Tskitishvili’s Tryout

This is an old report, from two weeks ago, from the Memphis Commercial:

Former highly touted NBA lottery pick Nikoloz Tskitishvili’s response was concise when a Grizzlies free-agent camp came to his attention.

“Why not?” said the 7-foot Georgian forward.

The feeling was mutual.

I came across this article awhile back but I didn’t get around to pointing it out until now. I found it very interesting to hear Skita’s name once again, and find out what he’s been up to over the last few years.

The Grizzlies explained their camp

Why does taking a look at Tskitishvili make sense for the Grizzlies?

The answer is simple.

“We figured why not take a shot?” Griz general manager Chris Wallace said after watching the session in FedExForum. “Maybe there’s something there.”

Game Time Olympics: Spain vs USA

Final of the 2008 Olympics – USA versus Spain

I didn’t watch the first half. I considered this game a foregone conclusion and by a wide margin. Well at halftime I decided to check the score and Spain were within shooting distance, so I decided to tune in. I still expect team USA to win and win comfortably.

Halftime

Team USA leads 69-61 at the half. Reading a short recap of the first half, appearantly Wade has been the start of the show scoring 13 points in the second quarter to spark the US. James picked up two early fouls and started a bit out of control, making moves too fast for his own good. Shortly after LeBron drew two, Kobe picked up his second. Then Dwight picked up a flagrant on Pau Gasol, which was described as Gasol being “horse-collared”. The crowd has appearantly started to support the underdog Spanish team. Reports of Chris Bosh getting worked over in the post again, by both Gasol brothers.

Play off the half with a Rudy Fernandez crossover dribble display leading to a step back three in Wade’s face.

Second Half

• Combative start to the second half. Two and a half minutes in, USA leads 73-65 off of a pair of Dwight Howard misses at the line leading to the tip and foul on offensive rebound by Carmelo Anthony
• Having a look at the box score here …. Dwyane Wade leads the US with 21 points. Chris Paul has 10, there are several players between 5-8 points.
• Navarro looking to Kidd off the bounce, slides into the middle of the lane, hits the floater, the score is 75-71, timeout
• Even rebounding so far with Spain having a slight 18-17 edge. Turnovers are fairly even also, the US with 10 and Spain with 11. Assists also even at 10-9 Spain. The US has taken 45 shots, making 28, shooting8-17 from three and 17-24 at the line. Meanwhile Spain have hit 26 of 44 shots, are 5-10 from three, and 18-21 at the line.
• Rubio looks very relaxed on the ball, finds his big man for the 15 footer, Marc Gasol swatted by Carmelo, breakaway, layup
• Even scoring burden for Spain who have four players between 10-13 points – Rudy, Pau, Reyes, Navarro – Jiminez adding 9 points. A few others have scored but nobody beyond 6 points.
• Loose ball, falls to Spain, quick pass inside, Kobe from the weakside swats it out of bounds
• Very smart pass by Rodriguez over the top to Gasol, after he couldn’t get a safe baseline inbounds pass in, Marc with the short shot, three Americans go up for the block, foul, he hits one of two.
• Score is 81-76 USA
• Paul brings it up, over to Wade, Spain are in a zone, to Kobe, back to Wade, three pointer on the way, miss. Good defense, oh they didn’t secure the rebound, offensive board, pass to the baseline to LeBron, he hits the cutting Bosh, foul inside, Bosh makes both.
• LeBron James is very vocal right now. You can hear him talking to just about everyone on his team, handing out instructions, on every possession. Those mics must be close to the court.
• Spain miss the shot, LeBron rebounds, he has open space in front of him to push, he looks immediately moves into a full sprint, heads into the open court, there’s still space in front, he continues in, makes it to the FT line, now Spain converge, leave him tied up in mid air with nowhere to go, he gets rid of it.
• Spain blow another layup, USA push it, Wade with the left corner J, hits it
• Turnover Spain, bad spell here for them. They’re losing their grasp on the game. US fails to punish them for it.
• Inside to Marc Gasol, he backs his way inside, spins middle, hits the shot and the foul. Nope, no continuation, foul before the shot. Sideline ball. Spain down 10. In to Navarro, he doesn’t even look to pass, runs off a high screen and roll top of the key, comes down the right hand side of the lane, muscles up a layup, hits it.
• Deron with a nice midrange J on the other end, Marc Gasol tries to drive, stolen by Williams, fastbreak, he takes it to the rim, Navarro gets in the way and draws the charge. Bad call against Deron, turnover.
• Lob pass from Navarro to Gasol, slam dunk, 8 point game, 1 minute to play in the third
• Paul to Melo, three pointer left wing, good
• Navarro drives single minded again, comes up with another floater, this one falls short
• US holds it for the final shot, Wade explodes into the lane, aw, falls over, tunover
• Navarro brings it up, doesn’t look to pass, glances at the clock, he’s on the right winig, has 2-3 seconds, puts on the gas, goes left on Deron Williams, beats him to the elbow, rises up with the floater, hits it. 9 point game.

Fourth Quarter

• Navarro into the lane again, miss
• Navarro into the lane again, miss, tap by Pau Gasol, good
• USA leads 91-84 with 9 minutes to play
• Sideline in, US ball, Rudy Fernandez re-enters the fray, in to Deron Williams, he pulls it back out, runs the high screen and roll, nothing going over to Kobe, Kobe holds it, he wants an iso, does nothing for several seconds, then puts it on the floor and settles for a contested 22 footer which comes up short. Rebound Rudy, he brings it up, high screen and roll left wing, he moves left, Gasol rolls down the middle to the rim, gets some separation from Bosh, lob pass to Gasol, slam dunk.
• Fastbreak Spain off another US miss, ahead to the left wing, Rudy from three, nails it
• Timeout
• Rudy Fernandez has provided the spark. Spain believe they can win this. Two point game. Their bench is going crazy. Their starters doing fist pumps. We have a game on our hands here.
• 8 minutes to play
• Wade overdribbles, picks up his driblle, nowhere to go, gets rid of it, poor possession, over to Kobe right wing, he drives, double pumps in mid air as he takes a running 14 footer falling to the side, hits it. That was a difficult shot. Kobe bails out a very poor possession.
• USA doing everything on the perimeter and starting to go 1-on-1 now.
• Spain badly choose a 20 footer, miss, rebound, fastbreak, USA coming the other way, out to Deron left wing, dagger three pointer on the way, it’s good. 5 point swing. Bad shot. Keep taking high percentage looks. No need for a contested 20 footer over the top.
• Rudy Fernandez into the lane, slices between two defenders, misses the layups, defensive rebound, slapped away by Rudy, it’s falling out of bounds, Rudy saves it to LeBron, Bron races the other way, up ahead and inside to Dwight Howard, slam dunk.
• Rudy left corner, misses the three, offensive rebound, back to Rudy, tries again, hits it.
• Kobe Bryant left wide open in the right corner as his Spaniard fell over trying to make the defensive rotation out, hits the three. Big shot. USA have control of the game again.
• Offensive rebound Pau Gasol, hard power driblle inside, layup, misses it
• LeBron drives from the right wing, goes baseline, flies through the air, forces up the layup over Pau, misses, offensive rebound, muscles up the shot again, hits it.
• Rudy Fernandez with the exclamation, he drives down the right on the screen and roll, Dwight switches over, Rudy sees the rim, takes him, he flies down the wing, jumps up, Dwight goes with him, Rudy stuffs it in his face and gets the foul. Nice play.
• Rubio with the steal brings it up, telegraphs the lob pass, knocked out of bounds. No benefit from 2-on-1 fastbreak. Baseline inbounds, another bad lob pass, turnover.
• Team USA dump it inside to Dwight, he’s fouled. This is good for Spain, you want Dwight on the FT line right now. He’s only 1-4 from the line tonight, he front rims the first one, makes the second
• USA lead 103-95 with four plus minutes to play
• Basline screen for Rudy to run off of, he pops out to three, gets teh pass, Wade stays with him, drives left, step back fadeaway three, tough shot, misses, offensive rebound Pau Gasol, he’s fouled inside. Gasol needs to make two here.
• Howard checks out, Bosh back in. This must be over the FTs.
• Gasol makes the first, makes the second. 7 point game, 4 minutes to play.
• Spain in a zone
• Chris Paul open on the right wing, misses the three, defensive rebound
• Bosh falls over, Gasol 15 footer left wing, makes it. 5 point game, 3:25 to play.
• 104-99 USA
• Paul brings it up, over to Wade, to Kobe, to Wade, he drives inside, out to Kobe three feet behind the three point line, jab step right, pulls the trigger, gets fouled on the shot, makes the shot. Rudy Fernandez has fouled out, Spain’s most effective scorer in the fourth is out for the finish. This is a huge loss for Spain. Kobe with ice in his veins nails the FT. USA back up 9 points after the four point play.
• Spain run that baseline action for Navarro, he gets it 17 feet out, dribbles in, floater on the way, hits it.
• Wade falls over, travels, not called, passes out, three pointer, miss
• Navarro cuts down the left wing, defense collapses, he spots Jiminez in the right corner, three pointer, good
• Four point game
• LeBron penetrates from the right wing, he moves inside, finds Wade spotting up from three, Wade knocks it down.
• Timeout
• USA lead 111-104
• Wade leads the US with 27 points on 9-12 shooting from the field. Kobe has 16, Bron 14, Melo 13, Paul 10. Bosh and Howard have 8 apiece, Deron has 7, Prince with 6 and Kidd with 2 points.
• Navarro fouled on the drive, he makes the first, second rims out, Spain not active enough on the boards, US spill it, Rubio saves it off Paul, Spanish sideline in.
• US lead 111-105
• Jiminez misses the three pointer, big miss, crucial miss
• Spain have outrebounded the US 36-29 tonight
• Kobe Bryant knifes into the lane, floater ala Navarro, nails it
• Pau Gasol fouls in the backcourt
• Paul brings it up, 55 seconds to go, backcourt trap, pass ahead, back to Paul, he’s fouled by Navarro
• USA leads 113-105, Paul hits two, this is over
• Kobe fouled, ices the game with more FTs, he finishes with 20 points

Spain can be prowd of themselves. They put in a great effort tonight. They played together and played intelligently.

Team USA rightfully takes gold. They made this closer than it needed to be but well done for finishing the job this time.

Manu Out For Bronze Medal Game

From RotoWorld.com

Manu Ginobili’s left ankle injury will prevent him from playing in Argentina’s bronze-medal game against Lithuania on Sunday, according to team doctor Diego Grippo.

“There is no chance that Manu will recover,” Grippo said. There are no specific details on the extent of the injury, but it sounds like he re-aggravated the ankle sprain that nearly prevented him from playing in the Olympics in the first place. Grippo also mentioned that Andres Nocioni has tendinitis in his left knee, and his status for Sunday’s game is unknown

Spurs fans must be pretty nervous right now.

Update: Good article on the San Antonio Express

That tournament also introduced what would become Ginobili’s weakness. He severely sprained his left ankle for the first time, and what followed was telling. Ginobili hobbled out for the gold-medal game.

Argentina doctors should have stopped him, and some within the Spurs organization wonder if this decision haunts Ginobili still. Other bruises have come and gone for El Contusión; this one is as fresh as ever.

No one is sure exactly what happened Friday. He cut and passed and fell. The Argentina team doctor said later Ginobili might have stepped on someone’s foot.

What followed didn’t correspond with what Ginobili had done. Ginobili stayed on the floor for a few minutes, then limped to the bench where he removed his left sneaker. He held his ankle with both hands, as if that would relieve the pain.

Within minutes he was in the locker room, never to return. “Ginobili is in a lot of pain,” Argentina’s team doctor told reporters afterward. “He is very sad.”

On the other side of the world, in an NBA front office, others were very sad, too. This is the ankle, after all, that may have cost the Spurs a championship last season.

Now Popovich is waiting for the medical reports, and he and his staff are anxious. One source said this last summer: If the shot Ginobili received in June didn’t take, and if he played and reinjured the ankle, he might need surgery.

Game Time Olympics: USA vs Argentina

Semi-Final of the 2008 Olympics – Argentina versus USA

The US are continuing with their regular starting lineup of Kidd, Bryant, James, Anthony and Howard. There was an injury doubt over Andres Nocioni prior to the game and he isn’t starting tonight, in his place starts Carlos Delfino. So now Argentina has no-one established coming off their bench, the second units tonight will decide the game.

