FIBA World Championship - Thread Retired

FIBA World Championship Remaining Schedule

We are ready to give you complete coverage of the final 3 days of the FIBA World Championship. All games listed will be recapped and presented to you.

SEMI FINAL ROUND

Aug 31

Semi 1: China vs Nigeria
Playoff 1: Argentina vs Greece

Semi 2: USA vs Italy
Playoff 2: New Zealand vs Spain

Sept 1

5th/6th Place Playoff: Playoff 1 Winner vs Playoff 2 Winner
7th/8th Place Playoff: Playoff 1 Loser vs Playoff 2 Loser
Bronze Medal Match: Semi 1 Loser v Semi 2 Loser

Sept 2

Gold Medal Match: Semi 1 Winner v Semi 2 Winner

Tip who you think the Top 8 will be!!!

I think:

1. China
2. USA
3. Italy
4. Nigeria
5. Spain
6. Argentina
7. New Zealand
8. Greece

What do you guys think???

Last edited by Fresh8 on Sat Aug 12, 2006 3:48 pm, edited 1 time in total.

I think:

1. China
2. USA
3. Italy
4. Nigeria
5. Spain
6. Spain
7. New Zealand
8. Greece

What do you guys think???

I think I'd be shocked if Spain finished 5th and 6th.

I would be shocked too

Im gonna go:

1. China
2. USA
3. Italy
4. Nigeria
5. New Zealand
6. Argentina
7. Spain
8. Greece

1. china
2. china
3. china
4. china
5. china
6. china
7. china
8. china

1. china
2. china
3. china
4. china
5. china
6. china
7. china
8. china

Well you are really optimistic

No, he's just a spammer...

and Jing, if you're a true fan, just put China up for first and nothing else... putting them from 2-8 shows u have no faith

1. China
2. USA
3. Nigeria
4. Italy
5. Spain
6. Argentina
7. New Zealand
8. Greece

No, he's just a spammer...

and Jing, if you're a true fan, just put China up for first and nothing else... putting them from 2-8 shows u have no faith

shut up sit. i put them all just to show china is the only team worth supporting in the world.

and you dont want me to spam... you wont like me when i spam

Jing ur a fool U cant tell im being sarcastic... jeebers...

Yao Ming, China Rolls to Finals!
2006 World Championship Might Be China’s Dream Come True



By WILL SIT, AP Writer
August 31, 2006

CHN: 18 - 27 - 18 - 19 - 82
NIG: 19 - 14 - 14 - 25 - 72

JAPAN (AP) -- For two teams that weren’t ‘supposed’ to be there, one knew that the dream run was over. That team was Nigeria who buckled under the pressure; bowing out of the Finals at the FIBA World Championship.

Nigeria just didn't have the experience and skill on its side, China wasn’t that much better.

“We (China) really need to play a lot better if we want to contest the (World Championship) title,” Chinese Coach Kazlauskas stated, “We were winning by 22 at one point, then let them (Nigeria) make it small again. And we went up, then we let them come back. We should have won by 30, 40 points tonight if we played hard for the whole game. If we play USA or even Italy, we will have a very hard game.”

C Yao Ming was the reason for China surviving the Semi Final clash against Nigeria. The Chinese giant scored 10 points and blocked three shots in the fourth quarter. He finished with 23 points (9-19 FG), 17 rebounds, 8 assists and 7 blocks.

The Nigerians took an early 7-0 lead at the start of the game. With China looking out of sorts all over the court, they took a time out and came back out of the break a lot more composed. Led by Yao Ming and Wang Zhizhi, who replaced starting PF Yi Jianlan, China rallied back to close the gap to just one point before the break.

Coach Kazlauskas then made a radical move by playing Yao Ming, Wang Zhizhi and Yi Jianlan on the court together. With three players taller than 7 feet, the Chinese posed an imposing force on defence and with the scoring of PG Wei Liu and SG Li Nan, the Asian champions went on a scoring run to put their opponents far behind. However, despite the team stopping Lithuania from scoring, Yi was showing that he was a liability on offence hence leading to SF Zhu Fangyu replacing him.

The veteran SF Zhu made two threes in a row and then was fouled on a three point shot, sending him to the line for three free throws; sinking all of them. Yao got into the scoring too, putting two dunks to his scoring tally and China led by 15 points.

