Wow - THAT'S an upset. I didn't watch, and it's probably just as well. France has been looking pretty wobbly in the run-up, but that's ridiculous. I actually think France do better when they haven't got Parker. When I've watched them in the warmup games they seem to just give him the ball every time and they stand and watch. I bet they're REALLY pissed. Especially because it was Germany...
So: there's been a lot of upsets so far. Probably the biggest is Finland over Turkey, but the Germany over France one is up there. Also the GB over Israel, but Israel isn't that great. The Serbia over Lithuania win is pretty big because Serbia was without Teodosic (although they're probably better off without him), and there's also Italy over Russia, although Russia fired their coach just before the tournament and don't have Kirilenko or Viktor, and Italy always SHOULD be good, even if they normally aren't.
So how does the format work? (Sorry too lazy to research) What is the minimum number of games France plays if they lose every game? In other words..... when can Nic get the fuck out of there if they continue to lose?
Name: mins, fg/fga, points, rbs, assists Batum: 25, 4/11, 9, 5, 5 Claver: 21, 0/3, 0, 5, 2 Rudy: 16, 6/10, 15, 8, 0 Sergio: 16, 2/6, 5, 4, 1 Nedzad: DNP Monya: 34, 5/12, 13, 5, 1 Petteri: 30, 4/15, 12, 9, 3 Asik: 18, 2/2, 4, 6, 0 Papanik: 22, 1/2, 2, 4, 1 Printezis: 11, 1/4, 1, 0 Pooh: 21, 3/9, 8, 1, 3 (bonus points for hitting the game winner) So: I'd say Koponen had the best day, what with the upset win, even if he was pretty inefficient. Rudy had a good game, but Spain has so many weapons, whereas Koponen is pretty much The Man for Finland. Good to see Claver get solid minutes - apparently he was defending well, even if he didn't put up the stats. Batum got good assists but all things considered, he had the shittiest day, especially as France was -14 with him on the court. (Although, to be fair, Diaw was -19 in his 29 mins, and Parker was -15 in his 30.)
Really well, it looks like: mins: 34 5/8 14 points (second-leading scorer) 5 rbs 3 assists 1 steal +/- 15 in a big win over one of the favorites to make the final 4. And shit: Serbia was without Krstic as well as Teodosic. [edit: that must be a DIFFERENT N. Krstic, because the Krstic we know played 29 minutes and got 20 and 9.]
Playing against our almost PG of the future. And hey, he did better than Toronto's center of the future: Valanciunas played 11 mins and got 2 points and 2 boards while Nenad Krstic got 20 and 9 for the opposing team.
Interesting that having NBA players hasn't meant that much so far. NBA players who lost to teams with no NBA players: Omri Casspi, Marcin Gortat, Jeffery Taylor, Jonas Jerebko, Hedo Turkoglu, Omer Asik, Ersan Ilyasova, Pero Antic, Tony Parker, Batum, Diaw, Valanciunas.
France beats Great Britain 88-64 at EuroBasket. Nic with 17 points, 4 rebounds, 1 assist, 1 steal, 1 block. Freeland isn't playing!
