First of all congradulations to Espana for their superb game, they lead the global basketball scene, while Greece follows steadily.
At last! The world starts establishing European basketball as the leading style in the game, putting aside the boring monkey NBA business. When Europeans start flowing in NBA and when zone defense is practised, USA may win something better than the 3rd place in the world.
Greece 101, U.S. 95
By BRIAN MAHONEY, AP Basketball Writer
September 1, 2006
SAITAMA, Japan (AP) -- Fed up with its recent failures, USA Basketball assembled a new program with a new plan and a new coach in Mike Krzyzewski.
The end result was all too familiar.
Greece used a sizzling stretch of shooting across the middle two quarters to turn a 12-point deficit into a 14-point lead, and beat the Americans 101-95 Friday in the semifinals of the world championships.
"To lose any game is a shock to us," U.S. star Carmelo Anthony said. "We came in with the mentality to win the game and the gold medal."
Instead, the best Anthony can do now is add another bronze to his collection.
Greece (8-0) can earn a world title to go with the European championship it won in 2005 with a victory over Spain in Sunday's gold-medal game. Spain (8-0) beat Argentina 75-74 on Friday night.
"They played like a champion plays," U.S. forward Shane Battier said of Greece.
The Americans will have to wait at least two more years to remember what that feels like.
Done in again by their inept 3-point shooting -- and they weren't much better from the foul line -- the Americans will fall short of a championship in a major international tournament for the third straight time since winning gold at the 2000 Olympics.
The Greeks -- with no current NBA players on their roster -- danced in a circle at halfcourt after their victory.
"Big players play big games," said guard Theodoros Papaloukas, the MVP of the European final who had 12 assists Friday. "And today I think we played very good."
The U.S. (7-1) will return to the court Saturday against Argentina (7-1), hoping to match the bronze medal it left Athens with in 2004.
"Those guys are hurting," said USA Basketball managing director Jerry Colangelo, who was put in charge of the program after a sixth-place finish in the 2002 worlds preceded the disappointment in Athens. "It's probably a better thing we have to come back tomorrow and play again instead of sitting on this for two days."
Anthony scored 27 points for the Americans, who couldn't overcome their 32 percent shooting from 3-point range or 59 percent from the foul line. Dwyane Wade added 19 and LeBron James had 17, but the three U.S. captains were unable to make up for their disappointment from Athens.
Vassilis Spanoulis, bound for the Houston Rockets, scored 22 points for Greece. Mihalis Kakiouzis added 15 and 6-foot-10 Sofoklis Schortsianitis -- nicknamed "Baby Shaq" -- added 14, shooting 6-of-7.
"Basketball is not just about dribbling and shooting," said Greece coach Panagiotis Yannakis, who took a congratulatory call from Prime Minister Costas Karamanlis after the game. "You can come off the bench with a clear mind and give the best of your talent and that's what our players did today."
In Greece, thousands gathered in the streets, waved flags and honked car horns. Traffic information screens flashed the final score, and drivers abandoned cars to join celebrating crowds.
Continuously burning the Americans' poor defense against the pick-and-roll, the Greek team shot 63 percent (35-of-56) from the field and made 31 of 44 shots over the final three periods.
"We didn't make the right adjustments," U.S. center Chris Bosh said. "They ran the same play. We made it easy for them."
The U.S. hasn't even played for a world championship since winning the last of its three titles in Toronto in 1994. Krzyzewski -- who was looking for gold after winning bronze with the 1990 team -- and a few American players walked to midcourt to congratulate the Greeks, while most of the U.S. roster quickly headed to the locker room.
The Americans, who put together a national team program this year for the first time, now will be forced to qualify for the 2008 Olympics next summer in the FIBA Americas tournament in Venezuela.
"This one hurts," said Colangelo, who assembled the team. "We had the gold medal as our goal and anything short is disappointing. We go back to work and get ready for qualifying next summer."
The U.S. seemed in control after Joe Johnson's 3-pointer gave the Americans a 33-21 lead with about 6 1/2 minutes left in the second quarter. It was around then that James told his teammates on the bench: "They don't know what to do."
Well, they figured it out in a hurry.
Greece scored nine straight points, pulling within three on Papaloukas' drive with 3:51 left and forcing Krzyzewski to call a timeout. Dwight Howard converted a three-point play, but the Greeks answered with a 13-2 surge, featuring eight points from Schortsianitis, to open a 43-38 lead and force Krzyzewski to call a second timeout.
