Nick99

Filtate ENWSIS, leipei ena 'n' sto Aggliko onoma ths Polhs. Outws i allws, kalh upografh!

Everything's relative, Lebron. The 'worst player' on the Greek side can still crush Turkish centres any day of the week, twice Sundays. He's not the best but the physical presence doesn't hurt. Just like Shaq is nowhere being the best player in the NBA, but nonetheless he's a factor for his sheer size.The Turkish coach attempted to use the excuse of the Russian's absence to explain the defeat. 'He makes 10 points difference he says'. I say you make adjustments accordingly, and similarly one can argue that the Turks would have played better if Hellas had Zisis in the lineup. What good is Erdogan's 30 points if the team loses? Don't you prefer the first four results even with him not being much of a factor?

Pistevw oti tha ta deixoun ola ta paixnidia apo edw kai pera se zwntanh metadosh, and e kanw lathos.

Hellas-China is Sun 10:00am I gather Japan time, that would make it Sat 9pm EST. Anybody to confirm?

From the FIBA game report: 'Playing without Nikos Zisis, who broke three bones in his face in a collision with Anderson Varejao of Brazil on Wednesday...' Can you believe that?!? Collision?!? Oh yeah, the 'collision' between the Brazilian's fast-moving elbow and Zisis' stationary face. What are these reporters worried about, stirring controversy? Since when does that worry them? Are they concerned about not disrupting the friendliness of the tourney's atmosphere? Anyway, we won tonight, what a thriller it must have been! Thanks dark horse for the play-by-play, I kept scrolling down with a lump in my throat! One word: balance. One thing we have lots of in spades, and that Turkey does not. Their guy Erdogan got 30 pts, half the team's points in a losing cause. Reminds one of the Galis era, only difference being of course that Galis would win games for his team with those performances. Sofo had a huge game as did Kakiouzis and Lazaros of course. Clutch shooting from Spanoulis down the stretch. This team never ceases to amaze me with their fight and persistence. They must be hell to play against! Zito Hellas! It's now China's turn. Any idea when the game is? I thought it was 9pm Sat EST, but crazy's post indicates around midnight.

Never mind the past. We are better than them now. If we play LTU 10 times, we will beat them 7 times, with or without Jaskevicius.As far as USA, their best individuals may not be there, but that doesn't mean their best team is not there. They can make any excuse they want; they used to lose when they sent the college guys, now they are losing with their pros. NBA is a s%$#! league, in my book, all about individual flair and ego, not real B-ball. I'm glad Hellas won Euro last year vs all those NBA stars (Kirilenko, Parker, Diaw, Nowitzki). We were the only ones with no players actually playing in the NBA (Fotsis was drafted, and now Spanoulis too, but they don't actually play). I'm glad Tsakalidis is not there, we sucked big time in Euro '03 with him at centre. Lazaros is better.

I'll put Turkey in the top 10 in the world at best, with the following teams superior to them (in no particular order):1. Hellas 2. Arg 3. Esp 4. SCG 5. LTU 6. USA 7. Ita 8. Rus 9. Ger And top 10 doesn't mean too much in Basket where not many country have good teams, like for example in football. Top 5 or even 3 is where you need to be, and I think Hellas is there.

Finishing 1st or 2nd also is convenient from a schedule standpoint, at least for us here in the North American East. Following are 2nd round game times (EST) by rank that we may finish in our group. 1st...9pm Saturday 2nd...midnight Friday 3rd...7am Saturday 4th...4am Sunday

I'll take that matchup, darkhorse. I think we're better than last year (at least we're better than we were before we won it all), and Slovenia is worse.Frankly, I'll take any matchup they give us. The teams which will be the biggest test for Hellas though, are Spain and Argentina, and USA if they eventually meet.

They were down by 5? I though it was 3. Amazing!This is quite the group of death, but with four teams advancing, I never worried that a team of Hellas' calibre would not advance. Turkey is through too. The key I guess for some of the other teams is to finish high enough so as not to face the US in the first round. But there are other good teams in that pool that Hellas will have to not take lightly, including Slovenia who defeated us at Euro last year in the group stage.

I don't think Australia is mediocre. They make up for the lack of skill with heart.I'd rather win close matches and make awesome comebacks, than blow everybody away then lose when it counts. We are showing we can deal with adversity, lots of character. 20/23 from the stripe (compared to 21/41 vs. LTU). Can't believe it: two 3-pointers for the win. Fotsis and Zisis were clutch. I love it, we could have just hit a regular field goal with three seconds left for the win, but Zisis decided to finish the Aussies in style with a tray. I could care less what Turkey does in their matches, as long as we beat them

My bad, typo. I meant to write 'we'll handle the Turks' or 'handle Turkey' (not 'Turkeys'). No offense intended, just a typo.

