Pau and Manu Headline Olympic All-Group Teams

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A monster third quarter from Kevin Durant and a buzzer beating three from Patty Mills will send Team USA into the medal rounds as the only team without a loss.

The United States went to the locker room up 60-59 on Argentina before a 42-point explosion in the third quarter put the 2004 gold medalists in USA’s rearview for good.  Seventeen of those 42 belonged to Durant, who hit five of his eight threes in the third and moved past Carmelo Anthony and into the team scoring lead (18.6) with 28 for the game.

Julio Lamas yanked his starters in the fourth as Team USA ran away for the win, 126-97.

Things got rowdy and benches cleared late in the game, however, when Carmelo rose up for a jumper and Facundo Campazzo hit him where the sun don’t shine.  And I don’t mean England, in general.

Anthony made the shot and players, coaches exchanged glares, yells for a minute or two before we got back to basketball.  Just a little more fuel to the fire if these two meet up again in the next phase (they’ll share the same side of the bracket).

Now the Group B champs will take their undefeated record and an achy, breaky groin into the medal rounds to play Australia, who are on a hot streak of their own.

The Aussies have won three straight, their third coming today against previously undefeated Russia.  Australia was down 79-80 when Joe Ingles kicked it up top to Patty Mills who set his feet and rained in a game winning three as the backboard lit up.

Game: Boomers.

Mills and David Andersen both had 13 in the win—which, from a standings perspective, means nothing—and Ingles had his best game of an already impressive Olympics with 20 points in the 82-80 win.

Lithuania fell into Tunisia’s notorious first quarter trap and got behind 18-7 after one, but big threes from zone busters Renaldas Seibutis and Simas Jasaitis held the Tunisians at arm’s length in the second half.  Lithuania won 76-63 and sent Tunisia back to Northern Africa winless in Olympic play.

The hosts finally got on the board, grinding China’s offense down to a benign nub with good defensive pressure, their lone staple throughout these games.  Great Britain won by a final of 90-58 as Kieron Achara, who had only seen 11 minutes prior to today, led GB with 16 points.

France finished second in Group B by beating Nigeria 79-73 on the group stage’s final day.  Nicolas Batum keeps looking sharper and sharper and finished with 23 points on the afternoon.

And finally, Brazil beat Spain 88-82 to lock up second place in Group A, all amidst talk of tanking.  The theory was that the loser slides down to third place and enters the medal round on the opposite side of Team USA in the brackets, thus avoiding them until a potential gold medal game.

If Spain were tanking, the front court trio of the Gasol Bros and Serge Ibaka would not have combined for 59 points.  If Spain were tanking, Sergio Scariolo wouldn’t have run Juan Carlos Navarro around on his injured foot for 27 minutes, his highest tally of the tournament.

Brazil did sit Nene and the subs saw a little more action than usual, but that’s to be expected in the last game before the medal rounds between two teams that have already stamped their tickets.

A peculiar game full of conservative decisions and a somewhat muted intensity, sure.  But not a tank job.

Tomorrow, Sheridan Hoops will preview the medal rounds in full.  Today, it’s time to hand out some hardware.  Ladies and gentlemen, the All-Group teams:

Group A

Patty Mills, PG, Australia
20.6 PPG   |   4.2 RPG   |   2.2 APG

Patty Mills shoots 14-of-40 (35 percent) in Australia’s first two games, averages 15.5 and they lose both.  Patty Mills shoots 27-of-57 in their next three and averages 24 and Australia rides a three game winning streak into the knockout stage.  The Boomers play best when both body and ball are moving quickly; Patty’s realized that when he dribbles the shot clock into single digits, neither will happen.  The emergence of Matthew Dellavedova and even Joe Ingles as options at the point has freed up Patty to fill in empty spaces and maximize his utility in Brett Brown’s offense.

Vitaly Fridzon, SG, Russia
10.8 PPG   |   2.8 APG   |   46.2% on threes

Scoring 24 points to knock the Spaniards into second (and eventually third) place and scissor kicking his way to a game winning three against Brazil—easily this week’s most clutch moment—is enough to get you on this team.  So is being the lone beacon of stability in a Russian backcourt when momentum seesaws between Alexey Shved and Anton Ponkrashov at the point.

