Basketball - Beijing

[loup]

that's that

argenitina is an excellent team

we played a great game and a missed 3 away friom moving on

no shame in this tournament --- probably got what we deserved

bravo pathyia :gr: :gr:

[Irlandos]

Again, Argentina! :(

[paxiotis7]

:(

Im heartbroken!

[Kolokotronis]

When do the "REAL" games begin?

[Paoktsis]

That was a heartbreaking loss. Nontheless I am very proud of our team.

They must build on the young nucleus, and must learn from this experience in order to be able to beat the elite teams (Spain, Argentina, USA) in future tournaments.

[drakos13]

fackin ginobli and delfino

there really is zero chance Argentina would have won without Ginobili in all honesty. He's phenomenal player....

The game was close, but this team needs some wake up calls.

Greece lost that game, period. Why exactly does Giannakis not respond when his players are turning the ball over 5 times in 3 minutes? Whats the deal? Spanoulis was atrocious 3rd period. Cost us huge, what exactly is going on and you feel the need to do no-look passes???? Ginobili was given a room and a key to do whatever he wanted.....they should have assigned this guy to be shut off. Thats not right.

Giannakis Im still not a fan of. Hes a pussy. His players go out and make RETARTED individual decisions they should no better than to be doing at this level, and you never once see Giannakis give a damn. Thats why I like Zelko...Hed bitch slap Greece into shape, and hes a great coach. Problem is his Greek is not amazing, though it hasnt stopped success with PAO. Hed need a high salary too...The little stuff counts big. We saw every game with stupid little s%$#! mistakes constantly. Some of the passing we had was horrific 3rd period. Its not like the coverage was too good, it was rather POOR decisions and hospital passes that are right in passing lanes. What the hell ever happened to a low (bounce pass) thats short quick accurate and tough to reach? When you lob a ball at arms height in a passing lane, its a turnover. I dont understand how a team can do this so many times, and the coach not scream his head off once. Childish mistakes lose games. If we cant beat our own mistakes, we cant beat any serious competition for a medal.

Vassilopoulos, who has a major ego problem, is trying to do showy dunks on an empty basket ....I could not beleive it. LAY IT UP let it roll of your fingers - get the secured to points is ALL thats important. That counts big. Vassilopoulos is a good player, but hes capable of making lethally stupid decisions out there. Much like Papaloukas, who intentionally gets himself cornered behind the basket only to throw an insecure pass out to where he started from basically every play.

Those 2 points WHERE HUGE then, and seemed QUITE HUGE now. A real coach would clean Vassiliopoulos' stupid ego right out. Spanoulis too. Dont ever try to pull stunt s%$#!, if you do, it BETTER BE right. If you screw it up, be prepared to pay for it in practice and in the locker room. Something from our coach would be nice.

Also, why on earth did we not foul with 30 seconds left??? We cant take those chacnes. We were banking on Ginobili MISSING (RARE), and a rushed 3 pointer at the other end to get us the game. For both to happen was not extremley doubtful likley. Should have stopped the clock, took our time and hope they cant take the repeat trips to the free throw line.

On to the future.......I seriously hope Zisis and Papaloukas say goodbye. I have no idea how the hell CSKA won a Euroleague this last year with these guys...We need some MORE new faces it seems, and more departures.

Fotsis was great, Tsartsaris was a lion out there....Koufos were gonna be needing soon, I hope hell play for us. Pat Kalathis starts Maroussi this season, I hope he develops into somethign good.

Anyways...Argentina and USA, Luthuania and Spain...Greece left out... :(

I still think we are capable and at the level of the likes of Argentina and Lithuania. Weve got to be less careless. I dont see much problems for USA, they will shut off Ginobili and that will be the end of it. Lithuania has a good chance vs Spain, but i think its gonna be Spain.

[trifilli]

The many mental mistakes and the 3 pointer storm that hit us, were the reasons for this ridiculous loss. I want to throw up... :tdown:

I did not agree with the 3 Span took. I know he was open but with 10 secs, you must go for the inside game first. We would have a better chance in overtime. I do not blame anyone in particular, it was a team loss. Spanoulis was our best player in these Olympics. I really thought we would win this. Not defending the 3s was very costly. The worst moment was the missed slam dunk. No reason for it, it cost us psychologically and they went on a 7-0 run. Sofo again, was a non factor. I am very disappointed in this team today. I consider these Olympics a complete failure. 3-3 is NOT acceptable. We did not beat a single good team. Bad, really bad, and very SAD... Bourousis was the only unexpected good news. Papaloukas was not at his best today.

