2008 Olympics Basketball Tournament

by **Joker.** on Mon Aug 11, 2008 6:02 am

Congratulations to all Lithuanian fans out there! :dance:

We beat olympic champions and we're fired up to the next games.

Kleiza for the president. :bowdown:

by **Leander** on Mon Aug 11, 2008 6:19 am

Shouldn't we combine those three threads about Olympic basketball?

Team USA -> NBA forum
Sports Lounge thread
Global Hoops thread

by **Fresh8** on Mon Aug 11, 2008 1:17 pm

Firstly, I wish I coulda seen Lithuania-Argentina. Sounded like a really good game.

Secondly, Croatia was just shooting really awesome. And Andrew Bogut had a shocker.

Thirdly, I thoroughly enjoyed USA-China. I was loving how both teams got cheers from the crowd and also very happy China stayed close with USA for the first 15 minutes of the game. I loved how Yao actually showed passion especially when he pumped his fist in the air when he came off and cheering his teammates on. What I was not happy about was Yi Jianlian... sure, he had a few minutes of brilliance but he has to be a lot more aggressive and on-song for China to win...

I agree with a writer on ESPN, Richard Jefferson was probably thinking, 'I got traded for him?'

by **Scorer--20** on Mon Aug 11, 2008 3:37 pm

About Arg vs Ltu it was a really good game , obviouslly i prefer to win , but the Lithuaninans were really effective with their long range shoots , also Argentina played with a small rotation ( 6 players ) , and that is a shit , because all of our players are good players i mean they are role players , but they are effective.
Anyway it was an exiting game , we were soo close at the end of the game , but well , i guess we need to win all the games to stay on the chase of the gold medal.

About the Jefferson thing , i think he is happy because now he can play without being a shadow of Carter or Kidd , and Yi sucks xD

Bluesky · by **Andrew** on Mon Aug 11, 2008 7:52 pm

Leander wrote:Shouldn't we combine those three threads about Olympic basketball?

Team USA -> NBA forum
Sports Lounge thread
Global Hoops thread

No need really, one's a general Olympics thread, the Team USA thread is NBA/Team USA specific and this one is specifically about the basketball tournament at the Olympics. I guess there's some crossover but for the most part they've each got their own focus.

Definitely not the game I was hoping for from the Boomers but it wasn't as though I was expecting them to dominate. I was just happy they put together such a strong showing in the exhibition against the US as it was one of their more impressive moments, even in defeat. Difficult to beat a team that shoots 12/16 from downtown though I'm not surprised to see the Boomers shoot 6/19 from that range.

by **zzzzzz** on Mon Aug 11, 2008 8:58 pm

by **Cornerthree** on Mon Aug 11, 2008 9:12 pm

Scorer--20 wrote:About Arg vs Ltu it was a really good game , obviouslly i prefer to win , but the Lithuaninans were really effective with their long range shoots , also Argentina played with a small rotation ( 6 players ) , and that is a shit , because all of our players are good players i mean they are role players , but they are effective.
Anyway it was an exiting game , we were soo close at the end of the game , but well , i guess we need to win all the games to stay on the chase of the gold medal.

About the Jefferson thing , i think he is happy because now he can play without being a shadow of Carter or Kidd , and Yi sucks xD

Too bad, but I think that Argentina has took a step backwards since 2004, I think it's the age. Nacioni wasn't producing and I expected more from Ginobili. I think they need to step up their pace,I think your bigs are not effective anymore.

And it looks like many people are calling this an upset by Lithuania, but if people would've watched more of Argentina's pre-olympics preparations games, I think they would've selected Lithuania as the winner of this game.

by **jonthefon** on Mon Aug 11, 2008 9:30 pm

Argentina did well to rally back, but they didn't really execute their offence well during those last two possessions (bad shot with scores tied, then throwing away that inbound pass). They gave Kleiza a little too much space for that final three as well, it was a rather open look.

I was pissed by Channel Seven's decision to air a whole lotta ads throughout China-USA, causing viewers to miss chunks of each quarter. I remember that sick play where LeBron caught and slammed an alley-oop over a Chinese player with the foul, and was expecting a replay, only it went to an ad break. Couldn't switch to CCTV either since it would've caused my parents to kick up a fuss.

by **Scorer--20** on Tue Aug 12, 2008 12:20 pm

Pursuer wrote:

Too bad, but I think that Argentina has took a step backwards since 2004, I think it's the age. Nacioni wasn't producing and I expected more from Ginobili. I think they need to step up their pace,I think your bigs are not effective anymore.