Luol Deng, G, Great Britain
15.8 PPG   |    6.6 RPG   |   4.6 APG

Coming off a taxing, Derrick Rose-less playoff run with the Chicago Bulls, Luol Deng’s wrist was supposed to go under the knife.  But as the face of Great Britain’s nascent basketball program, the London Olympics were no time to show up with a doctor’s note (or not show up at all, Ben Gordon).  So he played.  And he played.  More possessions, more positions and more responsibilities than anyone at these games, all with a bum wrist and the added pressure of playing on the Queen’s soil. Great Britian didn’t advance, but leaving Deng off of this list would have been a disgraceful omission.

Andrei Kirilenko, F, Russia
18.2 PPG   |   6.2 RPG   |   2 SPG

Andrei feels like a young deer.  David Blatt thinks of him as a wild horse.  His tattoo artist fancies him a pterodactyl-esque warrior dragon.  And while NBC’s announcers frantically pine for his increased involvement during crunch time, Kirilenko is quite all right being this team’s motor, its mortar, or even a secondary offensive weapon, crashing in for a putback right when you’ve let your eyes wander.

Pau Gasol, PF/C, Spain
20.6 PPG   |   6 RPG   |   1.4 BPG

Pau Gasol is so reliable on offense he’s almost invisible, with scoring totals of 21, 20, 17, 20, 25.  Equally encouraging news for Spanish coach Sergio Scariolo is that Pau has been invisible to the referees as well, picking up just four fouls in 128 minutes of action.  It’s not that he’s playing opossum either, as he’s blocked two shots in each of his last three games.  And be scared, world: Pau’s hit four threes in nine attempts during the Olympics.  Step your game up, LeBron James and Russell Westbrook (three each).

Second Team: Marcelinho Huertas (Brazil), Joe Ingles (Australia), Viktor Khryapa (Russia), David Andersen (Australia), Sasha Kaun (Russia)

Group B

Tony Parker, PG, France
15.8 PPG   |   3.6 APG   |   2.2 RPG

With Mickael Gelabale hitting corner threes, his man can’t cheat over to stop Parker’s drives anymore.  With Boris Diaw making plays from the elbow, his man can’t hedge so hard on screens that Boris is left alone.  With Nicolas Batum hitting over 80 percent of his two-pointers and nearly half of his threes, leaving him stranded is out of the question.  France has gotten more across-the-board contributions than they could have realistically hoped for, and that cohesion has been key to their solid run.  But when Vincent Collet really needs a bucket, it’s No. 9, every time.

Manu Ginobili, SG, Argentina
20 PPG   |   6 RPG   |   4.8 APG

What Diego Maradona is and Lionel Messi is becoming for football in Argentina, Manu Ginobili is for basketball.  No player in these Olympics is more closely associated with his national program than Ginobili is with Argentina, his bald spot as much a part of the uniform as the colors themselves.   In London he’s been nothing short of sensational, scoring at will and signing up for extra ball handling duties with Pablo Prigioni kidney stoned.  If this older group wants to medal, Ginobili’s play needs to approach perfection.  Going 26-of-26 from the free throw line is a Hell of a way to start.

Nicolas Batum, SF, France
16.8 PPG   |   5.8 RPG   |   86.4% on twos

Joakim Noah’s no-show was nearly enough for me to count France out entirely as a medal contender.  In Noah, France hadn’t just lost a certain number of boards and blocks, they’d lost a second steady body behind Parker.  With all eyes on Batum to up his output, France got stomped in the battle of reds, whites and blues as Batum scored just seven points on six shots.  After that, Batum turned it on, leading France in scoring, rebounding, blocks, field goal percentage and three pointers made.  France wanted a Robin; they got a Bat(u)man.

Kevin Durant, F, United States
18.6 PPG   |   5.6 RPG   |   3.8 APG

While announcers continue to praise LeBron’s occasional dormancy in the scoring column as unselfish dominance, Kevin Durant has been getting buckets.  On a team saturated with All-Stars, only Durant has reached double figures in all five of Team USA’s games.  While Durant scoring in boatloads won’t surprise anyone, trailing only Kevin Love (and exceeding Tyson Chandler) in rebounding might.

Luis Scola, PF/C, Argentina
20.2 PPG   |   5.2 RPG   |   3.2 APG

In a shortened game with only five fouls to give per person, getting to the line is key, and nobody drew more fouls in the group stage than the wily Luis Scola.  With strong pump fakes and spin moves that give defenders a face full of hair, guarding Scola can’t be too much fun.  Throw a deadly elbow jumper into the arsenal and it’s no wonder the 2010 World Championships scoring leader (27.1 per game) is only decimals off of the lead (Gasol and Mills are at 20.6 PPG) this summer.