Greece hit nine straight shots -- its only miss in the last 5 minutes was a heave from halfcourt as time expired -- and led 45-41 at halftime. The Greeks shot 56 percent (15-of-27) in the half.
The Americans were 2-of-10 from behind the arc -- after going 10-for-40 in their quarterfinal victory over Germany -- and trailed at the break for only the second time in the tournament. Italy had a nine-point cushion in a group play game.
Greece kept it up in the third quarter, hitting 14 of its 18 shots, including all four 3-pointers in the first 5 minutes. Kostas Tsartsaris' 3-pointer with 5:45 left in the period gave the Greeks a 65-51 lead -- the biggest deficit the U.S. faced in the tournament.
After shooting 4-of-12 in the first quarter, Greece was 25-of-33 (76 percent) in the second and third and led 77-65 heading to the final period.
"It seemed like they didn't miss the whole third quarter," Wade said.
Anthony, Wade and James combined for the first 18 U.S. points in the quarter, and the Americans eventually got as close as 95-91 on Kirk Hinrich's 3 with 36 seconds to play. But the U.S. missed its final two attempts from behind the arc, capping a 9-of-28 night.
This message has been edited by me31fm on Sep 5, 2006 6:15 PM This message has been edited by me31fm on Sep 5, 2006 6:09 PM This message has been edited by me31fm on Sep 5, 2006 6:05 PM This message has been edited by me31fm on Sep 4, 2006 11:41 PM This message has been edited by me31fm on Sep 4, 2006 11:34 PM
anything less than gold is not good enough for the US. congrats on the win, but I would not call the nba "monkey ball".....besides it being racist and offensive, I would take man defenses over zone any day.
the best players who play in Europe go to the NBA, so this European win in the championship is good for European basketball.
it seems the Americans dont make use of all their might in these international events like they do in the domestic NBA league, in the game against Greece Kobi Brajant and Shaq didnt play for exemple.
anyway I remember Israel beating Spain in the last European championship, hopefully the coming European championship will be exciting and well played.
~
There is a theory which states that if ever anybody discovers exactly what the Universe is for and why it is here, it will instantly disappear and be replaced by something even more bizarre and inexplicable. There is another theory which states that this has already happened.
Quote:but I would not call the nba "monkey ball".....besides it being racist and offensive
Keep the "rasism" remarks out of this thread, it's an expression* so do chill. Basketball without zone defense is not efficient, nor exciting. I like man to man tactics, but these need to be applied at certain phases of the game.
I still can't believe the USA team lost to those akward looking fellas. LMAO But don't fool yourself, USA still produces the best talent. NBA just need to get out of the superstar syndrome.
Quote:NBA just need to get out of the superstar syndrome.
Especially this year, the US federation in basketball (whatever they call it), selected the best team and players to win, and they still came 3rd. There are no excusses, it's just that European style and especially the Lithuanian, Greek and Spanish tactics are very much superior. Some years ago Yugoslavia and Lithuania ruled, now the future belongs to Spain and Greece.
Even if other players played for USA, take the Athens 2004 Olympics as an example, the result would be the same, 3rd place, with all the "medical NBA enhancemants" allowed.
This message has been edited by me31fm on Sep 5, 2006 11:55 PM This message has been edited by me31fm on Sep 5, 2006 11:36 PM This message has been edited by me31fm on Sep 5, 2006 11:35 PM
Quote:FIBA 2006 was a great tournament, and i dont think the wonderful game of B-ball or any other game deserves such a racist inflammatory statement.
Monkey business is a british expression. It seems that people with limited proper english knowledge, have some sort of racism-phobia or something and put ideas and words that I didn't even say.
For me, a basketball game (ie NBA games) where zone defense is not allowed is indeed monkey business, nothing more.
@phoebus Its not about superior tactics but simply that with all the stars the U.S have they can't play well as a team. Europeans with considerably lesser players and smaller ego's complement each other while playing. It's the same in the Ryder cup the american team is waaaaaaay superior to the european one however they've won the last 2 ryder cups.
"Brazil has rediscovered itself, and this rediscovery is being expressed in its people's enthusiasm and their desire to mobilize to face the huge problems that lie ahead of us."
Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva
Quote:Don't fool yourself about european "tactic" or players being somehow superior.
European basketball players and tactics are indeed superior and will continue to be superior since it's seems that for more than an entire decade, team USA won neither the 1st nor 2nd place, in any FIBA game.
fiba players are better in fiba rules than nba players. fiba players in the nba won't fare so well except for a select few exceptional players (which happen to play in the nba).