The Chinese continued their dominance as their 16-0 scoring run stretched from the second quarter into the third and it soon became a 21-0 scoring run. The Chinese slowed down though as the third period got to midpoint. Yao Ming missed three lay ups and a dunk while Wang Zhizhi’s air ball from 6 feet out epitomised the poor Chinese effort.

The fourth quarter began with the Nigerians frantically trying to snatch the lead from their opponents. NBA SF Ime Udoka gave his team a chance by hitting three big three point shots and getting his team close to their opponents. The closest they got though was at 58-66 before China called for a time out. And Yao decided to step up and prove that he is having the tournament of his career.

Yao went back onto the court and immediately dunked on a double team. He went back down the other end, swatted a Nwosu shot before Li Nan layed it up on the fast break. Yao blocked Udoka’s shot attempt before missing a shot at the other end. He made up for his miss by scoring the enxt time his team came back down the floor and then blocking another shot of Nigeria’s; this time it belonged to PG Oguwudire. Yao looked to socre again but unselfishly threw it out to an open Zhu who nailed another trey. China was then up 75-58 and in a commanding lead with just 2:31 left.

Despite being up by such a large margin, China became complacent without Yao on the court allowing Nigeria to go on a 9-0 run. Yao came back onto the court with 47 seconds left and scored with 36,1 seconds on the clock. His lay up sealed the win with 5.2 seconds left with the score being 82-71.

“Without Yao, we were nothing but with him, we became a force,” Assistant Coach Del Harris said, “It was good to see Nigeria not giving up. It’s that sort of determination that got them so far in this tournament.”

Box Score

China
Nigeria

More Images

Last edited by Fresh8 on Sun Aug 13, 2006 8:37 am, edited 3 times in total.

Manu Does Magic Against Greeks
Argentina Too Strong For Greece, Manu Nets 32 in Big Win

By WILL SIT, AP Writer
September 1, 2006

GRE: 21 - 22 - 23 - 19 - 85
ARG: 25 - 26 - 27 - 26 - 104

JAPAN (AP) -- Argentina seems to have its sights set on a fifth place finish at this year’s World Championship. The team that was upset by China took its anger out on Greece. Greece who was upset by Nigeria didn’t prove much as they were beaten in every element of the game.

Argentina was superior in their shooting, rebounding, passing and defence. The only area they could improve on was free throw shooting. With better foul shooting, they could have easily won by 30 points or more.

SG Manu Ginobili who’s had a tough tournament in the knockout stage, must have had a bit of consolation as he dominated in the second half when his team began to pull away from their opponents. The San Antonio SG scored 20 of his 32 points in the second half.

Manu got plenty of help from his team mates though as C Ruben Wolkowisky scored 18 points and grabbed 14 rebounds. PF Luis Scola added 22 points and 9 rebounds whilst being a nuisance in the paint on defence. SF Andres Nocioni had 12 points and 6 assists.

The Greeks endured a night to forget as three players nearly fouled out and Antonis Fotsis fouled out in the final period with 5 minutes left in the game. PG Dimitrios Diamantidus led the Greeks with 15 points and 7 assists. SG Nikos Chatzivrettas had 14 points while Fotsis wound up with just 4 points as he struggled against Scola and Wolkowisky in the low post.

Argentina will now contest for fifth place against the winner of New Zealand and Spain. The highest placing Greece can attain is seventh.

Box Scores

Argentina
Greece

More Images

What a game by Yao Ming. MONSTER GAME. Nearly a Triple Double. No Quadriple double.

China for FIBA CHampions

It’s Settled! Team USA to Face China
Americans Escape Very Close Call Against Italy

By WILL SIT, AP Writer
August 31, 2006

JAPAN (AP) -- Team USA’s Chris Paul scored 33 points, including a three point shot to win the game against a tough Italian outfit. The Athens Olympic Silver Medallists gave the Americans a run for their money and caught the US on a bad shooting night.

Paul was arguably the best player on the court although he is basically the rookie of Team USA. He finished the game with 33 points and 8 assists. Elton Brand came off the bench to put up 13 points while Carmelo Anthony had 17 points, 6 rebounds and 4 assists. Italy’s SF Dante Calabria scored 22 points and SG Gianluca Basile finished with a modest 21 points, 8 rebounds and 5 assists while holding Lebron James to 11 points on 4 for 15 shooting.