Second Team: Sarunas Jasikevicius (Lithuania),  Carmelo Anthony (USA), Linas Kleiza (Lithuania), LeBron James (USA), Salah Mejri (Tunisia)

Nick Gibson, editor of EuroleagueAdventures.com, covers the Euroleague and other international basketball developments for SheridanHoops.com. Follow him on Twitter.

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Olympics: Team USA Tested By Lithuania, Russia Lurking

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Team USA has been a spectacle in the Olympics’ first week, the conversation surrounding them filled with more oohs and aahs than X’s and O’s.  We’ve dissected the records they’ve set more than the teams that they’ve beaten and gotten our compression shorts in a bunch over some hypothetical match up between 11 young NBA players (and Kobe Bryant) and 11 graying Hall of Famers (and Christian Laettner).

Can this team beat the Dream Team?  Who cares. Tell me about Russia.

Up until now, Team USA has simply entertained us.  Today in their 99-94 win over Lithuania, they showed us that they can play basketball, too.

Two days after disposing of the Nigerians 156-73, Carmelo Anthony and Team USA found out rather quickly that Lithuania had played on this stage before.  Led by Sarunas Jasikevicius’ scrunched up, disapproving snarl, Lithuania wasn’t about to roll over because they’d seen these guys on television.

They spread the U.S. out defensively and hammered the middle of the floor.  With Jasikevicius directing the offense out front, the Lithuanians assisted on seven of their first eight buckets and gave the United States their first real opportunity to defend a functional offense.

But after his 37-points-in-14-minutes fiasco, Carmelo was still seeing Nigerian defenders and a rim the size of a hula hoop and hit two threes in that first quarter.  Two more long ones from Durant and one from Deron Williams put Team USA on pace for 20, and the 33-25 lead at the end of one seemed dangerously close to inflation.

Then, for the first time in forever, the shots stopped falling: ten threes attempted, only one converted in the second.

The U.S. defense swayed more than it did shift aggressively, and Krzyzewski watched as former Blue Devil Martynas Pocius (and current Real Madrid swingman) got in the lane easily and repeatedly.  When he arrived at the rim, there was rarely a U.S. defender to greet him.

Tyson Chandler is the man who would usually be there to say howdy, but he only played eight minutes in this ballgame.  With the front of the rim open for business, Lithuania shot 63.3 percent from inside the arc (58 percent overall) and Team USA ended up with two total blocks.

When you’re crushing teams by an average of 52 points, it’s a little tougher to put your finger on the negatives, and even easier to ignore them when you do.  But run up against a resilient team like Lithuania, full of Euroleaguers and national team vets, and they’ll be happy to point out your flaws.

“They did a good job attacking the rim, their bigs made great plays, their guards made great shots,” said Kobe Bryant, who had his worst game of the Olympics with just 6 points on 1-of-7 shooting.

“They executed their game to perfection really.”

With Chandler on the bench for 32 minutes, Kestutis Kemzura might have chosen to stick with Raptor rookie Jonas Valanciunas or Antanas Kavaliauskas and exploit a mismatch down low.  But those two combined for just 17 minutes as  Lithuania’s head coach opted to stay smaller, quicker and more suited to defend Krzyzewski’s miniature American line ups, one of which featured Russell Westbrook at small forward.

But that’s just it: Russell Westbrook is not a small forward, and he is not used to doing small forward things, just as Kevin Durant isn’t a power forward and isn’t used to doing power forward things.

One of those power forward things is shutting down the pick and roll.  With half of  Team USA’s players playing several steps from home, Lithuania took advantage.

Jasikevicius and Pocius took turns running off screens and waiting patiently as teammates filtered down behind inexperienced and out-of-position defenders.  After a Pocius two cut Team USA’s lead to one, Linas Kleiza rattled in a three to put Lithuania on top 82-80 with seven minutes left.

Just as folks started dusting off their favorite LeBron chokes in fourth quarters jokes, James went off.

First a three with 3:58 remaining gave the U.S. a four-point lead, and a two-pointer 17 seconds later put them up by six.  Two more buckets in the next couple of minutes put the lead out of reach, 99-90 with just over a minute left.

