Batum's been playing really good defense. They've got him guarding the other team's PG. He can't seem to get much going on offense. Kind of reminds me of watching him in Summer League last year. He's just not a guy who can put the team on his back and score.
France SHOULD beat Belgium. They look like the US team getting beaten by a more cohesive less-talented team (like Greece, say). But Batum hasn't shown much at all on offense because Belgium really packs it in on defense. I love how "airball" is now a universal word.
About time Turiaf finished under the basket! France only down 2 with the ball. Parker ties it! I hate that Bosco guy on Belgium. He looks like Henry Abbott. He's "scrappy". I hate scrappy.
NOW Parker's unstoppable, but Belgium is up one because they can actually hit threes. Nic got swatted convincingly by Mbenga on a post-up. NOT pretty. Now Belgium is up 4. They're clutch with the threes. They're going to win. Does this mean France misses Eurobasket? Or is this a home-and-home series? Because this game is obviously in Belgium, given the crowd.
Nic gets shoved into the sidelines and falls, and no foul is called. I'm telling ya, these refs are worse than the NBA guys.
Batum gets blocked. Batum overplayed a steal attempt. Ball swings for the open Belgian for the bucket. Not a good sequence here at the end for our guy.
Overall, it seems like this tournament has gone a lot like last season. In low pressure games, he performs competently and has flashes that show you he could be something special. Under pressure (at the end of this game, in the playoffs last year) he starts to suck. Meh, that's ok though. He's only 20. Hopefully with enough experience under pressure he'll grow into handling it. At least he was pretty consistently good on the defensive end.
I just found a Spain-Poland link: http://www.justin.tv/escarabajopelotero2 Game is in the third quarter. Rudy's got 4 points.
The two games against Italy were high pressure and he was excellent. For the Blazers, off the top of my head I remember some great games against the Lakers and Spurs... I don't think pressure is the issue, he's just inconsistent, especially with his shot.
Yeah, you're probably right. It's easy to extrapolate to much from a pretty small sample size. Especially right after he had an off-game.
I didn't really see France losing to Belgium in either of the games so I have to say I'm pretty surprised. But I just can't see them losing two straight and making up the four points should be manageable. If I were a nationalistic froggy I might be mad at the Blazers right now for disrupting Batum's rhythm by making him travel back to Portland for a 20 hour stay and missing the final game versus Finland. I can't view the video at work, what's the word on Claver/Rudy versus Poland?
Rudy was clutch on both ends of the floor. He made a sick pass between his defender's legs to Gasol for the dunk. Navarro took and made all his shots in the fourth quarter. Claver hit one three, but was non-existent for the most part. Spain won a close one at the end.