The game was close from start to finish and Italy took its first and only lead near the end of the game. Former Tar Heel Calabria scored two three point shots to break the American’s hearts and steal the lead away from Team USA. With 1:13 left, Italy led by 1 and then upped the score by two more points on a Massimo Bulleri jump shot. Gilbert Arenas was then injured in the following play after being pushed by Basile.

Chris Bosh and Dwight Howard confronted Basile; a stark comparison to the night before where New Zealand big men Sean Marks and Pero Cameron also confronted the Italian SG. The refs didn’t notice the altercation as they attended to Gilbert Arenas who had to be taken off the court.

Bosh backed off but Howard foolishly pushed Basile into the scorers’ table. Down by three points, Team USA were behind by 4 after a technical free throw was awarded to Italy with 54 seconds left.

Dwyane Wade then made a spectacular move by dribbling the ball, doing a spin move towards the hoop and dunking the ball over two defenders. The roar of the crowd was deafening until it became even louder when Wade stole the ball at half way and sent it to Carmelo Anthony for a dunk.

The stadium was quiet though as Anthony landed awkwardly as he tied the game. After Anthony left, Basile attempted a jumper and missed before Team USA called a timeout.

Coach K chose to go with PG Paul in the next play and Lebron immediately threw the ball to the young player. Paul faked the shot then dribbled to his right and pulled up for the shot. The ball went right through the hoop to give Team USA a passage to the Finals against Yao Ming and China.

More Images

i think usa will win over china

if you dont win sit... i am gonna slit franmansr's throat as an act of terrorism.

Spain Will Play Off For Fifth Place
G Kirk Penney Struggles After F Pero Cameron is Injured

By WILL SIT, AP Writer
September 1, 2006

NZ: 20 - 23 - 23 - 27 - 93
ESP: 29 - 30 - 25 - 28 - 112

JAPAN (AP) -- New Zealand’s dreams came crashing down way before the final whistle. Without their skipper Pero Cameron, the Kiwis fell behind early. Cameron walked off the court with 4:22 left in the first quarter. That prompted their opponents to go on a 13-3 run and take control of the game.

The New Zealanders missed Pero’s ability to take up space and struggled on the glass, as Spain continued to pull ahead. Spain out rebounded New Zealand 48 to 27 in the end. Spain’s Jose Calderon led the team with 19 points with 4 assists while Pau Gasol played an important; helping his team mates get into the game. The NBA star finished with 11 points, 11 rebounds, 3 assists, 3 steals and 2 blocks. Spain had six players score in double figures.

New Zealand were led by 30 points from Penney who started off scoring 7 of his team’s first 9 points but then went cold for the rest of the game. Penney finished on 10 for 30 shooting while his team mates fared no better with Tony Rampton getting 11 points and 7 rebounds and Phil Jones having 14 from off the bench.

New Zealand went down fighting though. As they trailed by 18 entering the final quarter, the Kiwis made one final push. Kirk Penney hit a three and Jones hit one of his own to push New Zealand up to 12 points behind Spain. Spain stayed composed and denied the Kiwis from getting closer as they made sure the New Zealand team couldn’t get any closer than 14 points to them.

Penney missed a three pointer with 2:02 left and New Zealand trailing by 11 prompting Spain to score on the fast break and Coach Baldwin to sub his bench on to finish the game. “I’m disappointed, sure,” Baldwin said, “But we went down fighting and without Pero, we definitely did our best.” Cameron agreed with his coach, “It sucks we won’t be trying to get fifth but we can always go out with a win against Greece in the next game. Spain was the better team though.”

Pau Gasol who fouled Cameron hard and subsequently saw the big man got injured apologised, “I’m sorry that they (New Zealand) got knocked out and the player (Cameron) got injured but I had to do my job and get the win. I’m still sorry and I feel bad for seeing him hurt but at the time, all I had to worry about was winning.”

New Zealand now plays Greece for seventh place and Spain plays Argentina for fifth place.

Box Scores

Spain
New Zealand

More Images

19pts hmm....that's about how much I think they'll lose to Spain IRL when the WC's start....although I hope I'm wrong....go Bradshaw

WTF? Argentina losing against China? China! Lol no seriously, you did a great game man...