LeBron finished with 20, tying Carmelo for the team high.  Kevin Durant added 16 and Williams had 12.  Linas Kleiza had 25 for Lithuania and Pocius had 14 against the coach who hardly played him in college (Pocius’ career high as a Blue Devil was, coincidentally, 14 against N.C. State in 2007).

The bad news for the United States is that they aren’t perfect.  The good news is that they learned what needs fixing, and it took beating a damn good Lithuanian team to do it.

On the other side of the tourney, Russia clawed back from a 20-2 deficit to beat Spain 77-74 and lock up first place in Group A.

Spain couldn’t miss early and finished the first quarter up 28-11, but Russia won the second and third quarters 21-12 and 23-14, respectively to capture a lead heading into the fourth quarter.

With the game tied at 82 and 18 seconds left, Anton Ponkrashov found Timofey Mozgov underneath the bucket for the go-ahead slam.  Spain ran it back down the floor and found Pau Gasol inside, who worked on Viktor Khryapa until the whistle blew.

Foul. Two shots, down two. Five seconds left.  Pau put up the first.

Back rim.

He hit the second and Spain fouled to extend the game, but it was futile.  Vitaly Fridzon did what Pau couldn’t and nailed both free throws and Spain never even got a final shot up.

As expected, Russia powered past the Spaniards behind huge efforts from Vitaly Fridzon (24 points) and…Ponkrashov?

Yes sir.

With everyone’s new favorite, Alexey Shved, puzzled by Spain’s tightly packed defense, Blatt turned to the enigmatic Ponkrashov, who responded with his biggest game in a Russian jersey.   The 6-foot-8 blonde point guard was the only reason Spain didn’t push the lead to 25 or 30 early, hitting his first four shots and squeezing points out of a lethargic Russian attack.

Ponkrashov finished with 14 points (6-of-8 shooting) in 30 minutes, but it was his 11 assists that made the difference for Russia.

I wrote earlier this week that Ponkrashov’s potential emergence would make Russia a serious threat to the United States.  Well, here he is.  And yes, they are.

Great Britain made it official that they wouldn’t be joining the teams above in the knockout stage by blowing a 10-point halftime lead to Australia and losing 106-75 in the end.  Patty Mills scored 39 points, the highest single game tally London has seen and only the fourth 30-point performance of these Olympics; Yi Jianlian, Luis Scola and Andrei Kirilenko have the others.

(Correction: There have been five. Add Carmelo Anthony’s 37 points vs. Nigeria to the club.)

In the only other competitive game of the day, Tony Parker (22) and Nicolas Batum (19) carried France past Tunisia 73-69.

In the least competitive game of the day, Brazil beat China 98-59.  So that’s what it looks like when Yi Jianlian goes 1-of-9 and drops a cool 5 points on you.  Huh.

Nigeria lost by just 14 this time to Argentina, 93-79, improving upon Thursday’s margin by 69 points, so that’s a step in the right direction.

Argentina should come away with three positives from this one.  The first is that Andres Nocioni can still shoot a basketball (17 points on 6-of-10 shooting today; 9 points on 2-of-13 in his previous two).

The second is that Pablo Prigioni passed his kidney stones.  Then he passed to teammates.  He had four assists in 12 minutes.

Nick Gibson, editor of EuroleagueAdventures.com, covers the Euroleague and other international basketball developments for SheridanHoops.com. Follow him on Twitter.

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Olympics: Russia and Spain Fight For First Place

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With Brazil up 74-72 and six seconds remaining, it seemed as though Russia wouldn’t waltz into their meeting with Spain undefeated after all.  Then Vitaly Fridzon took a pass from Alexey Shved in the corner and heaved up a prayer.

Russia: still perfect.

All Spain had to was dispose of the fledgling hosts and our heavyweights would meet in the ring as planned.  But threes from Dan Clark, Nate Reinking and Luol Deng in the final 28 seconds cut the Spanish lead to a single point with five seconds left.  Then Jose Calderon, who had already hit six free throws in the last minute of play, caught the inbounds and eluded lackadaisical British defenders as he dribbled out the clock.

Spain: still perfect.

But on Saturday, only one of these teams will escape from The Marshmallow with a 4-0 record and first place in Group A.

Let’s take a look at all six match ups, and see if I can do a little better with my picks (5-1).  Only missed the spread on USA vs. Nigeria game by 56.