And it looks like many people are calling this an upset by Lithuania, but if people would've watched more of Argentina's pre-olympics preparations games, I think they would've selected Lithuania as the winner of this game.

Yes , that is true , the team is older thats why we need a larger rotation to keep fresh our best players , Nocioni is not playing well but at least he is allways hustlin' , in Argentina we say " Pone huevos " hehe its like fight for all the rebounds , defend hard and stuff like that.

And about the preparation games , we played really shit , i hope we could find our games , because evrybody is talking about argentina as a contender , but im afraid we are not really contenders , lets see tomorrow against Australia

The key is a better ball rotation and some low post action by Scola.

jonthefon wrote:Argentina did well to rally back, but they didn't really execute their offence well during those last two possessions

Exactly

Bluesky · by **Andrew** on Tue Aug 12, 2008 1:47 pm

Scorer--20 wrote:lets see tomorrow against Australia

If I were you, I'd like Argentina's chances in that one. Not to sell my own country short but when our only NBA player is struggling with an ankle injury it doesn't bode well for us.

by **cro_2pac** on Tue Aug 12, 2008 3:21 pm

WE WON RUSSIA EU Champs 85-78!!!!!!! :mrgreen:

YouTube · by **Taddis** on Tue Aug 12, 2008 3:46 pm

Nice victory by Croatia. Seems they were underrated before tournament and now with Lithuania leading in the group.

by **Leander** on Tue Aug 12, 2008 6:17 pm

Well...well...Germany lost to Greece by more than 20 points. Two NBA stars (ok, Kaman is not a star but still a solid player) are no magicians.

by **Fresh8** on Tue Aug 12, 2008 6:35 pm

If I were you, I'd like Argentina's chances in that one. Not to sell my own country short but when our only NBA player is struggling with an ankle injury it doesn't bode well for us.

Andrew, I think we have a chance of winning. Australia has the talent and are going to be underestimated. Don't forget we were leading by 19 aganst these guys in the Diamond Ball Tournament Final. With or without Andrew Bogut, we still have two legit star European bigs in Nielsen and Anderson.

We ran into a hot shooting Croatia and a night where Bogut just couldn't get it going. Actually, the whole Aussie team apparantly couldn't get it going. I'm very confident we will have a close game against Argentina and I think we will be able to pull off a W.

Group A has sorta opened up with Russia losing to the suddenly on-fire Croatia. So I don't think Australia is out of the tournament just yet. Just gotta beat 2 of the following teams: Argentina or Russia or Lithuania. And not falter against Iran! I believe that this team can do it.

Nice victory by Croatia. Seems they were underrated before tournament and now with Lithuania leading in the group.

I'd wait till the end of pool play. If Croatia ends up first or second, I'd say they were underrated. If they finish third or fourth... I think that's about what everyone expect... They're playing really really well though, I will give them that. Will be interesting to see if they start to lose when their shots stop dropping.

Well...well...Germany lost to Greece by more than 20 points. Two NBA stars (ok, Kaman is not a star but still a solid player) are no magicians.

No one said two NBA players would equal a win. Greece are a great team and you make it sound like they aren't that good? I think a lot of people always thought Germany would just make it out of pool play or not make it out at all...

Too bad, but I think that Argentina has took a step backwards since 2004, I think it's the age. Nacioni wasn't producing and I expected more from Ginobili. I think they need to step up their pace,I think your bigs are not effective anymore.

I think it's more of an issue of injury and also missing their starting PG Pepe Sanchez than age at this stage, if it makes sense... I think thats his name. Still, this is probably the last Olympics I would say this team has a chance to have a serious tilt at gold.

by **Leander** on Tue Aug 12, 2008 8:35 pm

No, Greece are the better team but Germany has the better individual players with Nowitzki and Kaman...but only 2.

It would be interesting how Greek players played in the NBA. They mostly stay in Europe.

..................

Just watched China - Spain. China played great, the game was tied after four quarters. In overtime, Yao Ming fouled out, the Chinese team kept missing (even an airball) and Spain did not slow down the game but overran China.

Even an in-your-face alley-hoop in crunch time.

by **hova-** on Tue Aug 12, 2008 8:52 pm

Well look at Spanoulis, he is a very nice player, but he couldnt make it in the NBA. Signed with the Rockets but you barely saw anything good. Same with Fotsis for example.

