By Panos Katsiroubas info@eurohoops.net
The World Cup shots is going to be an everyday round up from Eurohoops in which we will summarize everything that we liked or dislike during the games! So sit back and enjoy some very important details.
With Jeter as the conductor: Not a day passed since last September for the Ukrainian team. They played the same way they finished EuroBasket 2013. Jeter was leading the team, all the others followed him, their defense was again very solid and Ukrainians took a huge win for their qualification run to the second round.
Something went wrong for the Croats: They have a very talented roster and they were facing one of the most inexperienced teams in the World Cup. They didn’t took advantage of their size, Tomic who is one of the most dominant centers in Europe took only four shots and he didn’t played almost for the whole fourth quarter. They tried 25 3pt shots, despite the fact that they had almost 60% efficiency in 2pt shots and they made 21 turnovers. They need to improve and play like a medal contender.
Respect for Philippines: They have only one player playing outside of their domestic league (the NBAer Andrey Blatche) they are inexperienced, they don’t have a lot of tactical elements in their game but they were one shoot away of making the biggest upset of the first day. Yes, the Gilas are real fighters! If they continue like this, they will create many problems to their opponents.
Love for Gauchos!! For the past 12 years, Argentina is teaching how simple basketball should be played in every competition. They destroyed Puerto Rico (98-75) in their opener and demonstrated that despite the absences of Delfino and Ginobili they still know how to play the pick and roll and how to move the ball in offense, keeping good spaces between them and creating openings!
Where is the defense?? Today’s performances of Puerto Rico and Australia could make sick every decent defense lover. Those two teams defended really bad and they didn’t protect their basket at all. They also left a lot of spaces in the perimeter for open shots. That’s how they let 98 and 90 points respectively.
The comeback!! Turkey had an awful first half in the game against Νew Zealand. Even though they came back in the third quarter, they found themselves down by 10 in the last period. And then, they made one more unbelievable come back with a 14-0 run during 4th quarter and won the game thanks to their bench. In previous years Turkey had stars, this year they seem much more like a unit, a team which is not depended on individuals. Savas and Hersek came from the bench to save the day!
Without Parker nothing is easy: After many years Tony Parker is not a part of the French team’s roster and the problems in the offensive game of France against Brazil were obvious. After De Colo’s injury, all the creative responsibilities are in the hands of Thomas Heurtel. So, it will be a tough competition for the French team because of their guards. Diaw took some responsibilities as a floor general, but this was not enough.
Puerto Rico: It’s a team with a lot of talent without any doubt, but they were terrible in their first game. Without moving the ball at all – they had only 5 assists – and without team spirit in the offensive end, they couldn’t create any problems to their opponents. In defense, the situation was pretty much the same. With such performances, they are in danger of missing the second round.
Great atmosphere!! The atmosphere was great, colorful, and enjoyable in every arena. Still, the most striking impression was made by the Finnish supporters in Bilbao and the Argentinian fans in Seville.