Group A

Tunisia (0-3, 6th) vs. France (2-1, 3rd)   |   4:00 AM EST

Kidney stones are to Pablo Prigioni as Drake and Chris Brown are to Tony Parker, and unless Tunisia can get one or both of the beefing pop stars a Tunisian passport by Saturday, Parker might just break off another 27-point performance.

Now that Parker’s cozied up to his new goggles, it looks like only the fog within them can slow the Belgian-born Frenchman down.  Luckily for Parker, whose scoring has escalated from 10 to 17 to 27 in his first three games, he doesn’t have to do it all himself anymore.

Boris Diaw is playing leaner than he looks (tape delay adds 20 pounds) and got within eating distance of a triple double against Lithuania: 10 points, 6 boards and 8 assists.  Add Ronny Turiaf’s general being-everywhere-at-onceness to that paint and the absence of Joakim Noah’s ponytail isn’t as heartbreakingly obvious as I thought it would be.

Mickael Gelabale’s super(sonic) dreads, on the other head, are sorely missed.  Truly one of the classier heads of hair we had in our sport, gone.  But he’s hit 5-of-10 threes in these Olympics, so Vincent Collet probably endorses the tightly sheared look.

Now, if France could only solve the riddle that Luis Scola could not: Salah Mejri.

The Pick: France by 28

Lithuania (1-2, 4th) vs. USA (3-0, 1st)   |   9:30 AM EST

Martynas Pocius never had the Duke career he envisioned, suffering more injuries and playing fewer minutes than he’d have liked in his four years (one redshirt) in Durham.

And by foregoing his fourth year of eligibility in 2010, he also missed out on a Blue Devils national title.  Instead of sticking around, he returned home to basketball-mad Lithuania to play for Zalgiris in Kaunas, where he made the jump from student to celebrity.  He smiled and drank milk in television commercials, wore scarves on billboards and saw his face at the local McDonald’s.

Had he not left Tobacco Road for Kaunas when he did, Pocius (POTE-seuss) says he wouldn’t have made the Lithuanian team that beat Serbia for a bronze medal in the 2010 World Championships.

Now, he’s representing his country in the Olympics, and going up against the man who gave him a college scholarship, Mike Krzyzewski.

If Marty looks like he did against France—slashing to the rim, finishing with his left and knocking down his first six shots (three threes) off the bench—Coach K might have to ask himself, if he hasn’t already, why Pocius spent more time in Cameron Indoor with his warm-ups on than off.

The Pick: USA by 18

Nigeria (1-2, 4th) vs. Argentina (2-1, 2nd)   |   5:15 PM EST

All Nigeria has to do to improve is lose by 82 points.  Doable.

Let’s hope Ike Diogu and the Aminu Bros (Al-Farouq and Alade) saw Salah Mejri throw Luis Scola on the school bus the other day.  Scola is ripe for the picking if you can face up and get him on his heels with a pump, and his brethren don’t appear hellbent on helping these days.

Nigeria has the athletes to compete with Argentina, but nowhere near the know-how.  As you probably noticed against Team USA, they’re not too big on “running plays” or “passing.”

There have been several triple double scares so far from the likes of Luol Deng, Viktor Khryapa and The Boris Diaw Burger, but nobody would have pegged the 5-foot-10 Facunda Campazzo as a trip-dub candidate.

The 21-year-old darts around the court like the offspring of Lionel Messi and Pepe Sanchez, and when Pablo Prigioni’s kidney stones [cringe] knocked him out of the line up, Campazzo came in and replaced him admirably with 12 points, 9 rebounds (again, 5-foot-10) and 7 assists.

Just slightly more than the 0.5 points, zero rebounds and 1.5 assists per game he averaged in the first two.

The Pick: Argentina by 25

Group B

Russia (3-0, 1st) vs. Spain (3-0, 2nd)   |   6:15 AM EST

On the latest Euroleague Adventures podcast, I helped break down these 12 Olympic teams into tiers.  In the end, we settled upon five, and Team USA was all alone at the top.

The occupants of tier two will square off Saturday in group play’s sexiest match up.  When the fog has settled in London, Team USA’s biggest threat will have emerged.

