New Olympics Basketball Thread- Non-USA Teams

[Olympic Fan]

I was going to put this in the Olympic basketball thread, but I see that is locked. I guess this is now the thread for all Olympic basketball (if not, feel free to move it).

I was going to point out that with Russia's 77-74 win over Spain (amazingly low scoring game BTW), it now looks like Russia is a lock to finish first in Group B. The USA still needs to beat Argentina Monday to win Group A (unless Nigeria upsets Argentina later today -- that would clinch it for the US).

As for today's game, I'm relieved and pleased that the US pulled it out. It reminds me of 1976, when the US had a thriller against Puerto Rico in the in preliminary round. A loss would be embarrassing, but not fatal to gold medal hopes. The same applies to the Argentine game Monday -- the US is already a lock for the medal round. They're just playing for their perfect record and for seeding.

Lithuania, 1-4, can still qualify for the medal round if they beat Tunisia Monday. I'm assuming Argentina beats Nigeria later today. That means the USA would still need to beat Argentina Monday to win Group A (otherwise, it's likely to end in a three-way tie between the USA, France and Argentina -- not sure how the tiebreaker would work, since they all would have split with each other). Let's make it simple -- the USA wins Monday and Group A is 1. USA, 2. France (they get Tunisia Monday), 3. Argentina and 4, Lithuania.

Group B is much harder to figure out -- even though we know Russia is No. 1. Spain plays Brazil Monday and the winner is definitely No. 2. But the loser could be No. 3 or No. 4, depending on what Australia does. The Aussies have winless Great Britain later today and if they win that, they play Russia for for a chance to finish as high as third. However, if they lose to the Brits, the home team can secure a spot in the medal round by beating winless China Monday ... so today's Great Britain-Aussie game is HUGE.

The USA (provided we beat Argentina or win the three-way tiebreaker) will open the medal round against the No. 4 seed from Group B. That's probably going to be the winner of the GB/Aussie game today. Beyond that, my crystal ball is foggy.

BTW, does anybody else think the FIBA format is weird -- 12 teams each play five preliminary round games to eliminate just four of the 12 teams. After that, it's three sudden death games for the gold. That's just bizarre.

[hurleyfor3]

BTW, does anybody else think the FIBA format is weird -- 12 teams each play five preliminary round games to eliminate just four of the 12 teams. After that, it's three sudden death games for the gold. That's just bizarre.

I noticed that, but the only real alternative is a four-team medal round. Perhaps the existing format maximizes revenue.

[Newton_14]

Use this thread for news on the non-USA teams and games. I will put up Pre/In-game & post game threads for each remaining USA game moving forward.

[subzero02]

Who watched great britain versus australia...It was like watching a fastball being turned around for an out of the park home run... In super slow mo

[JasonEvans]

I love looking at FIBA standings at events like the Olympics. It is so ridiculous.

Check out the standings in Group B, for example. Great Britain has 4 points, just 2 points behind Australia. But, upon closer examination we see that the Brit team has not won a single game. How could they have 4 points?

Well, it is because FIBA gives you 2 points for a win and 1 point for a loss. Who gives points for losses?!?!?! In theory, if games were not played on the same day, a team that was 0-3 could be ahead of a team that was 1-0 in the standings. What sense does that make?

-Jason "FIBA -- making losing worth something" Evans

[Indoor66]

I love looking at FIBA standings at events like the Olympics. It is so ridiculous.

Check out the standings in Group B, for example. Great Britain has 4 points, just 2 points behind Australia. But, upon closer examination we see that the Brit team has not won a single game. How could they have 4 points?

Well, it is because FIBA gives you 2 points for a win and 1 point for a loss. Who gives points for losses?!?!?! In theory, if games were not played on the same day, a team that was 0-3 could be ahead of a team that was 1-0 in the standings. What sense does that make?

-Jason "FIBA -- making losing worth something" Evans

Doesn't everybody get a trophy today?

[Olympic Fan]

I noticed that, but the only real alternative is a four-team medal round. Perhaps the existing format maximizes revenue.

What's so wrong with a four-team medal round? Use the preliminary round to eliminate eight of the 12. The top two teams in each group go into the medal round. That does eliminate four games ...

Or could give the group winners a bye into the semifinals and led the 2nd/3rd place teams play in the quarters -- same number of rounds and just two less games overall. That way you eliminate half after the preliminary round.

[awhom111]

Well they need to give teams 1 point for a loss so that they can give 0 points for a forfeit or the foul-out trick that Qatar tried at the 2011 Asian Championships.

The games for tomorrow will be interesting. Russia and Australia are playing without either team caring about the result. Lithuania is going to try to finish off Tunisia and clinch their own spot. Nigeria will know if they still have a chance when they face France with the French wanting to win to earn the second spot in the group. Great Britain and China will also play a meaningless game although I am sure the home fans would like to see a win and it may be the last time that the team competes in this form. As mentioned in another thread, both Spain and Brazil might be trying to lose to put themselves on the theoretically weaker part of the bracket. The United States and Argentina will know exactly what needs to be done to win the group by the end of the day.

