Game Time Olympics: Argentina vs Greece

Quarter Finals of the 2008 Olympics – Argentina versus Greece

This should be the closest contest of the four quarter finals and it could be a very good game. I’m an admirer of several of the players on Argentina and am definitely pulling for them today.

• Greece opened the scoring but Scola responded with two and ones, making of the two resulting FTs.
• Oberto with a nice block
• Tsartsaris with position down low, gets the pass off the penetration, stays poised, waits until he sure where his shot blocker is, then takes the jump hook and puts it home.
• Prigioni working the pick and pop with Scola, passes to Scola, pump fake, drives inside, finds Nocioni open in the corner, miss
• Fastbreak, Noce puts a Greek man on a poster and gets the foul. He’s pumped up now.
• Oberto with an excellent swat from the weakside
• Argentina’s defense has looked a bit dodgy, relying too much on last ditch attempts to bother Greece’s shots.
• Prigioni on the drive and dish, finds a wide open Manu Ginobili, he misses the three from the left wing
• Lovely cut by Fotsis, but he bundles the bounce pass out of bounds
• Pick and roll with Scola, he knifes his way inside, misses the layup, offensive rebound Oberto, another miss for Argentina, fastbreak the other way, Greece draws the foul. Vasilopoulos makes two of two at the line.
• Manu wide open on the left wing again, he stops, waits for the defense, not coming, takes the shot, nails the shot.
• Diamantidis replies right back with a three of his own
• Manu tops that with another three. The game is tied at 14.
• Off balance fallaway one hander high off the glass from Tsartsaris, it goes in
• Ginobili puts home another three pointer, three in a row on back-to-back-to-back possessions
• Spanoulis hits the floater off the glass from 14 on the left wing
• Scola with great position inside once again, but he misses the short one handed shot again
• Scola makes up for it with a bucket
• Drive and dish from #4 to Fotsis for three, good
• Scola takes the 20 footer top of the key, misses, not his shot.
• Ginobili slices his way into the paint, runner, misses, gets called for a ticky tack foul. That’s garbage.
• Greece have been very poised on the dribble and have executed their offense brilliantly
• Delfino dribbles up and knocks down a triple at the buzzer

Second Quarter

• Greece lead 23-22
• Rebound Prigioni, over to Delfino, back to Prigioni, travels as his pass wasn’t there after committing to it too early. That’s the fourth turnover for Argentina versus one for Greece. Greece aren’t just keeping good possession of the ball, they’re getting good shots each time down. Prigioni is pissed, off the dribble drive step back J sticks from the left elbow extended
• Oh oooh oh my … Delfino with the fallaway off the dribble from the top of the key, high arcing, perfect swish. That was nice.
• Papaloukos works his way inside, muscles up his shot off the drive, hits it
• Delfino hits the side of the backboard from the corner. Hey they can’t all be beautiful.
• Fastbreak Greece, layup Fotsis. Greece are doing an excellent job of maximizing their fastbreak opportunities. Fifth turnover for Argentina, Greece still have only one.
• Nocioni low post, wants to go over his left shoulder, defender giving him the drop step right for the layup, Noce goes over his left shoulder, tough fadeaway, hits it. He had his mind made up before he even touched the ball.
• Lovely ball movement by Argentina, wide open three for Delfino, misses, offensive rebound, they hold onto possession. Timeout
• Nocioni misses the three, offensive rebound Oberto, #11 passes on the three, drives, misses the pull up J. Quinteros is that player.
• Argentina have been missing Walter Hermann’s knock down three point stroke
• Ginobili comes back into the game. Scola hits a 13 foot bank shot.
• Bad pass by Diamanditis, too high, turnover
• Gutierrez comes in for Oberto
• Manu misses the corner three, fastbreak Greece, foul in the backcourt. Sideline out. Next possession, Manu steps behind the on-the-ball screen, takes the long three, hits it.
• #6 for Greece replies with a jumper of his own. Greece up four.
• Argentina bag another three, iso for Manu, he loses his dribble, gets it Prigioni, Prigioni passes it over the top, two Greeks go for the steal, Manu keeps it alive, tightropes the sideline, he has Scola on the left block moving to the front of the rim wide open, Manu tries to thread the needle down the baseline, hits of a Greek defender out of bounds. That was messy. Timeout. Argentina still have possession, they’re down one with 13 seconds to play, another timeout. Blah. Why another timeout? Greece are ahead 40-39.Ginobili gets it, drives, picks up his dribble, has to get rid of it, Prigioni drives, gets it back to Ginobili, three at the buzzer, misses.

Hafltime

Greece leading the boards 20-16. Argentina took good care of the ball in the second half of the second quarter onwards, they now have 5 turnovers to 3 for Greece. Argentina are hoisting up a lot of three pointers, almost 50% of their attempts are from three versus 20% for Greece. They’re making their three’s and it’s keeping them in the game. If they cool off they might be in trouble because they’re not getting enough scoring elsewhere. Scola, Ginobili and Nocioni have 29 of the team’s 39 points. There’s a trio at work for Greece too with Tsartsaris, Spanoulis, and Fotsis combing for 27 of the team’s 40 points.