There will be better days. We LOVE our ETHNIKH BASKET :gr:

PEACE

[drakos13]

The many mental mistakes and the 3 pointer storm that hit us, were the reasons for this ridiculous loss. I want to throw up... :tdown:

I did not agree with the 3 Span took. I know he was open but with 10 secs, you must go for the inside game first. We would have a better chance in overtime. I do not blame anyone in particular, it was a team loss. Spanoulis was our best player in these Olympics. I really thought we would win this. Not defending the 3s was very costly. The worst moment was the missed slam dunk. No reason for it, it cost us psychologically and they went on a 7-0 run. Sofo again, was a non factor. I am very disappointed in this team today. I consider these Olympics a complete failure. 3-3 is NOT acceptable. We did not beat a single good team. Bad, really bad, and very SAD... Bourousis was the only unexpected good news. Papaloukas was not at his best today.

There will be better days. We LOVE our ETHNIKH BASKET :gr:

PEACE

well summed up. That Vassilopita "dunk-ara" was a catastrophe. Pure stupidity, to lose a result. Slam Dunks and spectacles, save it for Angola and Germany.....Part of why I hate slam dunks in general. They look cool, but when you go to hard you can miss. Drop it in to the damn basket already.

Papaloukas was not at his best all tournament, hes been quite bad in Euro and Olympics now. No wonder CSKA let him go, and its time for him to go.

Perperoglou. No BS, steals, quick, killer 3 pointers...He deserves to make that team next time around, hes a replacement for Xatzivrettas, and better than Zisis.

BTW I thought Spanoulis had much less than 10 seconds left when he went for 3.

[PurelyAcademic]

Kolokotroni, no need for ironies.

I had a feeling coming into this game that the game would go down to the last shot, and it did. So many times in the past, the last shot has fallen for us. This time, it didn't. 3-3 and 5th place in the Olympics is not what we were looking for, and I feel does not even reflect the true talent and capabilities of the team, but they fought hard today, and in the end, Argentina was one shot better. The game could have gone either way, but we looked Argentina in the eye and did not shy away from the "big" opponent.

I do feel we can expect a bright future from the team, especially with the likes of Koufos joining the team. He would have been a huge help this year, even though Boroussis really came on strong in the last three games.

I for one will congratulate the team and look forward to better days ahead.

Beyond that, no other upsets of any kind and USA-Argentina and Spain-Lithuania in the semis. Should be interesting!

[paxiotis7]

When do the "REAL" games begin?

Are you kidding man? Do you honestly support greece?

[plato-ny]

Despite the loss, we should be proud of our NT. Greece has been a back-to-back Olympic Basketball quarterfinalist (most teams have not reached, at least, the quarterfinals back-to-back) and that is not bad.

[Kolokotronis]

Despite the loss, we should be proud of our NT. Greece has been a back-to-back Olympic Basketball quarterfinalist (most teams have not reached, at least, the quarterfinals back-to-back) and that is not bad.

Top post Plato.

:tup:

Congrats to Giannakis and the boys.

They played well.

[PurelyAcademic]

Do you have anything else to say? Please go back to celebrating Team USA's big win over basketball powerhouse Australia.

[dark_horse]

I want to say congrads to Greece for there good efforts against Argentina. Argentina are a classy team and they do cause matchup problems for Greece. They know when to make there shots, I wished Greece would have done the same. The 3rd quarter was the backbreaker, had we played better in that particular quarter, we could have beaten them by 5 - 7 points. Can't afford to make these mistakes against a good side like Argentina.

Let's go and end the tourny on a high note, hopefully 5th place. :gr: :nw: :gr:

[Nick99]

I agree with a lot of Drakos' comments, in fact they almost hit the nail on the head of how I feel every time Greece loses a big game, and it seems to be happening more and more frequently, 3 years straight now, disappointing finishes. OK, runners up in 2006 but we got killed in the final.

Way too many errant passes, floating passes, no-look passes, balls dribbled off feet out of bounds, no help on the double team, lousy coverage outside on top players like Ginobili. Bad coaching and bad substitutions.

Agreed, Zisis and Pap showed nothing this tournament. Diamantidis is not the defensive player he used to be. Did we block any shots this tournament or create steals (not the easy turnovers, did we force the turnovers, I don't recall any).

Vs. USA, Bourousis all alone under the basket, goes up for a piss-poor weak lay in, blocked, luckily fouled. But our free throw shooting is miserable. Can't even get it in straight swoosh, and what I think is the lousiest rule of the international game, the inside the cylinder block. How many times have we seen US players sweep out a sloppy free throw, saving a point. Anyway, Bourousis should have dunked, get the basket and the harm. I didn't see Vasilopoulos' missed dunk, but in this game, I tend to favour the slam, unless it's fancy and risky.

We seemed to wanna get rid of the ball too hastily, ending up in giveaways more often than not. We should have taken a page from the US team and chucked a few possessions now and then, especially from his Kobeness' playbook.

Anyway, Greece needs to finish top 4 in every tournament. Losing to Argentina should not happen, especially as regularly as it seems to be happening.