1. China
2. USA
3. Italy
4. Nigeria
5. Argentina
6. Spain
7. New Zealand
8. Greece

argentina sux. they play dirty

i think usa will win over china

- Maybe... Team USA are awesome lol... i rebuffed their overalls to:

Lebron: 98
Wade: 95
Melo: 93
Paul: 86
Howard: 89
Brand: 92
Bosh: 88
Arenas: 92
Miller: 81
Battier: 76
Bowen: 75
Johnson: Down to 86 lol

Anyways... my best player is Yao at 93... then second best is Wang at 74 and Yi at 74... It will be tough and yeh... NBA Live can beat me lol... when i try to play realistic... in the NZ-ESP game, i played as NZ and got smashed by cpu.. couldnt grab any rebounds damn Kiwis lol So anything is possible...

if you dont win sit... i am gonna slit franmansr's throat as an act of terrorism.

- I wouldnt want u to kill him... -_-"

19pts hmm....that's about how much I think they'll lose to Spain IRL when the WC's start....although I hope I'm wrong....go Bradshaw

- You love Bradshaw don't you? lol... anyways... Seventh Place Game is Greece v NZ... who should I play as?

WTF? Argentina losing against China? China! Lol no seriously, you did a great game man...

- Oh you know China is awesome lol And the reason why i won that game was cause China was on fire for the first quarter lol and buckled down on defence at the end and yao took over... just like it should happen in real life!

argentina sux. they play dirty

- I like Delfino on Argentina most lol... i dunno why... maybe cause i thought him and Darko would be awesome in detroit together lol

YEAHHHH BABBBY! lol... I will support China but seeing Boomers beat France makes me smile haha... Finally Bogut scores 20 points for Aussies recently

Despite Yi Jianlian (212-C/F-87) 19 points on 7 of 7 shooting, 12 rebounds and 2 blocks, China lost to Brazil 88-78. Yao Ming also had a good day with 16 points on 7 of 11 shooting and 6 rebounds in 24 minutes. Wang Zhizhi had 6 points and 5 rebounds in 19 minutes. This is the first time all three of these big men have played together in rotation.

But China is still trying to resolve its guard situation. Liu Wei, China's starting point guard whose strengths and weaknesses are known, again did not play. Sun Yue once more demonstrated that he cannot produce points even as he excels in other aspects of the game.

Zhang Qingpeng again inserted himself into the guard equation, hitting 2 of 3 3-point shots, dishing out 5 assists and making 2 steals in 14 minutes. But he missed both of his 2-point shots. Chen Jianghua had a very quiet 8 minutes while Xie Libin did nothing in 10.

Chinese authorities would prefer that Zhang be selected for the senior team so that they can send Chen and Xie to the Asian Junior tournament being held September 1-9 in Urumqi, China. Chen and Xie would form a formidable backcourt there and could possibly be China's senior starting backcourt in 2008.

This was a game of spurts, as practice games often are. Brazil jumped off to a 32-24 first quarter lead but the second quarter was competitive and defensive with China outscoring Brazil 14-12. Brazil blew out China in the third quarter 31-13. China blew out Brazil in the fourth quarter 27-13.

China outrebounded Brazil 40-31. Brazil had 14 steals to 5 for China. Yao, Wang and Yi played 77 of a possible 80 minutes at center and power forward. China's perimeter players only made 1 of 9 2-point shots, though Du Feng, with the skills of a power forward though mostly playing small forward, made 3 of 4 2-pointers while missing all 3 of his 3-point shots.

Germany wins the group which includes China with a 2-0 record. Brazil finishes second at 1-1 and China finishes third at 0-2.

In the other game, Australia defeated France 77-71 and all three teams in this group, which also includes Greece, finished with 1-1 records.

I believe that, based on point differential and who beat whom, Greece finsishes first at 136-132, Australia second ate 137-139 and France third at 133-135. If so, China will play France for 5th place on Tuesday. This game is also practice, so there is no telling who will win and by how much.

Andrew Bogut led Australia with 20 points, 8 rebounds and 4 assists. Brad Newley had 17 points and 6 rebounds while Sam Mackinnon had 12 points, 10 rebounds and 7 assists.

Tony Parker led France with 22 points, 3 rebounds, 4 assists and 3 steals while Florent Pietrus had 10 points, 9 rebounds and 2 assists.

Go China lol

yeah... once the team gels... they will be popping shots left and right. and yao will be like roar and kill stuff.

Yi made all his shots.. ridiclious. finally he is showing his power