The winner tonight will meet Spain in the Finals for the Gold Medal …. the loser will play Lithuania for the bronze medal.

First Quarter

• Kobe Bryant opens up the scoring with an offensive rebound and reverse layup in mid air, nice stuff. Looks like Argentina will be playing the whole game from behind
• Luis Scola is knocking Carmelo around the place
• Ginobili with a quick hoop off the baseline inbounds, I didn’t even see that.
• Oberto with a pair of early turnovers. Argentina have to take care of the ball tonight in order to have a chance. Nice pick and roll with Scola, he takes it to the rim hard, Dwight meets him at the rim, blocks the shot. Another baseline inbounds pass, out to Delfino, three pointer, misses. Argentina just wasted three chances at taking the lead.
• Good defense by Argentina to force the outside shot. I think they’ll be a tougher test than Spain in the Finals.
• Luis Scola backs down Carmelo, spins into the middle, rolling hook, hits it
• Kidd runs right back up and nails a jumper
• Bad pass by Prigioni, too high for Scola, otherwise that was a layup, turnover
• Manu takes it to the rim, bumps Howard out of the way, steadies himself, layup, misses it
• LeBron shows Ginobili how it’s done by finishing his contested shot at the rim
• Another turnover Argentina
• Bosh, Paul and Wade come in. Here comes Team USA’s depth.
• Bryant takes Oberto off the dribble, drives down off the elbow, Oberto forces him away from the rim, Kobe jumps, hangs, turns a bit, off the glass, scores it. That was a difficult shot.
• Manu fouls Bryant on the break. Argentina can’t afford to get any of their starters in foul trouble tonight
• US lead 9-4. Timeout. The US are currently on a 6-0 run. Make that 9-0 as Kobe hits a catch and shoot J off the inbounds.
• Argentina’s starters can’t allow their team get in a hole. Heck they have to outplay the US while in the game. Their bench won’t be able to keep pace.
• Ginobili picks up another foul. Bad sign.
• Foul off the ball, drawn by Ginobili, on James. If that went the other way this game could very well be over and that could have gone the other way. James outraged it didn’t. Hard to call that on either play.
• Argentina’s confident faces pre-game seem to be disappearing
• Manu comes up liming as he turns his ankle on that last drive. He might be done. He still hasn’t made up the floor 8 seconds later. Foul inside, Bosh to the line. Manu needs some attention. Is a sub coming? He’s on the sideline unable to get to his feet. He’s in a lot of pain. He can’t get off his shoe. Trainers are worried. Now he gets up, he’s walking gingerly and heading to the bench. Nocioni will enter the game.
• Good to see Noce play. I was worried he wouldn’t be playing today.
• Bosh made both FTs. Full court pressure, in to Delfino, he brings it up against Bryant, Paul traps him, he gives it up to Prigioni, Prigioni drives, passes, tapped lose, steal, breakaway, Bryant dunk.
• Oberto down low, spinning hook shot, front iron, never looked like going in.
• James brings it out against Scola, finds Paul in the left corner, hits the three. US lead 19-4. That’s a 16-0 run by the US.
• Turnover near midcourt, Paul on the breakaway, layup
• Scola drives inside, flip shot, misses, tip by Delfino, point blank miss, US run the other way, James down the middle, fouled by Nocioni, he’ll shoot two.
• Timeout
• 18-0 USA run. They lead 21-4.
• Is this game over? I don’t think Argentina have the firepower to pull back a 17 point lead. Lot of time on the clock. Let’s see if they can start grinding, because they aren’t cutting that lead down quickly, they don’t have the scorers for that.
• Prigioni forces a three against the clock, hits it, that ends the run. Tayshaun replies with a three of his own, same spot as Chris Paul’s three.
• Pass inside from Oberto to Nocioni who had Wade sealed, foul inside, Noce makes both.
• Manu is still on the bench, he’s rubbing his foot, it is the left foot alright.
• Deron’s drive creates space for Melo top of the key, he finds him, three pointer on the way, good
• Lovely bounce pass by Delfino to the cutting Oberto as he rolls down the middle, touch pass to Scola left wing, Luis blows the easy layup
• Bosh fouled inside again, makes two again. 6 seconds remaining in the quarter, up to Nocioni, he gets off a runner from 20 feet, he hits it.

Second Quarter

• Paul moves inside, takes the FT line J, hits it. US lead 32-23.
• Nocioni posting up Kobe inside, goes up, offensive foul for the elbow, bad call. It’s not Noce’s fault Kobe jumped into his elbow. Some scorekeeping hubbaloo holding up the game, here we go.
• Paul dominates the ball, never passes, works his way inside, this time he fakes out, goes back in, down the middle, layup from the right side off the glass. They can’t stop his penetration.
• Scola pump fake, Bosh buys it, Scola goes up through him, gets the foul and hits the shot off the bank. Dwight enters back in. Bosh has played well, all of Team USA has played well.
• Paul brings it up, moves it over to Deron, back to Paul right wing, to Melo top of the key, to Deron left wing, misses the three. Argentina using some zone to force outside shots. Quick ball movement by the US.
• Delfino draws the foul, makes both.
• Carmelo hits another three, he has a wide smile on his face
• USA are on cruise control right now. They’re focused on the task but have clearly loosened up a bit, shot selection ahs declined a bit.
• Oh what a block by Nocioni to deny Kobe Bryant. Turnover, 2-on-1 with Carmelo and Kobe passing between one another, Kobe left wing, moves in for the reverse dunk and the trailing Nocioni comes from behind to reject the dunk right at the rim.
• Loose ball foul on Dwight, Nocioni gets two, makes two. Noce has provided great play for Argentina and helped lift their squad a bit. Still the US is scoring far too much for Argentina to significantly cut this lead down
• US lead 37-23. I think their lead will be back up in a lil’ while.
• Kobe three pointer right wing, misses. The zone has kept them outside. They need to get back to their slashing, LeBron is the only perimeter player slasher out there right now so he has to step that up. I’d like to see Wade check back into the game.
• Prigioni smacks Carmelo’s pass out of bounds
• Deron Williams has enough, he drives inside, passes up the shot, to Melo, fumble, turnover, long outlet, Kobe steals the misguided pass. Back in their halfcourt offense, Kobe drives from the right wing, help defense comes, stutter step, gets Prigioni off balance and draws the foul.
• Jason Kidd has re-entered the game. USA needs smarter passing and a better point of attack. Let’s see if Kidd can get them back on track. Firstly he almost turns over the inbounds pass, but despite it missing the target it falls to Melo, over to James, right wing long J, miss, Kidd loose ball foul going for the rebound. Gutierrez to the line, brings the game back within 10 points.
• USA 37-27
• Carmelo Anthony misses the three pointer this time. USA ice cold. Nobody is being aggressive enough going to the hoop. Fastbreak Argentina, layup, their bench is getting into this.
• Team USA is having a lot of problem attacking that zone defense. They’ve gone ice cold from the perimeter too. Might be time to call Redd into the game. Good work by Argentina to pull this lead back to single digits. It’s important that they hold the lead there going into the half, if USA gets it right back up it will have a demoralizing effect. Four minutes.
• Kobe Bryant right wing, step back J, no passes it up, finds Melo moving inside, gets him the ball, fouled. He’ll shoot two. Timeout.
• Delfino drives inside, has his shot rejected. Baseline inbounds, Gutierrez gets it, makes the shot.
• Delfino pump fake, fallaway, brick, bad brick, he was two foot off from hitting the rim
• Three minutes
• Carmelo heading back to the FT line, makes two. US lead back up to 13. Two more baskets and all that work Argentina put in will be worthless. Dangerous situation.
• Kobe shouting out “my board” as he snares the rebound. Another missed perimeter J from Argentina. Turnover USA. Argentina bring it back up, Scola inside, he has great position down low on Bosh, three feet from the rim, just turns and jumps into him, makes the short shot and the foul. Lead back to 10. Well done. Argentina needed that basket. Dangerous time for the them.
• Petulant play from Chris Paul trying to smack it off Delfino who was harrassing him out on the wing, turnover, breakaway, four-on-one, layup.
• Michael Redd and Tayshaun Prince check into the game. Redd is the center? Or is that Melo? They’re the two bigs right now. No Tayshaun is checking Scola. Iso for Scola, backs Tayshaun right down to the rim, misses the short shot, offensive rebound, authorative power dribble and finish after the board.
• Delfino slices and dices his way down the middle, passes it to Scola, he finishes inside, 6 point game
• Bryant misses another long jumper
• Argentina slow it down. 20 seconds to play, Delinfo has it, 5 second differential, Delfino long three, rims out, Kobe has it, has his layup stripped by #12 out of bounds. He’s pissed, he wants the foul. Not coming. Six point game. Timeout USA. Inbounds along the baseline, to Carmelo, off balance fadeaway, blocked by Gutierrez, foul on the shot, FTs, he makes all three. Looked like a good block to me.

Halftime

USA lead 49-40 over Argentina. Argentina have a slight lead on the boards 19-17. The US however have 14 assists to 2. Argentina have been too careless with possession leading to 12 turnovers, the US also have been a bit lackadaisical with 7 turnovers of their own. USA has shot poorly from three, only 6-20, which helped make Argentina’s zone defense so powerful.

Carmelo leads the States with 13 points, Kobe has 12, Paul has 11 … they’ve combined for 36 of their 49 points. Carmelo is only 2-7 from the floor but is 7-7 from the line to boost his scoring. Nobody else on the squad has more than one field goal.

Argentina’s captain Luis Scola leads the side with 12 points and also with 7 rebounds. The Gutierrez duo (brothers) combined for 13 more points, Noce has another 8 to make up 33 of their 40 points.

I have to give Argentina a huge amount of credit here. They played a great second quarter to pull this lead back. Their zone defense has completely disrupted America’s offense.

As for the US, their coach (can’t spell his name) needs to stop tanking the game and leave a big man in there to defend Luis Scola. That small ball lineup cost them late in the second, they’d have killed Argentina’s momentum without that nonsense and still have a double digit lead. That was one of the most ludicrous things I’ve seen all year. How about double teaming the bigger post player if you’re going to put a stick-man on him? Scola just backed him down 20 feet right to the rim. Silly lineup, silly decision, reminds me of the semi’s against Greece two years ago. Stop interfering with the game, stop limiting your team Coach K.

Second Half

• US open up with a 4-0 run to stretch the lead back to 13
• Nocioni bullies LeBron in the paint, gets the shot to fall and the foul, they don’t give him the continuation, he makes the first and makes the second.
• LeBron open from three at the top of the key, strokes one, 14 point game
• Scola from the right elbow, bad brick, missed the rim entirely. His jumper is one of the streakiest around.
• Timeout
• Dwight fouled inside, makes one of two, US keep possession, why?
• Kidd moving the ball beautifully, getting Dwight a wide open dunk instead of taking the three, great vision
• Scola makes his 18 footer
• Carmelo scores inside. The US are getting into the paint once again. They have the lead back up to 17.
• Delfino hits a needed shot, three pointer from the right wing off the inbounds pass
• Carmelo just shot four FTs. What the hell? And the US have possession. Why?
• Lead back to 18
• Scola inside, junior hook over Carmelo, hits it
• Chris Bosh checks in. Let’s see if Chris can slow down Scola.
• This doesn’t feel like an 18 point game at all. Feels a lot closer. Both teams playing with good believe and intent.
• Nocioni beats Bryant about in the post, gets the pass, clear path to the rim, takes it hard, Bosh comes over, stands tall, disrupts the shot, US run the other way
• Chris Paul comes back in for Jason Kidd. Kidd has been excellent tonight. Team USA has done their best work at getting inside while Kidd has been on the floor, his passing cuts apart that zone so well.
• Chris Bosh with a great tap, and save to steal a rebound off a missed free throw. He tapped it out along the baseline, then ran baseline around his man, one handed flung it back out to his guards beyond the perimeter.
• Wade with the tip, goaltending Gutierrez
• Deron enters
• US lead 70-53
• Pick and pop with Scola, Bosh stays with him the whole way, Scola shoots the 17 footer left wing anyway, hits it
• Deron answers with a three out of the right corner
• Scola one handed shoots into the basket from 17 feet. Unfortunately that was after the whistle. Good looking shot, he might be in a zone, keep going to him.
• Scola picks up his third personal foul
• Kidd explaining to Kobe what he wants over on the bench, not happy with positioning
• Hard foul by Carmelo, over the back foul on #6 Gutierrez, Carmelo shoots two, lead up to 20 now
• Final minute of the third, 18 point game, Delfino dribbles the ball into the ground and comes up with a 20 footer fallaway contested jumper down the right sideline, missed the shot. Wonder why.
• Delfino bags a big jumper, big because it gets the lead back to 14.
• USA resorting to one-on-one play once again with Kidd out of the game.
• Delfino winds up a three from beyond the article, no good
• Chris Paul called for a carry on the fastbreak, good call

The US pounded Argentina on the boards in the third and now lead 32-24 on the backboards. Meanwhile Carmelo has continued to score, he now has 21 points on only 3-13 shooting but 13-13 from the line. Nobody else has more than 12 for USA. Jason Kidd has played a sensational game, I wonder what his plus/minus is for the night, I’d say it’s very impressive. His stat line is only 2, 4 and 2. The impact he’s had is offensive rhythm and team shot selection; he’s kept the ball moving, gotten the team into their offense quickly and team is shooting shots in the paint while he’s in the game because he keeps forcing the ball inside the oppositions defense and that’s wreaking far more havoc … versus the swing the ball around the perimeter act that Paul, Deron and all the other wings have been doing.