Second Half

• Nocioni with the lovely block
• Nocioni misses the three
• Bad pass by Manu on the fastbreak, turnover, Greece come back the other way, layup. Four point swing there.
• Nocioni turns up the jets, drives from the left sideline inside, takes a soft shot in the paint falling backwards after a tough move, misses the shot
• Manu has had enough of this jump shooting thing, he knifes his way to the rim off the early high screen and roll and hits the layup
• Steal Prigioni, fastbreak, he takes and makes the layup. Lead Argentina
• Papaloukas enters back into the game to steady the Greeks
• Greece turn it over, Argentina immediately lose possession, Greece get an open three, miss.
• Prigioni takes a step back three with a man in his face, hits it anyway
• Fotsis lob pass from the left wing to Bourousis, dunk
• Lovely pass by Scola to find the cutting Nocioni for the layup
• Bourousis on the right block, backs his way into Noce, knocks Nocioni out of the way, spins to the middle, lay in.
• Schortsanitis checks into the game. He’s going to put serious pressure on Argentina’s interior D. This will be interesting.
• Manu step back three off the bounce, rims in and out, offensive rebound.
• Sofoklis sets up inside, seals his man, gets the pass, turns and finishes
• Sofoklis moves the left block, gets the pass, backs his man down, double comes, kickout, repost, Delfino knocks it loose, steal. On the other end Manu knocks down a cold blooded three …Vasilopoulos responds for Greece …. Delfino tops that with another three of his own.
• Fun back and forth between the two sides throughout the game today
• Sofoklis smacks Gonzales in the face, not called, bad entry pass, fumbled, turnover as Sofoklis runs over one of Argentina’s guards
• Nocioni has to take it at the shot clock, miss. That was all Delfino’s fault, that was his shot, he had with 7 seconds to go and had time to create anything he wanted. Instead he dawdled with the ball and left his teammates out to dry. He does that so often, it’s headwrecking.

Fourth Quarter

• Argentina lead 56-55. Very close game, anybody’s game.
• Pressure is on right now
• Sofoklis remains in the game. They immediately go inside to him, he has good position, gets fouled, goes to the line for two, he barely hits the rim on the first attempt, back irons the second. On that note he takes a seat. He lasted 13 seconds in the fourth.
• Scola dives on another runner instead of taking a strong shot, misses
• Nocioni came up hobbling on that rebound. Let’s watch. He looks to be moving okay now, slight skip in his step, not sprinting but mobile.
• Delfino nails back to back three pointers. Argentina up 7.
• Plenty of time to play
• Bourousis making a few very good plays here, he makes another, a hard drive to rim, initiates the contact and draws the foul. Nocioni takes a breather, wonder if that was due to his foot. Ioannis calmly bags both freebies.
• Manu takes and misses a three from the left wing, it’s kept alive, out of bounds of Greece. Timeout
• In to Delfino, he gets the switch on the screen and roll, calls for a clear out, takes his man off the dribble, fakes left, goes right, takes it up in the paint against two shot blockers and muscles his way up over both of them to put it home. Huge plays by Delfino.
• Fotsis scores a long three from the top of the key. Four point game with seven minutes to play.
• Argentina miss a three from the right wing
• Zisis hits another three for Argentina
• Delfino goes into the low post, fadeaway J over his right shoulder on the right block, hits it.
• Turnover Greece
• Manu fouled, not called, out of bounds, still Argentina ball, Manu gets the switch on the screen and roll, takes the three, misses
• Fotsis hits another three to tie the game
• Delfino has it now, he beats his man off the dribble and takes it right to the rim, misses the layup. Offensive rebound. Argentina swing the ball around, it works it’s way back to Carlos in the corner, he hits the three.
• 5 minutes to play
• Manu fouled twice, not called either time, turnover, Scola gets it back, turns it back over to Greece, fastbreak, layup. Manu is too involved with the referees right now.
• Prigioni three at the buzzer, misses
• Breakaway Argentina, Manu (?) from behind, blocks the shot. Great play.
• Ginobili down on the left block, turnaround J baseline, hits it.
• Oberto fouls Fotsis in the paint to make him earn it at the line. He hits the first, can’t imagine him missing the second he’s swishing each FT tonight, hits the second.
• Lovely pass to Scola, layup
• Three minutes to go
• Delfino fouls Papaloukas, before the shot, he takes two, makes two.
• This is a tense finish. Anybody’s game. Who has more poise?
• Manu runs off a screen on the elbow, pops out for the three, hits the three.
• Papaloukos misses the layup badly. He wanted a foul.
• Argentina get it to Ginobili, right wing, faces up Zisis, shoulder fake right, flies by left, draws the foul. Now they go to Scola, he pushes his way into the paint, nice move, good shot, misses another sitter in the paint
• Huge shot by Diamantidis, he hits a three pointer off the dribble from the top of the key
• Manu has it now, he drives inside, draws another foul
• Nocioni checks into the game
• Ginobili makes the first FT, makes the second FT
• Argentina up 78-75, Greece ball
• Spanoulis has it at the top of the key, swings it up top to Fotsis, bad pass, Delfino gets a piece of it, out of bounds. He was trying to give Diamantidis the rock. Timeout.
• Prigioni with the steal, Tsartsaris intercepts it, over and back though, turnover
• Argentina ball
• Manu has it up top, he’s taking his man right here, right to the rim, floater, hits it
• 47 seconds to play and Argentina are now up 5
• Timeout
• Greece run it up, can’t get a quick two, nobody leaves the shooters, Papaloukas is in trouble, he gets rid of it, Diamantidis swings it up top, Vasilopoulos drains the triple
• Timeout
• Argentina lead 80-78. 30 seconds to play
• Manu goes up top and gets it, isolation, he takes his man, step back three, misses, defensive rebound Greece, they bring it up, Spanoulis takes and misses the three, rebound Scola.

This is over. Argentina win. What a close tough game. Neither side separated themselves tonight. I’m pleased Argentina were the one to win. Good stuff.

Delfino and Ginobili combine for 47 of Argentina’s 80 points to lead them to the win