Finally, my condolences to fellow Canadian viewers, who not only saw the Ethniki flame out too early in this tournament, but had to endure the pitiful commentating of the TSN guys, one of whom I believe is some sort of scout for the Raptors.My God, what rubbish this was. If I had to hear the main colour guy's exclamation of 'splash' another time to announce a swish jump shot by an American player, I'd shoot my 46" LCD. Our resident Phantis Amerikanokavlo couldn't have done a more impartial job commentating his Wet Dream Team's games. lol I mean I expect this gushing commentating from the likes of NBC and such (one guy on NBC went on to call basketball an American sport, ahem Mr. James Naismith anyone?), but on Canada's TSN, come on!

Anyway, changes are needed in the Ethniki, and it may start at the coach level. A few players need to move on. I liked what I saw from Pelekanos, aggressive rebounding and good hustle, and overall great attitude. Not impressed by Glyniadakis. Tsartsaris always impresses me, cool as a cucumber that guy, and does all the little things right. You can be sure he'll finish every play down low. Sofo may have played his last game with the NT. Waste of size. The guy is by far the widest player in the Olympics, but I didn't see him come within six inches of a defender, and it wasn't because they were afraid of him believe me. Very slow too.

Better luck next time boys, and with some new faces. Hopefully we can at least claim 5th spot now.

[aekmafia21]

Its so sad that were able to crush i mean literally stomp on country that are ranked under our 6th,and when it comes down to those damn3 or 4 teams like spain argentina lithuania we some who find a way to play like school girls.

Its all well and good to beat them in friendlies but when it comes to real deal we choke, were missing that fine tuning like the basics free throws and 3 point shooting to be an elite country sad so f ing sad.

IM SO SICK OF GETTING BEAT BY THEM

The greek league is one of the best and top in the world so manny young greek talented players papaloukades and zisis need to go so they can step in.

OH how simple missed open dunk can come back and haunt you just lay it up big boy no flash, gone into ot we would have won

[aekmafia21]

If there one sport were healthy in is b-ball we have the potential to becomea top 3 country no dought in my mind it will happen i beleive it then teams like spain argentina will fear us not the other way around

[plato-ny]

Greece-Argentina highlights

[Kolokotronis]

Do you have anything else to say? Please go back to celebrating Team USA's big win over basketball powerhouse Australia.

yes, could you please let me know who the "real" world basketball powers are?

[Genome]

Guys what is our next game 'cause I just noticed we're not out yet (although we can't get a medal anymore) ?

[paxiotis7]

we still have games for 5th place :tdown:

[Genome]

Vs whom?

[Kolokotronis]

I don't think they're playing 5th place games anymore. At least that's what I thought I heard on USA Network.

[PurelyAcademic]

Since you seem to be in need of validation, Kolokotroni, the current powers are the USA, Spain, Argentina, Lithuania and Greece. Yes, I do feel we are still a power, considering we were 2nd in the world in 2006, Euro champs in 2005 with a similar squad to now, and 5th in the world in this Olympiad and literally one basket away from a shot at a medal. And especially since the Ethniki is fairly evidently ahead of the tier below it...teams like Russia, Germany, China, Croatia, Slovenia, Puerto Rico, Australia, etc.

Feel better now?

--

Moving on...regarding the Ethniki, I do think it is time for a few roster changes with the team. Papaloukas didn't have a great tournament and it's clear that he is past his peak. I could see him going for another tournament or two, however, but perhaps not in a starting role, more of an elder statesman. The same is true for Diamantidis, though I think that he has more left in the tank than Papaloukas.

Koufos is probably going to replace Big Sofo on the team...unless Big Sofo gets back into form by playing out a full season (which remains to be seen). He was completely out of form in the Olympics, which wasn't too surprising considering that he played less than half a season prior to this.

I do think Koufos would be a major help for the team and I hope that he can prove himself both professionally in the NBA and as a member of the Ethniki.

Hopefully younger guys like Vasilopoulos and Printezis will continue to grow and develop as players and take on a bigger role on the team.

Players like Tsartsaris are invaluable to the team, for everything they contribute that doesn't necessarily show up on the stat sheet, and are one of the reasons why we've gone far.

I do think that what has been missing from the Ethniki (and by extentsion, Greek basketball) for many years is a real, standout star in the mold of a Ginobili or a Nowitski. Someone who is always a danger to go off for 25 or 30 points and hit several three pointers and strike a dagger in the other team. I'd venture to say that's really been the difference between Greece and the other top teams. While Spanoulis, Diamantidis and Papaloukas are all NBA-quality players, they are not *that sort* of player (which doesn't diminish them in the slightest, however). While Greek basketball has produced many high quality players in the past couple of decades, the last player who truly fit that "superstar" mold was Nikos Galis, in my opinion. It's too bad we didn't have a Galis around today, or we'd likely have been playing for the gold in a few days ;)

[Kolokotronis]

Since you seem to be in need of validation, Kolokotroni, the current powers are the USA, Spain, Argentina, Lithuania and Greece.

World powers, heh?

Spain -37

Lithuania -35

Greece -23

I thought you told me the US would be in trouble once it played a "REAL" world power?

Unless you consider 30 point losses "in trouble", of course. :P

p.s. How did you already figure we're fifth place in this Olympiad? We haven't played a fifth place game, nor will we.