Fourth Quarter

• 86-69 USA with 8 to play
• Kidd brings it up, back to James, out to Kobe in the right corner, back in to James who kept moving after the pass, layup. Lovely movement from Team USA.
• Scola has a 16 footer rim in and out. He has 22 and 8 tonight, he’s played very well, easily Argentina’s best player on the day.
• Delfino loses the defense as he dribbles down the left wing, cuts baseline, loses them there, drives baseline, slam dunk
• Scola claims another rebound to give him a double double. Dwight leads the US with 9 boards.
• Oh what a looping lob pass to Chris Bosh, oh he misses the dunk, what a pass by Jason Kidd
• Argentina miss the fastbreak layup, #11, Scola offensive rebound and putback
• Lovely pass by Jason Kidd, bounce pass from the right wing, down underneath the basket hugging the baseline to Melo, layup. Kidd now has 7 assists to lead the US, the second leading assist man has 2.
• 90-75 in the middle of the fourth
• James forces the pass inside, picked off by Scola, turnover Scola on the other end, fastbreak, slam dunk Dwyane Wade.
• Under four minutes to go

Game, set and match. The US roll on to the Gold Medal round where they will play and trash the Spanish.

Game Time Olympics: Spain vs Lithuania

Semi-Finals of the 2008 Olympics – Spain versus Lithuania

Oops, mistimed that. Tuning in halfway through the first

• Spain lead 10-8
• Petrvicius with a huge offensive rebound in a crowd of Spaniards.
• #11 is running the point for Spain, he works the pick and pop with Garbo, three pointer on the way, good
• Kaukenas with a floater, driving from the left wing into the middle, puts it up, good
• Kaukenas repeats the move, this time takes it right to hte rim, layup
• Rubio enters the fray
• Garbajosa with a clever flop on the right wing, gets the foul
• Navarro with an odd looking runner, jumped into the lane looking to pass but nobody was open, miss
• Kleiza to Kaukenas, hits a long J on the left baseline
• Navarro off the dribble, goes baseline, one hander, front iron
• Rubio with an offensive rebound of Garbo’s miss, he brings it out, hand off to Garbo, three pointer again, good
• Marc Gasol tries to trap Kaukenas up top, fouls him
• Sarunas back in for the final minute of the first. Gets fouled immiedately by a sloppy attempt at a steal from Jiminez. Now Rubio fouls Sarunas on the dribble. 8 seconds, two fouls. Now a foul off the ball as Lithuania try to inbound the ball.
• Sarunas gets Kleiza a good look from three, right wing, miss
• Saruans wary of young Rubio’s long arms, works the high screen and roll, lovely pass to Petravicius, layup.

Second Quarter

• Siskauskas, drives from the left wing, goes baseline, Petravicius clears out the big, layup, fouled on the attempt, two shots, one make
• Mumbru posts up left baseline, spins baseline, layup
• Spain get another offensive rebound, that’s 7 to 1
• Marc Gasol sloppy foul again, loose ball foul on a rebound
• Sarunas dribbles it off his foot, good work by Rubio making him unfortable there, fastbreak, layup, foul. Did they call a flagrant there? Two plus possession, must have. Harsh
• Only Kaukenas and Sarunas have more than one basket for Lithuania, they have 13 of the sides 20 points
• Spain leads 28-20
• Oooh nice play by Sarunas, you can tell that pesky Rubio kid is pissing him off and Sarunas plays better when’s pissed, great composure on three separate drives and two picks, gets the switch, drives right down the wing, about 17 feet, rises up, swishes the jumper and gets fouled on the release. Hits the FT.
• Lithuania miss another open J, offensive rebound Siskauskas, fouled on the way down
• Kaukenas fouled on a three by Gasol, not called, loose ball foul as Spain try to box out, Jasaitis shoots and makes two
• Gasol falls over on the drive, three seconds violation, he stopped anyone from tying him up but couldn’t get rid of the ball
• Kaukenas fouled again on a long jumper, not called again
• Sarunas back in after a brief rest. Rudy too. Javtokas enters also. Lithuania can’t afford to sit Sarunas right now.
• Marc Gasol tips it home on an offensive rebound
• #11 strips Kaukenas, Rubio dives on it, ball bobbles, #11 comes up with it
• #11 being Raul Lopez
• Kaukenas drives baseline on the left wing, leaner from 12 feet, miss
• Spain playing excellent defense here in the second, they’re keeping Lithuania outside and forcing long shots against the shot clock. Great work. Several times now the shot clock has gone off as they’ve shot or before.
• Jaistas nails a three, Lithuania in transition, Lavrinovic spots up right wing, gets it, three pointer, good. 6 point run. Quick timeout for Spain’s coach. Lithuania lead 31-30.
• No Calderon tonight. Lopez has taken his place in the rotation. Raul has played 10 of the 17 minutes so far.
• Nice pick and roll, Lopez penetrates, risky pass through the middle of the lane, pulls it off, layup Gasol
• Jaisitis with anothre three, steal Jaisitis, turnover, ball slipped out of his hands on a layup. Ouch. 10th turnover for Lithuania versus 4 for Spain.
• Spain have played like idiots offensively. That’s the only reason why they’re not up double digits right now. They’re not making enough use of their best scorers, much like they haven’t throughout the tournament. Rudy Fernandez with another quiet game.
• Jaisitis nails another three, this time left wing, that’s the difference in the score right now.
• Gasol spins baseline, dives on the floor looking for the refs to bail him out as he loses his footing, no good
• Javtokas playing good defense on Gasol. This guy could really help San Antonio.
• Lithuania bag another three, they’re 6-`1 now
• Clean block by Lavrinovic, horrible call, Rudy gets FTs. Terrible call. Right over the top in mid air, swatted the ball.
• Petrvicius called for an illegal screen on the inbounds. Lithuania’s bench losing it. Gotta regain their composure.
• Garbajosa drives inside, flips up a weak shot, misses, gets beaten for the rebound despite having position
• Sarunas misses a three at the shot clock buzzer, Rubio holds it for the final shot, he moves to the left, into the post to Gasol, tries to go left, suffocated, gets rid of it, Rubio at the buzzer, fouled. Hits two.

Halftime

Spain have made only 12 of 31 shots. Lithuania have made 14 of 26, they’re also leading the rebounding battle 17-14. However they ahve 11 turnovers to only 5 from Spain, but Spain have made lousy use of those turnovers and actually have been outscored on pts off turnovers 6-5.

Lithuania are currently leading 42-40 at the half.

Spain have played like idiots offensively, regularly failing to make use of their best offensive options, much like they have in several games during the Olympics. Spain’s defense has been excellent, forcing many shots against the shot clock buzzer and keeping Lithuania outside of the paint. They’ve also gotten a lot of turnovers. If they were playing with a single ounce of intelligence they’d be up double digits right now.

Lithuania is playing desperate on offensive as a result of the Spaniards pressure. They’re resorting to three pointers and it was looking dodgy ’til they caught fire halfway through the second to pull back the deficit and build a lead (down 8 to up 6). Wonder if they can keep it up. Until Jaisitis caught fire with three threes, Lithuania had only two players with more than one basket, they were struggling.

Lithuania are playing very strong defense themselves, but the fact Spain are playing like fools is the bigger factor.

Anybody’s game. Spain are clearly superior. If they lose it’s because they’ve underperformed and right now their problems are on the offensive end.

Second Half

• Sarunas is always talking and handing out orders on the floor. I love the way he makes sure everyone is on the same page
• Lovely drive and dish by Siskauskas to Javtokas, three point play as he gets fouled on the lay in
• Rubio switches out to Siskauskas, he sees he has the youngster on him, waives everyone off, drives, draws the foul
• Jiminez with a strong drive on the break, layup
• Both teams trading turnovers of the past two minutes. Two over and backs for Lithuania.
• Gasol spins, turnaround J, miss, offensive rebound, short shot, miss, defensive rebound Lithuania
• 47-44 Lithunia after four minutes of the third
• Nice from the left wing to find Marc Gasol down low, layup
• Javtokas gets another three point play. Steady player.
• Great cut by Rudy Fernandez, gets the pass just outside the elbow, one stride, soars through the air, layup over the shotblocks, lovely play
• Raul Lopez checks back in, over dribbles, gets nothing, picks up his dribble, has to get rid of it, gets it back, quick pass into the post, fallaway J baseline, hit it
• Lithuania lead 54-51 with under four to play
• Marc Gasol takes a rolling hook in the lane, miss
• Rudy Fernandez is down hurt, no wait he just hit his nose and is a bit shaken. He’s fine. Get up and stop acting like a woman. Why was he curled up in a ball when he was dinged on the nose? Get up and get on with it.
• Great play by Ricky Rubio while falling backwards out of bounds in mid air, to see the ball fall over his opponents shoulder, and tap it off Sarunas out of bounds to regain possession
• Spain score a layup, regain the lead
• Jaisitas hits another three, takes the lead right back
• Great block by Javtokas to deny Spain inside
• Spain’s full court defensive pressure has bothered Lithuania and ruined their rhythm offensively
• Sisauskas picks up his dribble 40 feet from the rim, he has nowhere to go and nobody to pass to, his teammate bails him out, then Sarunas throws the ball out of bounds. 15 turnovers for Lithuania, almost double Spain.
• Garbajosa with a flip shot, it falls, lucky boy
• Great pass by Saras to Javtokas, slam dunk
• Horrible looking lob pass by Rubio to Pau Gasol, turnover
• Final minute of the third
• Rubio rebounds the ball, gets a foul in the backcourt, should have been a no call. One of two at the line.
• Another backcourt violation, Rubio fouled him, Kaukenas caught with an elbow after the play to make up for it, he’s pissed, Siskauskas calming him back down. No wait that was a loose ball foul on Kaukenas, not a backcourt violation. Rubio takes two, makes one.
• Timeout – Time Game 59-59
• Jaisitas nails another three pointer
• Final possession of the quarter, Rubio has it, to Mumbru, to Gasol, spins baseline, dunk move, fouled.
• Oh my, Lavrinovic fouled on a three, he hits it, hits the FT, four point play