@ Drakos, I think you're too hard on the team. Their shooting was 56% in the game vs. Qatar (Qatar's was over 60% surprisingly), and the FT% was over 90% for the Greeks (22/24). Their shooting may be bad at times, but they are so good with steals, turnovers, boards, you name it, that they get so many opps and end up scoring over 80 pts. I think Lithuania is the toughest opponent in this pool, we've always had problems with them (I believe they crushed in Euro '03), never mind that they lost to Turkey, I think we'll handle handle the Turkeys by at least 10. It looks now like LTU will not survive the group of death, but I think they will bounce back to kill Aus and Bra, and make it to the next round. Our team can be awesome, we had a 24-1 run against Qatar at one point. The US does not scare me, bring them on. It's the intelligent-playing teams like Arg and Spain that will give us a good test. Looks like Serbia may be out (two losses). Keep it up Hellas! Off to watch Samaras in the City-Chelsea match. 2nd ha;f underway, City down 0-2. edit: the pricks subbed Samaras early in the 2nd

Agreed, it's the final result that counts, and we scored 84 and allowed only 64 (good offense and defense), who cares about the early rust.The other favourites didn't fare as well: besides France who with Parker's absence from this tourney don't have a prayer right now (they lost to Argentina), Lithuania lost to Turkey, Serbia lost to Nigeria(?), USA beat Puerto Rico only by 11 (111-100) although I think PUR are no slouches. Brazil beat Australia I think, Italy over China.

Bullshit. These NBA TV clowns got my hopes up too with their 'every game' comment, but if you look at the schedule it's only 27 games, the only preliminary Greek match will be vs. Turkey. I would have liked to see them play Lithuania, Brazil, Australia (and trounce these latter pricks especially).The good news: we'll get to see Hellas in several elimination games, and hopefully parading the trophy in the end. Filtate Ethnikisti, you're right, the Yanks have it in for Greeks above anything else. (I shouldn't have toned down my post.)

There is no end to these Yanks' arrogance...and no limit to their disdain for Greeks, or rather for anything that is unfamiliar to them.I hope we hand their asses to them. Or if we don't somebody else, please.

Demspawn, I know for a fact that NBA TV (Raptors TV in the Great White North) will carry 27 games, of which only one will include Greece (vs. Turkey). Part of that 27: all elimination games, where we will get to see Greece again. Other than that, ESPN2 will have all USA games, and maybe one of the Fox Sports channels too, but guaranteed NONE of them will carry any Greek games besides Greece-Turkey. I checked ERTSat: not showing Greece's games this weekend at least (Saturday vs. Qatar and Sunday vs. Lithuania (which should be a dandy)). I think all the preliminary Greece games will be on ERT's NET channel available, I believe, only in Greece. Nothing on ERTSat.

Wow! What a drubbing we inflicted on poor Germany. The defense is phenomenal, but what about the offense? 84 pts is no small feat in international B-ball. Also, what amazing balance, I believe Spanoulis led all Greek scorers with 12, how rare is that when your side scores 84?

Does anybody know who played for Canada when Greece recently crushed them 89-59? Was Nash part of that drubbing?

I believe ERT will televise ALL Greek NT matches, that is between their ET1, ET3, and NET channels.ERTSat may carry some of these, but as I looked at Saturday's schedule, I noticed the first match at least (Greece-Qatar) will NOT be on ERTSat. I'm trying to find out whether Odyssey OTN, which is a Toronto-based satellite channel, will have any of the games. I know for a fact that the only Greek NT game shown on NBA TV (known as Raptors TV in Canada) is the Greece-Turkey match as well as the elimination matches they will likely qualify for. I like Hellas' chances. They crushed Croatia, beat France and Italy (which are very good teams), beat SCG(?) (or barely lost to them). They can beat anybody, I think, even the US, especially by virtue of their brilliant defensive play, the way they block shots and force turnovers, and the intelligence of guys like Diamantidis and Papaloukas (I love this guy's blind passes and tricky dribbling). In answer to an earlier question, the black guy is Schortianitis, I believe Greek-born. He must be decent to have been drafted by a NBA team. Eight pts in a close-fought match versus France in the Acropolis tourney is respectable, plus supposedly he gets a lot of boards. Zito Ellas!