The Greek team lives from its nice physical defense and its teamplay. I think they can make it far @the Olympics.

Germany just lacks of good players besides Dirk and Kaman. We rely on a good defensive team effort and either Dirk or Kaman to have a good day on offense (or both, which is the only way we may win against China imho)

by **The X** on Tue Aug 12, 2008 10:42 pm

Gotta love Ricky Rubio (Y)

It's not often that you see kids coming through that give you great hope in the game of basketball. He seems like one of them. Hope I get to see him hounding Chris Paul & Deron Williams

by **Leander** on Wed Aug 13, 2008 1:03 am

Yao Ming: 33% FG
Kobe Bryant: 1/15 3P

Why doesn't Walter Hermann play? He wants to concentrate on his NBA career but you should not let down your National team in my opinion.

Why doesn´t Gordan Giricek play? He is not the youngest player but still good.

by **Jing** on Wed Aug 13, 2008 1:18 am

The X wrote:Gotta love Ricky Rubio It's not often that you see kids coming through that give you great hope in the game of basketball. He seems like one of them. Hope I get to see him hounding Chris Paul & Deron Williams

He plays real sneaky defense and loves to bump bodies, he got away with some calls though due to the really uneven officiating. He isn't anything special. He'll get trashed against team USA.

by **[Q]** on Wed Aug 13, 2008 4:16 am

man that China-Spain game was intense. I stayed up until 330am to watch it. China was pretty dominant the whole game until the 4th when Spain brought on the pressure & tempo and forced all those turnovers. and Wang Zhizhi was the player of the game imo.

YouTube · by **Lean** on Wed Aug 13, 2008 9:48 am

Saw the Angola-USA match yesterday night, damn it was close at the end of the first half but the US forced a lot of turnovers. Angola's Morais did provide a good show though, 24 points for him.

Bluesky · by **Andrew** on Wed Aug 13, 2008 12:28 pm

Sit wrote:Andrew, I think we have a chance of winning. Australia has the talent and are going to be underestimated. Don't forget we were leading by 19 aganst these guys in the Diamond Ball Tournament Final. With or without Andrew Bogut, we still have two legit star European bigs in Nielsen and Anderson.

I agree it's a capable squad but they're going to need to play a lot better than they have through the first two games. They're not going to win many getting outscored 16-3 in the first five minutes.

by **The X** on Wed Aug 13, 2008 5:01 pm

I don't know about Australia....there rotations & chemistry looks horrid at the moment....they don't seem to have many good consistent outside threats, which is what the team desperately needs....heck, they could definitely use Kiwi Kirk Penney as their starting SG to add a bit more pure shooting from that sport....maybe they miss the experience of Jason Smith, I dunno....

But they have to make Paddy Mills their starting PG, no doubt about it....I'd like to see a starting lineup with Bogut, Andersen, Newley & Mills in it....unsure of other perimeter player....if going small, could play CJ Bruton as an undersized SG, he is more that than a PG anyways. Barlow looks pretty solid so far, so I guess he could be the other starter. I'd have Matty Neilsen as a 6th man off bench.

I'm really surprised how bad the team's defence has been in the first 2 games. In the lead up games, the Boomers looked a lot sharper.

I'm hoping I see more from Bogut, ahh well, it's still enjoyable to watch youngsters like Mills & Rubio starring at the games.

Anyways, if Boomers play as bad as first 2 games, they could lose to Iran. I do expect them to bounce back though. Iran & Russia are must wins, as they are now likely fighting Russia for 4th spot in the Group. If they could also somehow topple Lithuania, that would help avoid the US & have a chance to play out of their skins to play into the medal rounds.

by **debiler** on Wed Aug 13, 2008 5:09 pm

I didn't see Greece-Germany. Did Diamantidis play? I was always impressed with his defense. A guy who can block Dirk's jumper deserves some recognition. (Y)

YouTube · by **Taddis** on Wed Aug 13, 2008 6:33 pm

debiler wrote:I didn't see Greece-Germany. Did Diamantidis play? I was always impressed with his defense. A guy who can block Dirk's jumper deserves some recognition.

Ya diamantidis played. And Greeks showed excelent defence against Kaman and Dirk. Papaloukas ankle break crossover on kaman was hilarious :lol:

2008 Olympics Basketball Tournament

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