Fourth Quarter

• Lob to Gasol, layup
• Lovely screen and roll by Lithuania, pass to Javtokas, fouled on the layup, he makes one of two at the line. He has 15 points on 4-4 shooting and 7-8 shooting at the line.
• Reyes tips it up and it, Spain within one
• Siskauskas drives into the heart of the defense, fouled by Jiminez
• Four players have combined for 53 of Lithuania’s points – Sarunas, Jaisitas, Javtokas, Kaukenas. Someone else needs to step up, Siskauskas would be the prime target, maybe Kleiza.
• Gasol fouled by Petravicious, he’s fouled out of the game, 8 minutes to play, Kleiza comes in
• Lithuania lead 71-69 with 8 plus minutes to play
• Good play by Gasol to set up Reyes for that FT line jump shot, tie game
• Kleiza from three, in and out, rebound, Rudy leaks out, long outlet pass, breakaway dunk
• Timeout
• Lavrinovic drains a triple out of the timeout, nice drive and kick by Sarunas, Lithuania take back the lead
• Rudy fakes the drive, step back J from the right wing, three pointer good.
• Steal Rudy Fernandez, he brings it up. Turnovers have been killing Lithuania tonight, he doesn’t even look to pass, Pau Gasol high screen and roll, drives right, gets fouled, makes two at the line
• That was Lavrinovic who fouled there, he has fouled out now.
• Spain lead 78-74 with 6 minutes to play
• Foul inside, Javtokas fouled after the offensive rebound, sideline out. Lithuania look spent. They need a spark to keep them going.
• Kaukenas turns it over on the driving pass, never made up his mind whether he wanted to shoot or pass, jumped anyway
• Spain run the clock, Rudy hoists a fallaway 25 footer, misses against the shot clock, brick, bad shot, bad possession
• Rudy drives inside, lobs it to Gasol, Gasol fouled by Kleiza to stop the layup. Kleiza checks out, Jaisitis back in.
• Spain get two and the possession. Wonder why? Pau makes one of two. He takes a breather, his brother checks in. Timeout
• Four minutes to play
• Spain up 5
• Kaukenas dribbles, holds it up, takes a long J top of the key, back iron. He never looked comfortable on the ball. Someone should have gone up and taken it from him
• More FTs for Spain, Jiminez here, he makes two.
• Javtokas pulls away from Marc Gasol, gets the pass, drives baseline using the separation he just made, fouled on the layup by Gasol, misses another FT, misses the second, in and out.
• Lithuania look finished, they are getting absolutely nothing going offensively
• Offensive rebound, out to Sarunas, dribbles, nails a three
• Jaisitas misses a three, foul by Siskauskas going for the offensive rebound. Pau Gasol back in. More FTs for Spain, very poor foul by Siskauskas, another poor game from him.
• Spain up 6 with 2:40 to play
• Great play by Jiminez to poke Siskauskas’ dribble away, turnover
• Lopez has it up top, he’s very composed, taking his time looking for the best shot, nothing on, has to create, misses
• Rudy comes back in
• Under two minutes to play. Sarunas hits two FTs to give him 15 points for the night and to pull the lead within 4.
• Spain’s ball, inbounds to Lopez, trap in the backcourt, he passes ahead, Spain get it up, inside to Gasol on the left block, poked away by Javtokas, foul on the reach.
• Timeout

This is pretty much over now

• Pau misses the first, makes the second. 5 point game
• Inbounds to Sisakuskas, to Kaukenas on the right wing, drives inside, kicks it out to Jaisitas, takes the corner three, misses
• Offensive rebound, Siskauskas drives, makes the layup, three point game
• One minute to go
• Lopez has it, finds Rudy coming off of a Gasol screen, gets it to him, fouled by Sarunas, Rudy to the line, makes both
• Spain are playing keep away, take 13 seconds off the clock before Lithuania caught up with them, foul, Lopez to the line, misses the first, they’re up five with 19 seconds to play, makes the second.
• Timeout
• Lithuania need a three pointer and a quick one at that. Then foul, hope Spain miss, race up again and hit another three. Hopeful stuff. They’re done.
• Spain win 91-86

This was a disappointing game. Both teams should be fairly ashamed at the lousy basketball they played today.

Rudy Fernandez was the difference in the fourth quarter. Three quality plays which created the separation and took the game out of Lithuania’s reach.

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

Game Time Olympics: USA vs Australia

Quarter Finals of the 2008 Olympics – USA versus Australia

Tuning in late, missed the start of the game, US lead 20-14, make that 20-17 with three plus minutes to play in the first quarter.

• Lovely passing by Australia, oh they blow the layup. Great ball movement. Rebound Chris Paul, he races up, alley oop, Wade doesn’t connect, ball falls to LeBron, he’s fouled, makes one of two.
• Paul on the high screen and roll, defense backs off, he takes the three from top of the key, misses, offensive rebound comes loose, Wade picks it up, out to Deron, three from the left wing, misses.
• Australia come back up, iso right wing, turnaround J, nails it

Second Quarter

• US leads 25-24
• Bogut posts up inside, Wade races in from behind, looks like he got a piece of that, the ball falls loose, Wade gets it, Wade on the break, Wade to the rim, hits the shot and the foul. Great plays by Wade.
• Pat Mills and Chris Anstey lead the Aussies with 13 of their 26 points. Mills with an electric break in the open court, finishes the tough runner.
• Excellent offensive rebound by Chris Bosh, gets fouled on the putback
• Great bounce pass from Wade to Bron on the break, slam dunk. Great vision by Wade to make that pass so quickly and on the money.
• Bryant in the corner, pump fake, drives left, angry one handed slam
• Fastbreak, Kobe fakes the behind the back pass and lays it in.
• Australia take time, they’re becoming unraveled. They need a moment to get their heads together.
• Bogut inside, makes the layup and gets the foul. Misses the FT.
• Wade drives into the lane, takes the fallaway, misses, offensive rebound, Deron gets it, drives, layup. The US has 10 offensive rebounds to 1, that’s the difference in the game right now.
• LeBron with a good steal, breakaway, layup. US lead 41-32
• Kobe takes and misses the three on the left wing
• Great move by Saville to get inside on Anthony, and finish the 8 footer over him.
• LeBron muscles his way through the air and puts the shot in the bucket
• Dwight Howard has 8 points, LeBron has another 8 points, Carmelo has 10 points. Starting frontcourt has 26 of the States 44 points.
• CJ Bruton with a nice step back J off the dribble
• US stop moving offensively, very stagnant, LeBron goes one-on-one top of the key, settles for three, miss
• Australia miss two point blank layups and then foul in the backcourt sending Tayshaun Prince to the line
• Redd and Boozer are the only two players not to play today for USA
• LeBron has a mismatch, signals everyone away and to give him a screen, he fakes using it, goes the other way and makes the runner. That’s an easy shot for him
• Pat Milles loads up a long three with 7 seconds still on the clock, misses. Wonder if he thought that 7 was a 1, why else would he take that shot?
• LeBron defensive rebound, goes coast to coast, misses the off balance shot, offensive rebound Kobe, fadeaway, hangs in the air, hits it.
• Deron races down against the clock, nails a three at the half time buzzer

Halftime

The US lead 55-43. That was a useful 5-0 run there at the end to create some additional distance. Australia have been good but they’re always playing catchup and clearly don’t have the scorers they need to get ahead of the States. Their weak rebounding has been a major problem with the US outrebounding them 31-14. Australia have done a great job limiting their turnovers, that’s why they’re still in the game.

The second half will bring much of the same. The US will always be in control and will always have too many answers for Australia. Best hope for the Aussies, get down and pray that the US hit a cold streak and they get hot and that both happen at the right time allowing them to steal a win. USA just needs to continue doing what they’re doing.

Second Half

• The US start the second half on a quick seven zip run to move their lead up to 19 points. Australia is finished, they don’t have the firepower to make this deficit up. This game is over.

Ah we might as well keep watching to see some good basketball

• 8 minutes to go in the third
• The US score 5 more points to make this a 12-0 run to start the half and a 17-0 run overall. They’re now up 23 points.
• Mills hits a triple and then harasses Kidd all the way up court.
• The US are up by 25 points halfway through the third
• Bosh with an authoritative slam dunk
• Jeez … Pat Mills’ speed is incredible. He’ll be a nice NBA player. Haha, payback, well done Bosh. Mills picked Bosh’s pocket from behind down in the post a few months ago, then outsprinted everyone including Wade who had a head start down the floor for the layup. Next possessions down, Mills gets a high screen and roll, Bosh switches, Mills takes the step back J, Bosh puts in the third row. Take that young fella. Mills is a legit player, very impressive.

Fourth Quarter

• USA leads 96-67 with 7 minutes to play
• Back to back turnovers, Mills with an upsy-do layup that rolls over the rim, unlucky.
• US lead 106-78

Okay this is a massacre. Outside of that 5 minute period between the last minute of the second and the first four minutes of the third, the Aussies gave a great account of themselves. They gave it all they had. Nobody is beating this US team when they perform well.

Game Time Olympics: China vs Lithuania

Quarter Finals of the 2008 Olympics – China versus Lithuania

• Great roars from the Chinese crowd prior to this game
• The boos are lashing down on Lithuania as they take their first shot
• Sun Yue drives into the pant, draws the foul, makes both freebies
• Saras with a lovely no look pass inside to Javtokas for the layup. Turnover China, breakaway layup Kaukenas.
• Long jumper top of the key by Yi
• Yi being defended very aggressively on the high post, Lithuania trying to disrupt China’s passing game.
• Lazy transition defense again from China. Yi missed the sideline jumper, nobody got back, wide open fastbreak layup
• Yao passes over the top to Zhu Fangyu who’s defender was fronting him, lays it in easily.
• Lithuania look the better side over the past four minutes but China are riding one huge emotional wave
• Jasikevicus knocks down a three from the top of the key off the penetration from Lavrinovic on the break.
• Yao fighting hard for position, his teammates can’t get him the ball. Boy is Yao getting after it, he’s using his strength very well. Active and aggressive looking for the ball.
• Sun Yue in the passing lanes to steal possession back, he brings it up, gets it to the point guard and China set up their offense.

Very frustrating. Mains Fault, all my electricity just went out, it’s out in my whole neighbourhood. House alarms galore. Ah darn it …

Okay the electricity is back. I was worried I’d miss all the quarter finals, excellent, in time to tune in for the second half. Lithuania are leading 41-30 at the beginning of the third. Yao just bagged two FTs to being it to 41-32.

• Li Nan starts the third quarter, early post up, loses it out of bounds. Baseline out, Li Nan runs off a screen comes up top, shoots a quick jumper, misses.
• Yao gets a touch dow low, hacked in the post again. Hits two more at the line. He has 11 points now. Liu Wei is second with 7 points, Yi third with 6, three others have four points and nobody else has scored for China. Yi leads China with 8 rebounds, Yao and Lui Wei have 5 apiece.
• Both teams trading jumpers here. Lavrinovic with back-to-back jumpers for Lithuania. Wang Zhi Zhi with a niec move on the right wing, pump fake, one dribble, pull up J, hits it.
• Li Nan wide open in the corner, misses again.
• Timeout, Lithuania lead 48-36 and are on a 5-0 run after China pulled it to 7.
• Lithuania extend their defense in the halfcourt, pressure the Chinese guards and making that entry pass to Yao almost impossible. Excellent defense. Javtokas has played excellent defense on Yao Ming from what I’ve seen today
• Siskauskas (13) and Saras (15) have 28 of their team’s 50 points. Sarunas also has 5 assists. Lavrinovic (6), Kaukenas (6) and Javtokas (4) are the only others with more than 2 points.
• Yao fouled again, hits his FTs again
• China have outrebounded Lithuania 23-17. Those extra rebounds are split evenly on the offense and defensive ends. But they have given those possessions right back in turnovers, China have 11 turnovers, Lithuania only 6. China have taken 6 less field goal attempts as a result of their turnovers, but have 7 more FT attempts to partially make that up.
• Lithuania lead 55-40 as Kaukenas hits a dagger three off the dribble on the left wing. Under four minutes to play in the third. China have to start building some momentum because Lithuania have the Big Mo right now.
• Kleiza comes in and nails another three for Lithuania. China continue to lose ground.
• Yao in the post again, Yao fouled again, Yao hits his FTs again. Yao has 17. Good work big fella. China now have 13 more FTs, Yao accounts for all 13.
• Kleiza fouled, bags two at the line, he has 7. 2 minutes to play in the third
• Du Feng on the drive, hits the runner off the glass
• Lithuania respond right back with a good drive and dish out to Kleiza on the left wing, three pointer hit.
• Sun Yue shakes free, gets inside, tries to score over the top, misses but gets hit on his hand after the shot and they give him the foul.
• High screen and roll, nobody shows to stop the ball, Saras takes it right to the rim, hits the layup
• Yi called for a foul inside, he takes a breather now.
• Javtokas has really impressed me throughout this tournament. The Spurs should try and get him over to the NBA sometime.
• Saras knocks down the three. Lithuania up 70-53. That’s a killer blow just before the fourth quarter to stretch the lead from 14 to 17.