What was wrong with the old Non-USA Teams thread, wherever it dropped down the page to?

[burnspbesq]

Lithuania and France both took care of business.

Lithuania left it late, outscoring Tunisia 26-9 in the fourth to erase a four-point deficit. Marty did not start, played only eight minutes, and did not score.

France won by only six, as Nigerian guard Chamberlain Oguchi lit them up for 35. France had 24 assists on 30 made field goals.

[Newton_14]

Well they need to give teams 1 point for a loss so that they can give 0 points for a forfeit or the foul-out trick that Qatar tried at the 2011 Asian Championships.

The games for tomorrow will be interesting. Russia and Australia are playing without either team caring about the result. Lithuania is going to try to finish off Tunisia and clinch their own spot. Nigeria will know if they still have a chance when they face France with the French wanting to win to earn the second spot in the group. Great Britain and China will also play a meaningless game although I am sure the home fans would like to see a win and it may be the last time that the team competes in this form. As mentioned in another thread, both Spain and Brazil might be trying to lose to put themselves on the theoretically weaker part of the bracket. The United States and Argentina will know exactly what needs to be done to win the group by the end of the day.

What was wrong with the old Non-USA Teams thread, wherever it dropped down the page to?

Blame that on me. Poor attempt at thread management. After the snafu, I opened this new thread. Mainly trying to keep this thread focused on non-USA related teams, and use the standard pre/in & post game threads here on out for our USA guys. Apologies for the confusion created by closing the other thread.

[awhom111]

Interesting note about both the men's and women's basketball tournaments. In both cases, four European teams are on one side of the quarterfinal bracket and four non-European teams are on the other set of quarterfinals.

[burnspbesq]

Lithuania had chances in the fourth, but poor offensive execution did them in.

Kirilenko led Russia with 19 and 14.

Lithuania misses the semifinals for the first time ever.

[Duvall]

Lithuania had chances in the fourth, but poor offensive execution did them in.

How is that possible? I thought the Lithuanians understood basketball at a much deeper level.

[COYS]

France and Spain are in a Big 10 style slug fest heading into the 4th. France is clinging to a 53-51 lead.

[COYS]

Wow, points are hard to come by in the France/Spain clash. 58-57 with under four to go. Next basket wins . . . or at least that's what it seems like.

[COYS]

Wow, points are hard to come by in the France/Spain clash. 58-57 with under four to go. Next basket wins . . . or at least that's what it seems like.

Ok, so maybe I was right. No scoring at all in the past 4 minutes. Spain with a chance to extent their lead at the FT line.

[COYS]

Well, Spain FINALLY looks to have pulled it out. This was one of the ugliest games I've ever seen. France went 0-11 from the field over the last half of the fourth quarter. Spain didn't do much better, but France was so bad it didn't matter. Also, the officiating in this game was VERY lenient. The physical play eventually got out of control as France picked up two unsportsmanlike fouls. The last was a ridiculously blatant Chris Paul style punch by Batum on Navarro. I can't believe he wasn't ejected.

France is good, but Spain on all cylinders is waaaaay better. However, this version of Spain is definitely not the version from '08. Russia is going to be a very tough opponent for Spain in the next round.

[MChambers]

The physical play eventually got out of control as France picked up two unsportsmanlike fouls. The last was a ridiculously blatant Chris Paul style punch by Batum on Navarro. I can't believe he wasn't ejected.

And the U.S. style of basketball, or at least Chris Paul's style, spreads to Europe.

Did Daniel Ewing get a technical?

[AtlBluRew]

Well, Spain FINALLY looks to have pulled it out. This was one of the ugliest games I've ever seen. France went 0-11 from the field over the last half of the fourth quarter. Spain didn't do much better, but France was so bad it didn't matter. Also, the officiating in this game was VERY lenient. The physical play eventually got out of control as France picked up two unsportsmanlike fouls. The last was a ridiculously blatant Chris Paul style punch by Batum on Navarro. I can't believe he wasn't ejected.

France is good, but Spain on all cylinders is waaaaay better. However, this version of Spain is definitely not the version from '08. Russia is going to be a very tough opponent for Spain in the next round.

Batum should have been ejected! He followed a Paul-like punch to n*ts with a shove to the now-bent-over player's back and then challenged him when the player protested!

[Bluedog]

http://sports.yahoo.com/news/olympic...-to-spain.html

"I wanted to give him a good reason to flop," Batum said.

Also basically said that Spain lost on purpose to Brazil to avoid the U.S. To me, it looked like he didn't actually connect on his punch (hit his inner thigh it looked like, but I could be wrong), but his intent was very clear.

Obviously, France and Spain's teams aren't the biggest fans of each other...