his life and we didn't have a player that played really great, they all played solid, but noone excelled, so if we couldn't reach the last minute being up by 5-10 points, then I can't really expect us to win on the last shot (though it could very well have been done).

[Minotavros]

What's up with Diamantidis and Papaloukas always driving to the basket and then dishing it out?They never try to score, they always dish it out.

They are very predictable.

[Big Lebowski]

Jocko Homo Spanoulis, with his retarded brain, the minus habens of Greece.

There's only one name connected to the Greek failure: Vasilis Skatoulis (Skata=crap in Greek).
Greece and Europe and not a so overrated, useless and crappy player since Papanikolaou. Now, it seems incredible, someone worst than Pap is here. Skatoulis! Skatoulis! Skatoulis!

[Blinky]

Jocko Homo Spanoulis, with his retarded brain, the minus habens of Greece.

There's only one name connected to the Greek failure: Vasilis Skatoulis (Skata=crap in Greek).
Greece and Europe and not a so overrated, useless and crappy player since Papanikolaou. Now, it seems incredible, someone worst than Pap is here. Skatoulis! Skatoulis! Skatoulis!

Dude, I am not a spanoulis fan, but you seem really biased against him, so no objective poster can value a post like this....
I think spanoulis is indeed the heart of many mistakes and bad choices by the greek offence. However I'd take a player like spanoulis in the 12 guys for sure. Reason is that he brings to the table some stuff no other greek player can. He has offensive scoring and penetrating abilities that this team otherwise lacks. Now having said that, I think he should play less time, but it was also a bad tournament for him (don't listen to the guys saying he was the leading scorer, he rules etc, they don't know basketball )

About Greek guards going in and throwing the ball out, well it's true they overdid it in this tournament. It's giannakis philosophy of "playing for the team" , "don't try to score for yourself if there is someone in a better position", "always try to find the open shot and use all your 24 seconds", and stuff like that. Which are not wrong by any way, but this thing has almost become second nature to our guards. And because neither Diamantidis nor Papaloukas (especially the latter) were in good form offensively in this tournament, they didn't want to shoot much, so they overdid this and really became predictable like you say. So, was it wrong? most times yes, it probably was. Was it unexpected? no it wasn't...

[GR8BBALL]

If Papaloukas and (edit: Diamantidis) want to be good team members and not shoot they should at least ensure a quick and effective ball movement in the offense. When you drive to the basket and while you're in the air realize you have nowhere to go and make a desperate kick out pass the only thing you manage to do is disorganize your whole team and usually make a turnover which gives the opposing team an opportunity for an easy basket or some extra confidence because they played good D.

[FRANKY 13]

Jocko Homo Spanoulis, with his retarded brain, the minus habens of Greece.

There's only one name connected to the Greek failure: Vasilis Skatoulis (Skata=crap in Greek).
Greece and Europe and not a so overrated, useless and crappy player since Papanikolaou. Now, it seems incredible, someone worst than Pap is here. Skatoulis! Skatoulis! Skatoulis!

Spanoulis was the best player of this years greek national team. It s not a shame to admitt you were wrong you know. A big majority of the international users of this forum put spanoulis in the 10 best players of the tournament.

But I guess you re the only one who understands basketball.

[rikhardur]

Agh... I wanted overtime...

So did I The game was really asking for it. It really could have gone either way considering the efforts. Finished watching the game and although I didn't watch all the games (nor the final yet), this might have been the best of the tournament. Greece reminded of the team that won Eurobasket in 2005 and that produced a miracle last year against Slovenia, except Papaloukas vanished into thin air. Argentina is always a pleasure to the eye, what else to say

[hotjam_2]

I can't understand all the negativity about Spanilous? I thought he was the best player on the Greek NT team. He not only was an excellent shooter but showed some nifty one on one moves when he penetrated to the basket. But he can't do it alone, and the other guards like Diamantidis, Zisis & Pelakanos? were a bit disapointing. Especially Diamantidis, who apperantly is considered untouchable to critisim by Greek fans. Despite playing the longest minutes on the Greek NT, Diamanditis still only managed a paltry 6 ppg, and tied in assists with their shooting guard, Spanilous. He also commited 3 turnovers per game, and while he led the 2006 WC in steals, this time only managed 18th overall in that category in the Olympics.
I thought where Greek did better was at center, Boroussis & Gliniadakis were very capable, allthough I guess you could say that Sofos game suffered, but hopefully he can be replace by Koufos somewhere down the line. Overall Greece still looks like one of the top teams in Europe. At least most of their best players still believe in playing for their NT. That does'nt seem to be the case with Serbia, and sadly Italy. Italy is now 1-3 in Euro group play, and their 3 main stars, Belinelli, Bargnami & Gallinari no where in site.

But getting back to this game. I was surprised why the Greek coach did'nt go deep enough? He did'nt play 3 players and a fourth, Sofos, only played 4 min.. and despite, Bouroussis being the 2nd leading scorer for the team, he sat out most of the 2nd half in favor of the power fwd, Tsartsaris, in the middle. the other center, Gliniadakis, who actually had a good game against the US when he got to play, did'nt even get off the bench in the Argentine game.