Fourth Quarter

• This game is almost over. Let’s see if China’s shooters can get hot behind the tremendous support their supporters have given them.
• Lithuania have looked very good, they’ll be able to beat Spain. I fancied Spain by a wide margin before this game, but now I think that matchup could be very close.
• First three point attempt rims in and out for China. They ran that whole possession looking for a perimeter jump shot, they didn’t even look to Yao. It’s quite early to play like that. That’s better, inside to Yao, great position, spins middle, doubled, kicks it out, three pointer on the way, it’s good. Sarunas answers right back with a three of his won. Inside to Yao, stripped, loose ball, China get it, they get a good look in the corner, miss. Fastbreak the other way, missed runner, offensive rebound Kleiza, fouled on the putback.
• Klieza now has 13 points. 8 minutes to play, Lithuania up 20 points. Lot of time.
• #15 dribbles it off his foot as he tries to drive baseline, he attempted to step back and take the jumper but smacked the ball off his left foot. China have been going to him over the last few possessions.
• Javtokas with a rolling hook in the lane, good
• Turnover China, Lithuania miss the fastbreak layup, China get it back. They almost turn it over again, keep possession, three pointer on the way, in and out. Not their night.
• 6:30 to play in the fourth, Lithuania up 22. Yao draws the charge on Kleiza, turnover. Lavrinovic back in for Linas Kleiza who looks knackered.
• Great defense in the post once again by Javtokas forcing Yao to go baseline towards the help, keeping him out of the middle, spins baseline, steal.
• Hand off on the right wing, Jasaitis rises up from behind the arc, hits it. His shot has looked very smooth.
• 4:30 to play, Lithuania up 23. They need to score on almost every possession right now and hope Lithuania don’t drain the clock well enough to kill them. Yao bows out for the night. Yi comes in.

This is over. Well done Lithuania. Commiserations China, you battled valiantly but you have too little talent on the perimeter.

Game Time Olympics: Spain vs Croatia

Quarter Finals of the 2008 Olympics – Spain versus Croatia

• Bad start for Croatia. We’re four minutes in already and they have managed to score only the one single point, an Ukic free throw. Spain are up 8-1 scoring on a nice baseline face up J by Pau Gasol, a pick and pop three from the top of the key by Garbajosa, and a backcourt steal and alley oop by Rubio to Pau for the flush. Zoran Planinic has come off the bench to spark their offense, nice drive by Planinic, Pau blocks his floater. Good help defense.
• I find it very odd that Ricky Rubio has started ahead of Jose Calderon. Nice alley oop to Pau again, nice pass by Mumbari from the three point line on the left wing.
• Planinic draws the foul, makes one of two, Croatia now has 2 points after 6 minutes. Their offense looks very poor.
• Planinic drives into traffic again, earns a trip to the line again. Croatia now up to 6 points after 8 minutes of action. Spain really should have a bigger lead but their offense has lacked focus in going to their best scoring options.
• Spain showing some full court pressure, looks good, causing Croatia problems, now Calderon’s man gets the ball and beats Jose too easily.
• Reyes blocked down low, he had a wide open layup thanks to a nice pass, fumbled the ball, and then couldn’t get the shot up over the rotating defense.
• Mumbari loads up 8 feet or so behind the arc, hits it. Nice shot. Bad shot.
• Croatia score 5 points in the final 2 minutes to score 83% as many as they scored in the first 8 minutes. What one three pointer and a layup at the buzzer will do for you. Spain didn’t make enough of Croatia’s troubles but still have a double digit lead at 22-11.

Second Quarter

• · #9 for Croatia, a Marko Tomas, just made a nice drive and dish to get Croatia a good look from 18 feet on the right wing which was knocked down. He was the same player who made the layup at the buzzer moments before. Maybe he can kickstart this offense.
• · Planinic turns it over. That’s the 7^th turnover for Croatia already versus the one, make that two, for Spain. I was going to call the play clumpsy, just as I was about to write that sentence Mumbari clumsily bumps into an off balance heavily contested shooter 20 feet away from the rim working against the shot clock. Talk about a needless foul. Croatia within 6 now.
• · Jose bags a three to give Spain some breathing room
• · Ukic throws a ridiculous pass from the right corner, to the left wing over three long armed Spanish defenders. He had his back from the play, jumped in the air for no reason, and flung the ball to get rid of it without any idea where the shot clock was causing a shot clock violation. Dumb play. Ukic has been a ghost out there on the court, no sight of him for most of the game.
• · Some of Spain’s lob passes are just atrocious. All frickin’ tournament they’re throwing those awful unnecessary lob passes gifting turnover after turnover. I’m ripping my hair out in frustration right now. Stop trying that garbage and play the damn game.
• · The game is starting to pick up some rhythm now that Croatia has their offense in track. Now if they could play with some more intelligence we’d have a ball game on our hands.
• · Planinic taking the ball up the floor, bounce pass from the halfway line to his man on the wing, picked off by Rudy Fernandez, breakaway, back to Gasol, three point play.
• · Oh god another bad lob pass by Spain ….. easy layup turns into a wasted possession, we have a turnover and a timeout
• · Spain lead 30-18 and are on a small 8-2 run which has stretched their lead back out. This feels like an effort in futility from Croatia, I can’t see how they can win this game, they simply don’t have the horses to get it done. They need the basketball gods to bless them with a magnificent shooting night from here on in.
• · Ricky Rubio back in the game after a good stretch by Calderon
• · Croatia’s big has a short hook roll off the rim, the frustration yelping out of him says it all. What the hell is Gasol doing? Stand up like a man and block his shot instead of trying to strip his dribble. Gasol created that whole shooting attempt by acting like he was 6-7 instead of 7-1 with a 7-5 wingspan. Stand up and block the shot, he can’t shoot over you, he’s too small and un-athletic to go over the top. Prkacin misses one of two to help Gasol out.
• · Nice move in the low post by Marc Gasol. He’s brought a smile back to my face. Gasol took one step left, spun back right going baseline, and laid the ball up losing his defender completely in the process.
• · Planinic bullies his way into the paint, misses the shot, tapped up and it. Spain lead 37-23. They were on a 15-5 run prior to that.
• · Rubio tries to flash his magic handle, gets stripped, fastbreak, layup by Ukic. Ukic is still very quiet. His first basket, no assists.
• · Pau Gasol is in a different class than everyone else on the court. He’s in cruise control scoring 14 points on 6-9 shooting with 5 boards for good measure. Pua has been the difference between the two sides.

Halftime – this is hopeless for Croatia. They’re huffing and puffing with all their might, they just don’t have the talent. Spain will roll on in the second half.

• · Spain lead 37-26 to start the second half. An anemic offensive display by the Croats and weak stuff from the Spanish too.
• · Pau Gasol with a playground block rejecting it out of bounds with a snarl on his face
• · Spain lead 42-28 as Croatia score only 2 points in the first four minutes of this half also. The turnover count now stands at 11-10 Croatia leading.
• · Garbojaso knocks down another triple, Spain now 6-14 from behind the arc versus the 1-11 from Croatia. They’re now up 19 points halfway through the third quarter, this is almost over.
• · Croatia’s #5 just flung up the ugliest one harmed heave shot, it looked like he was a child that didn’t know if he could reach the rim from where he was, from three which luckily for him went in. Good work by #5 on the break to get his teammate a wide open 13 footer along the baseline, missed.
• · Marc Gasol tries to back his man over, spins into the paint, tries to pass instead of taking the shot, falls over on the pass attempt, turnover.
• · Ukic doing a nice job handling the backcourt pressure from Rubio and the trap from Garbajosa. Next Spanish possession, turnover, steal, breakaway Ukic ahead of the pack, gets the pass, layup.
• · Spain lead 50-36

Fourth Quarter

• This game is all but over. Let’s stay tuned in and see if Croatia can make a run. They’re presently down 14 with 8 plus minutes to play.
• Pau Gasol with a strong move inside, and a three point play from the foul
• This is over

Spain win a truly awful basketball match

Olympics Quarter Finals

Here’s a nice short preview on the matchups by Chris Sheridan over at ESPN. The games are about to start shortly. Here’s the order for the day:

Aug 20 2:30 AM ET	Basketball – Quarterfinal – ESP vs CRO
Aug 20 4:45 AM ET	Basketball – Quarterfinal – LTU vs CHN
Aug 20 8:00 AM ET	Basketball – Quarterfinal – USA vs AUS
Aug 20 10:15 AM ET	Basketball – Quarterfinal – ARG vs GRE

I’ve largely been ignoring the Olympics. The standard of play has left me quite uninterested, both in terms of the quality and the mismatch the US present. But now that that group stage are over …. were 4 out of 6 teams go through completely ridding the opening stages of the tournament of excitement or pressure … we can finally move onto the knockout round which is normally far more exciting, so my interest is right back in it’s proper place.

The bracket works out as this:

• The winner of USA-Australia will play the winner of Argentina-Greece in the Semi-Finals.
• While the winner of Spain-Croatia will play the winner of Lithuania-China in the other Semi-Final.

Quick guess on who should go through and what the Semi-Finals are – Argentina vs USA and Spain vs Lithuania.

- First up is Croatia and Spain. A chance for Raptors fans to see their starting guard, Jose Calderon, go head-to-head with their new backup Roko Ukic.

- Hopefully Australia will show up and give the US a good game but I can’t shake the feeling that they’ve already given them their best effort prior to the tournament.

- I think the Greece-Argentina will be the closest matchup of the quarter finals but there’s no good reason why Argentina lose that matchup, only bad reasons. Ditto for the US and their gold medal …. and it is their gold medal.

I expect the US and Spain to win their semi finals with the US taking gold in the finals. But hey there’s a reason why we bother to play these games and I love a good upset so here’s hoping …

Game Time Olympics: China vs Spain

Spain-China

• Yi with a lovely baseline drive and slam
• Yao catches it on the left block, spins baseline, slam dunk. Too easy. Lovely smooth from the big fella. Pau is defending Yao, gotta play him more physical than that, way too easy.
• Jorge Garbajosa enters the fray to steady the ship. #10 for Spain has looked shaky, a little too excited. Nice baseline drive and stuff by Pau Gasol showing he has that stuff too. Here comes Marc Gasol, it’ll be very interesting to see how he does with Yao.
• Bad looping pass by Gasol, China’s lax defense doesn’t make anything of it, Rudy drains a three. Steal Rudy Fernandez, the pass was over to the right wing, the Chinese wing turned his back to the Rudy and didn’t notice him cheat over the other side, Rudy just picked the ball out of his hands, breakaway, slam dunk.
• Yao is shouting a lot out there on the court. He’s hyped. He’s a madman. He’s moving fantastically, that 60-70% is hard to believe so far.
• Rudy gets a high screen and roll, pops for the three off the bounce, misses. Looked a little rushed on his release. Nice drive by Fernandez down the middle, pass in traffic to Gasol, layup and the foul. Good play Rudy.
• Great move by Wang Zhi Zhi knifing his way through the Spanish boddies and finishing with a finger roll.
• Calderon just smacked his head pretty hard while falling. He’s alright, checking for blood, it’s in his head he’s fine.
• Ricky Rubio is in the game. His ballhandling is a little sloppy, lot of high dribbles, pressure defense is bothering him a bit too. Mac Gasol steamrolls his way through the middle, charge, turnover. Wang Zhi Zhi has a three rim out, 20 seconds to play, China hold for the final shot, #4 makes a horrific play, gets caught in the trapping screen and roll, picks up his dribble 28 feet from the rim near the right hand sideline, oh my, now he’s pressured, has no passes, 5 seconds, forces it back to a teammate 6 feet behind the line, picked off by Rubio, fastbreak, nothing comes of it, good recovery  by #4 to stop the open layup. Horrific play from the Chinese guard #4.
• End of One
• China lead 20-18 over Spain.
• Marc Gasol picks up a sloppy foul showing on the screen and roll.
• Nice drive and bounce pass in the lane by Garbajosa to Gasol, fouled on the layup attempt. Good work by Gasol, he went inside of the screen and roll, established inside position, Calderon reversed the ball, entry pass to the post, easy shot in the paint by Gasol. Nice play by the big fella. Calderon has taken more control of this game over the past two minutes. Okay now he throws it right out of bounds, mixed passing, more bad than good from Gasol.
• #5 for China with a few nice plays. He tough drive and floater over Calderon, then he picked Calderon’s pocket, next possession he used the screen and roll well with Yao establishing him 5 feet from the rim, Yao kick it out, #5 got it back and drained a three.
• Yao’s passing is slicing apart the overzealous Spanish defense. If China can make open shots they’ll win this because they’re getting a lot of looks right now.
• Lovely pass down low to Yao, nice finish inside, he took up great position right in front of the rim.
• Ricky Rubio rolls his way down the lane, loses his way and his dribble, picks it back up and gets it to Pau, dunk
• Yao muscles it up through Marc Gasol and draws a foul on the Spaniard. Tough play from Yao, he now has 8 points as he bags both FTs.
• China playing a matchup zone right now. Spain doing a poor job of attacking it, they got an open shot but it didn’t look like the shooter they wanted. Marc Gasol didn’t step into the open space in the middle for some time either, slow response from him.
• China showing some full court pressure, trapping the ballhandler. Spain get it up and into their set. Lovely baseline cut by Rudy Fernandez, alley oop, he misses the slam.
• China up 39-30
• Spain responding with backcourt pressure of their own, immediately create a turnover, over to Rudy on the right wing, he beats his man easily, gets into the paint and finishes.
• Rubio is getting some good run here
• Yi with an aggressive move down on the block, dunks it at the shot clock buzzer, nice play. Three pointer #6, China up 11 points. Lovely pass by Rubio to the cutting Reyes for the layup.
• Rubio jumps out as China’s guard looks to waste the clock, he jumps by Rubio easily, makes a mess of it later though, picks up his dribble, swings the ball, turnover comes next.
• Yao blew the layup, Pau throws it forward, Rudy fouled one the break. He’s constantly looking to attack and score. Four point swing plus possession for Spain. Rudy has it up top, beats his man, layup, blocked, nice drive, better recovery, fastbreak China, #5 with a breakaway, layup … ooh nasty fall by the trailing Spanish defender, he got tangled up as #5 skied, landed on his head as he fell, #5 made the layup, no foul from either. He (Jiminez) was trailing the play, looked odd.
• Halftime as Yi snatches the rebound out of the air, he looks athletic and angry out there

China are good value for their 46-37 lead. Spain look vulnerable, they don’t have enough scorers on the court, they’re not establishing Pau for some reason and it’s leaving them very reliant on their guards for offense. Both teams have been sloppy with the ball. China are playing with great intensity and passion which Spain simply aren’t matching.

• Second Half
• Pau Gasol goes inside, turnaround J in the middle of the paint, miss. Nice move.
• #6 for China is having himself a nice game. He’s a thorn in Spain’s side. Very aggressive and actively looking to create something for his team.
• Spain look rattled. They’re not getting into their offense here early. Rudy Fernandez just took a three that was about 5 feet behind the arc. Now he forces the drive on a break that never existed, jumps in midair, manages to get rid of it, gets it back, drives head first into the paint again, bad pass turnover as he loops over the top to no-one.
• China have pushed their lead up to 15.
• Rudy makes another bad lob pass in traffic, Gasol manages to hang onto it, gets fouled. Spain are nervous, they need a few easy baskets to get their act back on track. Calderon answers the bell with a driving layup. Next possession, another high screen and roll, Calderon takes the 17 footer, clang, long rebound fumbled out, Spain drop it into their backcourt, over and back called, bad call they never had control of the ball.
• Yao bullies his way inside and draws the foul off the drive.
• Rudy forces the drive again, forces the lob pass again, turnover again, this time he steals it back for his team making quick amends for his mis-deeds
• Ricky Rubio over-committs looking for the steal, his man beats him easily, good recovery by Rubio to steal the lazy pass to the wing off the penetration
• Yao pushes Gasol off balance as he tries to maneouver for a better shot, turnover
• Great anticipation from Rubio to steal in behind Yao on the block and pick his pocket. Unfortuantely he turns it right back over with a charge call against him.
• China lead 55-42 as Wang Zhi Zhi knocks down a tough step back fallaway J from 17 feet on the right wing, Gasol responds with a simple close shot, Zhi Zhi bags another long J. He’s starting to warm up.
• Gasol flips a shot over his head that luckily goes into the bucket
• Another Spanish turnover. They’re wasting chances, they’ve had several shots to bring this within single digits and keep throwing them away. Wany Zhi Zhi pounding the offensive glass, getting the follow up and the foul
• End of Three
• China lead 64-57 three minutes into the fourth
• Yao looks lean and mean, this 60-70% looks off from his body.
• Rudy gets his lob pass off the drive to Gasol to go, alley oop dunk
• Rubio is harrassing number 5, great help defense down to Yao to stop the post entry pass after #5 picked up his dribble, creates the turnover as Yao is forced to tap it out of bounds hopelessly
• Rudy Fernandez drives by his man, drives by Yao, finishes the layup over Yao. Nice play.
• Rudy comes from the weakside and blocks the shot but they give the foul for something else, not sure what
• Rubio has the 12 footer, passes it up, lazy pass intercepted, China score on the other end, quick outlet to Rudy, he breaks into the paint and scores over Yao again and gains the foul call. Great play by Rudy. Calderon comes back in for Rubio. Rubio has played better tonight, looks interesting defensively despite some bad man-to-man D, he can create some havoc with his anticipation and quick reactions.
• Fastbreak to Spain, Rudy gives it up, missed layup, Rudy taps it in.
• China lead 68-67, Spain have pulled all the way back. There’s under four to play, Wang Zhi Zhi nails another pull up jumper under duress against the buzzer. Intentional foul by Rudy to stop the fastbreak, Rudy looks knackered, he gets a breather.
• Three minutes to play, China by three and have the ball
• Navarro drives, is scared off by the looming figure of Yao Ming, throws a bad pass out of bounds off a Chinese player. Navarro makes amends with a three pointer right out fo the timeout, tie game, two minutes to play.
• China’s #5 takes an ill advised contested jumper out of the corner, miss
• Navarro misses the runner, rebound tracked down by Wang Zhi Zhi, nice screen and roll action, ball swung to the opposite side, Wang Zhi Zhi open in the corner, hits the three. Huge shot, he’s been making huge shots all night, great game for himself. Yi looks to check back in.
• Timeout
• Spain ball. They’re down two with a little over a minute to play. Quick three pointer by Navarro within 6 seconds, miss, defensive rebound China.
• China staying away from Yao, #5 bricks his wide open floater badly. China’s guards too wild.
• Inside to Marc Gasol, he works down low on Yao, falls over, Yao goes for the block, Gasol just heaves it up there, it goes in anyway, tie game.
• 19.7 seconds to play
• Timeout China
• They’re going to take it full court. Yao is in the backcourt to make sure they can get the pass inbounds, they change their minds and take it from center court, now Yao moves away. Inbounds, #5 dribbling, Rubio harrassing him, he reaches in, fouls, non-shooting foul.
• Inbounds again, 12.4 seconds to play, Rubio harrasses #5 again and forces the ball out of bounds of #5’s leg. Great D by Rubio. Big chance he took there, a better player would have punished him for it. Spain’s ball. Timeout
• 6.5 seconds to work with, Rubio gets it, he drives right through the middle of the court, has a step, into the lane, takes the floater, off the rim
• Overtime

China will be looking at themselves in the mirror tonight for throwing this game away. There’s no reason this should be an overtime right now. China look ragged, Spain are getting stronger, I’d be surprised if China hangs on.

• Rudy throws another ridiculous lob pass. Turnover
• Yao is down on the block, fallaway, front iron
• Yao low block, jump hook left handed, miss
• Rudy Fernandez with a nice baseline cut, layup as he collects the nice pass
• Yao with the follow slam. China down 2 with three minutes to play.
• Offensive rebound tapped out by Rudy, three by Garbo, miss, offensive rebound kept alive by Rudy, Spain get it, Rubio resets the offense, they go to Gasol, left post, drives left, short hook and the foul. Yao fouls out.
• Okay that’s China done, this is over.
• Rudy steals the inbounds pass, Spain let the clock tick away

This is over. Spain win. China deserved this but their perimeter players threw it away.

Olympics Game Time: Argentina vs Lithuania

Only have time to watch this first half here. Pity.

Argentina are my favourite international team. I love watching Manu Ginobili’s brilliance and their great all round teamwork. They play with such intelligence and beauty. Scola and Oberto provide good toughness and grit in the paint. Prigioni is a very smooth point, then Nocioni on the wings. Fantastic. Love it.

• The biggest factor for Argentina is Manu’s fitness, is he healthy enough to play at his highest possible level?
• Steal Nocioni, slam dunk
• Scola showing off a fancy dribble baseline, spin middle, running one hander in the lane, miss, tapped back in by Oberto. Scola with another lovely spin move, this time going baseline beneath the rim and rising up on the other side, unfortunately the help defender blocked his shot.
• Low scoring start, tied at 6-6 2/3rds of the way through the first quarter
• Delfino subs in for Manu. Hits a nice three pointer that brings a few oohs and ahhs from the crowd. Delfino is an excellent 6th man here in International ball.
• Argentina have gotten a lot of good shots here in the first quarter, they’re just missing them
• End of One
• Lithuania lead 14-11, not much to say about the first quarter except that it’s over and hopefully the rest of the game will bring some offense to the table
• I like the way Gonzales is knocking people around inside. Physical player. Sort of like Danny Fortson.
• Ginobili on a breakaway, plain dunk. The crowd got juiced up for that one and were expecting a bit more. He didn’t try anything … health … health?
• Argentina take the lead 17-16 as we near the midway point of the second quarter, as I say that Kaukenas nails a wide open three to take the lead back
• Fastbreak Lithuania, oh nice off balance floating runner by Saras
• Delfino bags another long three. He has looked Argentina’s most dangerous offensive player tonight.
• Scola almost broke the backboard with that hook shot. Ugly, damn he was a good two feet off the rim too, it bounced so hard off the board that Oberto couldn’t even grab it, it almost hit Frabicio in the face.
• Delfino dribbles right, step back fallaway, nice
• Smooth turnaround J out of the low post by Lavrinovic
• Halftime

Very uneven half of play. Neither side hitting full gear, a grind it out type of game so far. Argentina look the superior side overall but Lithunia are sharper tonight. Lithuania lead 34-30, still anyone’s game.

Olympics Game Time: Spain vs Greece

• Marc Gasol wins the tip, quick bucket off the tip from Spain. Nice start. Hmm … Pau Gasol isn’t on the court, he’s coming off the bench. Jiminez and Reyes are the starting forwards.
• Calderon knifes down the lane for a layup. Offensive rebound Gasol, out to Calderon, three pointer from the right wing good. Greece matching Spain basket for basket so far.
• Marc Gasol showing nice footwork in the post, but kicks it out instead of taking the short shot he had. Someone for Greece is constantly shouting three seconds whenever Gasol gets near the paint.
• Rudy Fernandez throws in a three. Himself and Calderon have all 10 Spanish points.
• Vasilopoulos with the nice ball fake, defender bites on the faked pass, open three, good.
• Pau gets a rising ovation as he enters the game. He didn’t last too long on the sidelines. Why bring him off the bench? He gets the first available rebound.
• Rudy Fernandez bringing the ball up, early high screen and roll with Gasol, lovely pass over the top to Gasol, Gasol a little unsure of his placing on the court, gathers himself, turns his back into his man, spins middle, ugly hook shot from 7 feet in the middle of the lane off the backboard missing
• Schortsanitis enters the game, immediate screen and roll, doesn’t get the pass but establishes low position inside, now recieves the ball, muscles his way to the rim and the FT line. I love this guy. Now being used as the high post passer, later in the possession they run another screen and roll, he gets low position again, lob pass, Spanish defender gets over the top and deflects it away. Turnover. Offensive rebound by the big man, bullies his way over a Spaniard, charging, turnover.
• Pau Gasol gets after the offensive glass, gets the rebound, the layup and the foul. Nice work Pau.
• Schortsanitis gets a straight post up inside this time, doubled on the bounce, Spain smack it away, turnover. Next possession, nice penetration and hooked around the back pass by Papaloukas to Baby Shaq for the layup, he gets fouled first, will shoot two.
• Pau takes the fadeaway out of the low post, misses, offensive rebound and putback. Spain lead 20-16
• End of One
• Navarro now in the game, struggling a bit defensively but not attacked so no matter. Looks shaky on that first possession though.
• Lovely bounce pass through traffic down the middle of the lane and between four Spaniards by Papaloukas on the screen and roll, his teammate can’t finish though
• Fernandez taking the ball up instead of Navarro as Calderon is shadowed full court.
• Both teams have made 8 shots, only difference is Spain have taken 10 more shots, they’ve gotten 25 shots to 15. Some of those shots have been the difference in turnovers (2), offensive rebounds (4) and FTs (8).
• Diamantidis with an acrobatic baseline drive and steal.
• Nice steal by Spanoulis, oh no, he loses his footing and falls over before he can take his wide open layup, falls out of bounds. Timeout. Game tied at 22. Pau Gasol had a nice bucket off the right block, turning middle for a hook shot on Spain’s last bucket. Marc Gasol re-enters the game for his brother. Almost stripped but the refs call a reaching foul on Greece, and a tech on Navarro who was levelled off the ball. Inbounds to Navarro, drives from the right wing into the middle, bounce pass in traffic, Marc Gasol can’t handle it.
• Nice trap by Marc Gasol at midcourt, high pass out of it stolen by Rudy, fastbreak dunk Fernandez
• Spain are very concerned about Greece’s three point shooting. They’re so close they’re consistently giving up dribble penetration, with one step the Greek attacked can get by his man. Greece need to show more ambition in getting to the rim
• Oh that’s a highlight, long missed jumper, Rudy slices through the lane, glides through the air, catches it in mid air, gathers himself, reverse layup
• Diamantidis throws the ball out of bounds, then stands and shouts at his teammate for not getting open in the corner leaving him no option but to throw it out of bounds.
• Ricky Rubio has entered the fray. Spain lead 34-26 off his basket, a nice driving layup off the glass.
• Marc Gasol blocks Schortsantsis inside, shot clock violation.
• Rubio in the open court, flies through the middle, lefty layup from the opposite side of the paint, misses.
• Spain have played all 12 players here in the first half and each guy has gotten at least four minutes. Too many players, too much disruption. Only four players have played double digit minutes – Calderon, Rudy, Jiminez, Marc Gasol

Halftime – Spain lead 35-28

Spanoulis and Diamantidis have combined for 17 of Greece’s 28 points with nobody else on the squad having more than one field goal. Greece have been sloppy with 10 giveaways in the first half and losing the boards 23-20 resulting in 13 more shot attempts for Spain. Spain on the other boast a very balanced attack, Rudy Fernandez leads with 9 points but after him the next largest scorer has 5, on the other hand 9 of their 12 players have scored. Only three players behind Rudy Fernandez have taken more than two shots – Gasol (2-6), Gasol (2-5), Calderon (2-5). Spain are shooting a woeful 37% [14-38] from the field and only 27% (3-11) from downtown.

• Second Half
• Pau Gasol starts the second half, immediate post up on the left block, backs his man down, turnaround shot shot, hits it. Next possession, drives left towards the baseline, spins back right for the hook shot, fouled before the shot. Nice move.
• Navarro has started the second too as he bags a three. Fakes the post entry pass, drvies inside from the right wing, floater in the lane, good.
• Calderon with a lovely full court pass, footing wasn’t quite right and got caught under the basket after the catch, kicks it back out, Navarro times the pass beautifully to the trailing Calderon on the right wing, three pointer on the way, good. Next possession, Calderon beats his man easily from the top of the arc to the rim, layup and the foul.
• Timeout – Spain pulling ahead here, up 48-31, quick run.
• Hey hey, Garbajosa makes a nice 17 footer.
• Bourousis playing physical defense with Gasol, lot of bumping
• Greece making a few baskets to cut the lead down from 19 to 13. They’re still well within shooting range. Rudy Fernandez takes it on himself, gets to the rim and draws the foul, hits the two freebies.
• Greece have gone scoreless here for a minute or two after cutting the lead to 12. Wasting their opportunities.
• Spain push their lead back up to 18, wait 16 as Greece earn a trip to the line, as the third quarter ends
• Fourth Quarter – Spain in control and have almost wrapped this game up. Greece look weak.
• …. Both teams just trading baskets
• Rudy Fernandez has had a couple of excellent defensive sequences here in the fourth quarter. He had a great block on one possession and on another he denied dribble penetration, then harrassed his man further away from the hoop, didn’t bite on the pump fakes, closed in, forced his man into a tough off balance jump shot that missed badly.
• Under 5 to play now with Spain up 17. They’ve gone to a second unit type of lineup.
• Okay I’m calling it, victory Spain.

Disappointing game. Greece didn’t show up and Spain was fiddling around with their lineup so often that it ruined the rhythm of the match.

Olympics Game Time: Germany vs Angola

Germany – Angola

If anyone thinks I’m bothering to learn the names of these players before I think they’re medal material you’re sadly mistaken. It’s on a position or number basis unless you’re an NBA player.

Looking forward to seeing this Dirk-Kaman combination. Should be great, I’d love to see them together on an NBA court.

• From the first two possessions I’m thinking Germany would be better off just giving Dirk the ball and getting out of his way. They’re starting off very passive and their passing has no purpose, very safe and offering the offense no direction. Not creating enough for the opposition to react to. We’ll see if this holds up for the rest of the game
• Kaman punches home a dunk. Dirk gives a pat on the back afterwards. He must be delighted to have some help. Kaman scores again, this time out of the low post on the left block rolling into the middle for a short layin. Kaman posts up a short Angolan defender, spins middle from the right block, layup. Keep giving the big man the ball.
• Dirk copying Kaman, heads into the post, turns, faces his man up, draws the foul on a fallaway shot.
• I love watching Dirk and Kaman play in general, but together, oh my, this is going to be fun.
• Kaman is kicking butt down in the post, catches it below the FT line, one hard dribble, running shot, miss, offensive board, layup. He’s just overpowering guys with his size in the post. I’d love to see one of the US players to play like this down in the post (Dwight doesn’t get passed the ball enough for that), it’s so effective in International ball.
• An Angolan guard literally just dribbled the ball for the entire shot clock and ran it out before getting off a shot. Just dribbling 25 feet from the rim all the time. Never looked to pass. Amazing. Nobody’s buying him dinner tonight.
• Dirk takes a fadeaway from the low block this time, misses. Make a strong move inside Dirk, they have no shotblockers, it’ll be an easy two.
• Germany’s backup point guard just blew a possession. Firstly he had a big set up on the low block and didn’t pass him the ball. Then he had his small forward pop out of a screen, wide open top of the key, didn’t pass him the ball. Then he started dribbling, overdribbled, shot clock started to run down, decided to drive, jumped in the air with nowhere to go and rammed over another player, charge, turnover. Anyone want to guess what is going to cause Germany big problems in this tournament?
• End of One – Germany lead 25-21. Decent game, great shooting as Germany hit 10-15 from the floor.
• Neither team is running. Germany don’t look able for it, their guards and wings aren’t looking to get forward or to threaten when they get up there. Angola are losing the boards. Neither team is running off of turnovers. Odd.
• Angola have at least 4 shot clock violations in the first 13 minutes of this game.
• Kaman back on the right block, spots the cutter coming down the middle of the lane, nice pass, layup. Great stuff.
• Kaman on the right block again, spin move baseline, up and under in mid air to avoid the shot blocker and put the layup home off the glass. He’s too good on that low post, just give him the ball every time. Best low post player in Olympics? It’s a legit question. Going to have to think about that.
• Nice block by Dirk, another shot clock violation, refs let it go, Germany finally scores in transition.
• Germany lead 38-27
• Kaman hunts down another rebound. I like this Dirk-Kaman mix. Dallas find a way to make this real. Dirk drains a three, Germany up 14 now.
• Angolan guard drives, #7, falls over, turnover. They’re really struggling to create shots.
• Kaman on the left block, spin, hook shot, good. Next possession, lovely pass by Dirk to the cutter, dribbles inside, better pass to Kaman, layup and one. Kaman has 17 points. Great work by their guard to draw the defense and set Kaman up for that sitter.
• Kaman smashes a guy out of bounds and rejects the shot with him.
• Dirk drops two FTs, he now has 14 points and Germany are up 16, make that 19 as their big guy #15 hits a three.

Halftime – Germany up 20. This game is over but I love watching Kaman play in the post so I’m staying tuned in

• Kaman on the right block, backs his man down, turns, short hook off the glass, good. So dominant inside.
• Midway through the third – Germany lead 65-41. Kaman (22) and Dirk (19) have combined for 41 of Germany’s points. Kaman is 10-12 from the field and Dirk is 6 for 8. Dirk leads Germany with 6 rebounds which is almost as much as Angola have (8), Germany winning 24-8 on the boards. Odd stat – Germany have as many turnovers as assists with eight, on 25 field goals.
• Another turnover on the inbounds pass from Germany. This time it was against full court pressure, the inbounder throwing the ball out of bounds passing it to his guard shortly after his guard had turned away and was no longer looking in the direction of the ball. I have no idea what he was thinking throwing that pass, it wasn’t even target to guard.The other was a few moments ago, at the 3/4 mark along the sideline, where the inbounder couldn’t get it in, then threw a soft lob pass back towards the halfway line, intercepted easily leading to a fastbreak.
• Germany showing some full court pressure, soft, Angola easily advance the ball and get into their offense quickly
• Lovely recovery by #9, German guard, he bit on a shot fake, was jumping into the player, the Angolan looked to draw the foul, #9 moved enough out of the way to fly past the opposing player, jumps from behind and swats the shot as the Angolan took too long to release the ball. Great athleticism. #9 has a good few minutes making a few solid offensive plays for Germany.
• Third Quarter Over … Germany lead 78-52
• First two minutes goes by in the fourth with no Dirk or Kaman. I’m losing interest fast. This is game is finished, they’ll likely be rested, no need for them to be on the court. No need for me to watch without the talent being on the court.
• The big lad, #15, just drove inside from the right wing, lob pass over the top to his fellow big who was cutting baseline to the other side of the rim, nice pass, layup.
• Germany make a sub, no sign of Dirk or Kaman. 6 minutes to go in the game. Okay, this is over as a contest and as a spectacle.

Very good start for Germany. Dirk and Kaman look an imposing duo, the rest of their roster looks short on talent. We’ll see.

Greece and Spain are up next, should be an excellent game.

Game Time: USA – Lithuania

US – Lithuania

• Dwight and Javtokas exchange dunks to open the game
• Kobe suffocated on his isolation play, forced into a poor fadeaway baseline jump shot. I think that was Kaukenas defending him there.
• Siskauskas forced off the pick and roll by the early trap before the pick, turnover, fastbreak dunk. US off to an early 10-2. Timeout. Another turnover, steal by James, dunk again by James.
• Kobe Bryant is harassing Sarunas Jasikevicius. I don’t their team very well but the announcers say he’s their only reliable ball handler so we’ll how that goes. Lovely defensive rebound and one handed outlet pass from Bryant, layup Kidd.
• Javtokas fronting Dwight in the post, easy pass over the top, layup and a foul. That’s two fouls on their big man. Why would you front Dwight? US hardly ever posts him up. A fronting defender just gives them something to exploit.
• Kleiza has come off the pine. You’d think they’d start him. Lavrinovcious was the player who started ahead of him. According to the announcers he’s one of the top players in Italy.
• US up 19-5. Dwight has 9 of those points.
• Bryant stopping Sarunas again, he’s stopping penetration and forcing him 5 feet behind the three point line, not giving him anything.
• Kobe forced into a tough fallaway again. Great defense. Kobe made that one but that’s a shot you want him taking. A lot better than the US passing the ball around and getting open jumpers and layups. Kobe is 4-5 from the field now as he drains a three pointer. The defense on him has been really good, he’s just Kobe Bryant.
• US lead 24-5 with three minutes to go in the first. This is a different picture than the Turkey game on the backboards, US leading 10-3 on the boards after so-so rebounding the game prior. The US should always lead the rebounding edge because their defense will be able to force bad shots leading to plenty of available rebounds.
• Kleiza posts up Melo inside, gets good position 7 feet from the hoop on the edge of the paint, spins inside on the catch and forces the foul. Nice work.
• Haha, oh my, that was a lucky shot by Paul. He took a 20 foot fallaway runner that was heavily contested and swishes the shot. The US was getting no joy in the halfcourt. Too concerned with making a pass instead of attacking there, again no real direction offensively. Similar complaint on the next possession. Watch this second unit closely. They have two point guards and Wade out there and while they’re extremely talented it doesn’t look like they have a plan of how to get a basket when they come down the floor. Lithuania has pulled the lead back a bit, 27-13
• Nice drive and dish by Paul to Bosh for the flush. Early in the possession they looked a little dodgy again until Paul’s creativity off the dribble turned a bad possession into an easy dunk.
• End of One
• Very impressive showing by the US especially on the defensive end. They’ve been dominant. We’ll see if Lithuania can get back into this, they’ll likely need to slog away slowly cutting the lead down. Their zone defense has done a nice job enticing the US into some long jumpers.
• That is the worst lane violation ever. Dwight Howard was halfway in the lane and Wade still took another bounce, shot the FT, and got the point. Let the players play I guess …..
• Siskauskas hit a pair of threes. They’ve forced a few misses over the last minute. That defense needs to continue if they want to get back into this. As I say that Michael Redd blows by his man and gets Wade a layup. Lovely ball movement by Lithuania, the swing it from right to left to the left block to the cutter coming down the middle, layup Javtokas. Nice stuff.
• Two turnovers. Deron led the first break and made a splendid pass back to LeBron as he hung in midair and made a wrap around pass backwards to James for the dunk. The second break he drew the foul in the open floor.
• US doing an excellent job of running off made baskets. Dwight got excellent position inside there and was rewarded with a layup.
• Timeout – US lead 45-27 – they’ve pushed their lead back up after Lithuania looked like they were starting to get into this game.
• Siskauskas with the shot fake, the drive into the middle, the ball fake, the runner. Nice. Javtokas with the nice jump hook in the paint, the Spurs still hold his rights correct?
• Chris Paul makes a poor pass to Bosh in traffic. Bosh was surrounded by 4 players but Paul had to make the pass because he jumped up behind the backboard with nowhere to go. Luckily Bosh made him look good and made the basket and the foul.
• Halftime
• US lead 56-39. They’ve been very impressive. Their pressure defense on the perimeter has been outstanding.
• Lavrincious opens the half with a three pointer. He’s been quiet. Lithuania bag another long jumper. They’re continuing their 2-3 zone defensively from the second quarter. Kaukanus hits another jumper. Their defense has been doing better with the zone but the US is still scoring at a good pace, too good a pace for a comeback. Lithuania must buckle down and get more stops. Jasikevicous bags another three pointer, this lead is down to 9.
• Kobe slows the ball down as he brings it up, he wants to make sure his team gets a good shot here, he drives inside, draws the foul. Sideline out. US reset their offense, Melo cuts baseline behind the zone, pass behind the hoop, layup and the foul. Melo hasn’t scored much tonight but he’s been their best go-to scorer over the last few years so let’s see if he steps up here.
• Another high pick and roll, another missed defensive assignment on the role, another potential layup.
• Turnover, Kidd to Anthony to James dunk. Haven’t seen many turnovers here in the second half from Lithuania. That’s been a difference maker. More shots for them (US have 9 more shots, they’re scoring 1.50 points per shot, so that’s pretty much the lead gone if shot attempts were equal) and less easy points for the US.
• Another turnover, forced by Kobe, another dunk for LeBron. Great backcourt pressure from Kobe who caused the steal around halfcourt. Lead back up to 16.
• Kaukenas brings it up, Kidd pressuring him, Kaukenas blows by the old man by mid-court, heads to the hoop, blocked by Howard, turnover, US running the other way.
• Kidd’s man beats him stride for stride again, stops, pulls back 40 feet from the rim along the baseline, picks up his dribble, Kidd is all over him, steal, turnover, another bucket. That was a dumb play by the Lithuania player, he had Kidd but froze up. Another turnover, Kobe dunks it home. US now up 20 points, they’ve just about killed this game
• Lithuania have four three pointers and two good pick and roll possessions here in the third quarter. The rest of their offensive play has been bad and it’s because of the US’ defensive pressure on the perimeter; they’re choking their ballhandlers, denying dribble penetration, clogging the passing lanes and the passer, deny inside position. Just great stuff all round on the defensive end from the US. They’re also winning the rebound battle 22-16.
• Lot of dunks from the US here. Lithuania have gone to their youngsters off the bench, looks like they might be throwing in the towel. Let’s see if they bring their starters back. Wade scores 7 quick points as the US go up 25 points. End of the third quarter.
• Garbage time now?
• Lot of disorganized play from both sides. Lithuania are playing hard though. Oooh a windmill dunk from Wade on the alley oop from Paul off of the steal and pass from Wade. That was special. Find a clip of that dunk.
• Lavrinovic rejects Tayshaun and corralls the ball. He’s been quiet. He was second team All-Euroleague last season.
• This is over and it was a fun game

Great performance by the US.

The commentators were correct about Lithuania’s lack of ballhandling, that caused them problems all game. The US did an excellent job of exploiting this weakness.

Game Time: USA vs Turkey

Missed the start of the game. We’re tuning in halfway through the second with the US leading 37-34.

• LeBron James playing tonight. He just hit a midrange J off the dribble. Turnover Turkey, Deron leads the break, pass to the left wing to LeBron, touch pass, Kobe layup. Nice passing from Williams and James.
• Erden is playing for Turkey tonight. He was the final pick in the draft this year, selected by the Celtics.
• US looking very dangerous off of turnovers again tonight. Their halfcourt offense looks a bit disjointed so far though. A couple of sloppy turnovers haven’t helped matters but the main problem is that their offense doesn’t seem to be heading in any particular direction.
• LeBron James with two steals in a little over a minute here. US are putting a lot of pressure on the ball and creating a lot of havoc defensively, primarily on the perimeter. Another turnover, Kobe leads the break, high lob to LeBron, one handed slam. US up 50-37 now. Turkey’s offense can’t get anything going. LeBron makes another steal, beautiful recovery play. The US’ zone was all over the place and left one of Turkey’s bigs under the left hand side of the rim, LeBron was defending his man out in the opposite corner, he sprinted a good 15 feet and soared through the air to deny that easy dunk. Great stuff.
• Carmelo and LeBron have 25 of the team’s 52 points. Wade is the third leading scorer adding another 8. US are getting outrebounded ever so slightly (13-12) though. US outscored Turkey 23-7 in the second quarter to get their lead.
• Chris Paul making another razzle dazzle play to end the half. He got a high screen and roll at the top of the key, he cut through the middle of the paint, sold the help defense on the ball fake (pass to right wing), sliced inside for a layup. He made that look simple.
• Halftime
• Looks like the Turkish team has thrown in the towel. They’ve started the second half with no intensity and they’re giving up easy shots right at the rim. They’re down 21 points now. This could get ugly. They’re getting very little going offensively also which seems to be effecting their levels of effort and confidence.
• This is like a layup drill. US up 25 points after the powerful flush from LeBron. Turkey are faking it just enough to make you think they’re still trying.
• Turkey hit a nice three there. The US almost stole the ball four times on that possession but Turkey made the most of the broken play and found an open shooter. What happens next? Wade leaks out and gets a wide open layup off the inbounds pass. Terrible defense by Turkey.
• Nice play. Turnover Turkey, long outlet from LeBron up ahead to Kobe, right by the bucket now, Kobe pounds the ball hard and high off the floorboads, Melo goes up, collects it, flushes it. Creative alley oop.
• Gonlum has given the Turks some good work tonight. He’s been a threat. A few nice moves and looks to go inside a little bit. He’s been their best big man. #13 the point guard has been decent too.
• US up 31 points here in the fourth. Okay I’m going to call this one because the game is pretty much dead as a contest, all that’s left is the odd highlight type play here and there.

Great defense again by the US tonight. They’re terrific at creating turnovers and making teams pay on the break.

On the dubious side, I can’t help but wonder what their offense will look like when the opposition limits their layups and actually makes them create something in the halfcourt. They’ve gotten quite a few turnovers in the halfcourt and have mostly resorted to one-on-one plays rather than team orientated stuff. Anyway it’s too early to tell about that but it’ll be interesting to watch as the level of competition picks up.

Game Time: USA vs Canada

Tuning in a few minutes late. The US are up 12-6 over Canada.

• Wade has 8 of their first 14 points as he hits an 18 footer on the left wing. He’s starting tonight instead of LeBron tonight and will be their 6th man when Bron returns.
• Deron Williams and Chris Paul both come into the game together. This will be interesting. Paul is a better player the more he’s allowed to control the basketball. Paul drives on the fastbreak, draws the foul. Sideline in, Paul drives down the middle, gets into the middle of the paint lob pass to the right of the rim, Melo from the weakside slam dunk. Nice play. Chris Paul is bodying up the opposing point guard right now, making his life difficult. Two years ago he acclimated to the rule differences defensively quicker than anyone else on Team USA and played harrassing physical defense.
• Carmelo gets an offensive rebound and layin. Great hustle from Melo. There was an interesting interview from Scoop Jackson up on ESPN talking with Melo. He makes the comparison of Melo to Barkley on that 1992 team which I think is an excellent comparison. The leading scorers and the central player to the team despite the amazing talent all around them. Melo tripled teamed in the post here, kicks a 35 foot pass cross court to Kobe Bryant, long three at the buzzer, hits it off the bank.
• Canada are doing well to hang in here. The score is 26-21 US lead. Bosh just bailed out the Canadians by fouling on a hail mary off balance perimeter jumper at the buzzer, dumb foul Bosh (three FTs).
• Carl English with a very nice three pointer off the high screen and roll. Looked very smooth setting himself up for that shot.
• US lead 30-24. There’s been 9 three pointers already, making 27 of those points, half of the points in the game coming from behind the arc and both teams are shooting above 50% from above the arc.
• Travelling violation on Deron Williams drive there, pity that was a lovely pass to Boozer through the defense for the layup. First Quarter has ended
• Kobe Bryant had a nice block leading to a fastbreak, and a steal leading him into the open court for the slam dunk. Kobe’s defense is starting to rise up to another level. US lead 35-27 with 8 minutes to play in the half. Canada switching to zone for the first time, a 2-3 zone here. Wade cuts from the corner, gets the pass, layup. Too easy.
• Melo tips out the miss to Kidd to start the break. Lovely instinctual play from Melo who couldn’t corrall the air ball.
• Dwight Howard easily posts up Joel Anthony, backs him down, spins middle, jump hook, easy basket. Kidd is starting to kickstart the tempo. Wade scores again off the feed from Kidd. He’s 4-4 from the field, 3-3 from the line and has 12 points. Bryant has added another 9 points, that’s 21 of their 41 points.
• Carmelo Anthony just added three buckets, bringing him up to 12 points. He had a lovely jab step face up jumper on the right wing. The dunk from the Paul feed wasn’t bad either.
• The US have gone a big run here. They’re now ahead 54-35 as Deron Williams knocks down two at the line. Two minutes to go in the half. Mostly perimeter scoring from the US.
• Halftime …. US lead 61-38
• This game is very close to being over as a contest. The US are miles ahead and way too talented for the Canadians. We’ll wait a bit and see if Canada can make a run and make this somewhat interesting, otherwise the second half could get pretty dull. Running through the motions type of ball.
• Dwight gets a post up, fouled inside. He has 2 points and 3 rebounds so far. The US team has largely ignored him. Very perimeter orientated play.
• Lot of sloppy play from both teams here to start the second half. Both teams turning over the ball.
• US ahead 72-45 with 6 minutes to go in the third. Wade just had a breakaway but was fouled from behind the ball stopping what would have a good dunk. Commentators – “Canada has now ran out of gas”, I agree.
• Redd is filling it up, 3-3 from three now, 11 points. He’s missing his FTs again though. Deron found Redd in the corner on the secondary break there, good look. Redd hits another three, this time off the penetration from Deron, kickout to Paul, Paul swings it to the opposite corner on the left wing, hits it. Now he air balls a three, offensive rebound, out to Paul, three pointer. If he knocks that shot down consistently it’ll make a big difference from his previous USA tour.
• Prince looks out of place on the floor. He shouldn’t be on this team. He rattles home a 20 footer off the dribble penetration and kickout.
• Deron Williams faking and baking the life out of his man side stepping his way to the rim on the fastbreak
• 34-8 US advantage on points off turnovers. That’s their entire lead right there.
• End of Three, US finish up on a 17-2 run
• This is over
• Jermaine Anderson hits the teardrop. He has 16 points tonight. Has looked fairly solid.
• Two sensational dunks by Team USA. Kidd lead pass way ahead off the pack, one armed to Melo who was running out of bounds, touch pass back to the trailing Bosh, emphatic slam dunk as Bosh soared through the middle of the paint to the rim. Then Dwyane Wade steals the ball, ahead of the pack, puts a little english on it and slams it home. Vintage Wade, guess he’s healthy. Good game from Wade tonight. He’s done a much better job of playing within the team framework than he did in Japan.
• US lead 101-58

This is over. Routine win against poor opposition.