Russia is playing a cleaner, more dynamic style of ball right now than the Spaniards, who aren’t a third as dangerous without Juan Carlos Navarro sprinting past screens and launching one-footed runners from 20 feet out.    Pau Gasol is this team’s rock, but Juan Carlos Navarro is its shovel; a scoring blitz from La Bomba can dig Spain out of a deficit just as quickly as it can toss dirt on the other guys’ grave.

Fernando San Emeterio will likely start at the three again while Rudy Fernandez plays the two next to Jose Calderon in the backcourt.  The roster shake up will at least give Spain the size it needs to compete with Russia’s lanky rotation players, even if San Emeterio has never really carved  out a role on the national team.

Serge Ibaka should see his Olympics high in minutes played on Saturday—20, 17 and 12 in three games thus far—because of the trouble Spain has had trouble dealing with strong, versatile forwards in these Olympics.  Yi Jianlian ripped them for 30, Joel Freeland for 25.

Andrei Kirilenko is better than them both, and Viktor Khryapa has a fairly good chance of leading Russia in assists if Spain puts a smaller body on him.  Ibaka will be key.

And if the Mozgov Cocktail explodes in the lane, let’s hope the Gasols bring their flame retardant jerseys.  Tiago Splitter did not, and Timofey burned him for 18 points on 8-of-9 shooting.

The Pick: Russia by 2

China (0-3, 6th) vs. Brazil (2-1, 3rd)   |   11:45 AM EST

Brazil has a tendency to play down to weaker opponents and get up for the stronger ones; it’s why three games against Australia, Great Britian and Russia have yielded margins of four, five and one despite those teams’ wildly varying pedigrees.

China is undoubtedly weaker but Brazil is prone to slow starts, so a few flicks of Wang Shipeng’s wrist (seven threes against Australia) could give China an early lead before Brazil steadies the wheel.

Of Brazil’s ballyhooed NBA bigs, none of the three have been particularly impressive.

Splitter’s usually steady defense failed him against Timofey Mozgov and Russia and he’s still avoiding the bump whenever he goes up (weakly, I might add).

Nene is taking fadeaways out of triple teams as if paying homage to recently departed Wiz teammate, Andray Blatche.

Anderson Varejao has pestered opposing centers and surely made some new enemies among GB fans with his histrionics, but statistically speaking Varejao has taken a step backwards in points, rebounds and field goal percentage every game and has only shot two free throws the whole tournament.

Leandro Barbosa has played smarter ball in his last three halves and Larry Taylor has emerged as a possible bench cog, but Brazil will only medal if their big men hoist them onto the podium.

The Pick: Brazil by 17

Great Britain (0-2, 5th) vs. Australia (1-2, 4th)   |   3:00 PM EST

Joel Freeland’s 25 points and 7 rebounds against Spain surprised some folks.  After all, this was Spain he was manhandling, supposedly the toughest front court in the tourney.

But I’ll tell you who wasn’t surprised: Spain.

With the exception of Jose Calderon and Pau and Marc Gasol, every player on the Spanish national team played in the Spanish ACB League last season (Serge Ibaka and Rudy Fernandez both played for Real Madrid during the lockout, and Rudy is returning next season).  That means they’ve all gone up against his Unicaja Malaga team and seen the wreckage he can cause when his eyes are wide.

Luol Deng is going to get after it without much coaxing, so Chris Finch’s game plan should include getting Freeland involved quickly and repeatedly.

He’s got a quickness advantage over both Aleks Maric and Aron Baynes and should be able to take David Andersen down to the block, drop his hips and throw a hand up.

If Great Britain’s guards can blend patience with cognizance of Freeland’s existence, then Saturday’s effort might not fall so painfully short.

The Pick: Australia by 5

Nick Gibson, editor of EuroleagueAdventures.com, covers the Euroleague and other international basketball developments for SheridanHoops.com. Follow him on Twitter.

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Olympic Basketball: Picking Thursday’s Winners

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Russia’s done it with force, Spain with savvy, Team USA with unparalleled athleticism and Brazil with—well, Brazil’s undefeated, too.

The South Americans barely snuck by the Aussies in the opener and withstood an indescribably impotent, four-point first quarter to keep Great Britain winless in game two.  Thanks to that soft schedule and the even softer touch on Marcelinho Huertas’ floaters, Ruben Magnano’s squad are among the four teams with zeroes in the loss column.

The ranks of the undefeated will shrink by at least one Thursday when Brazil goes up against Andrei Kirilenko, Viktor Khryapa and Sasha Kaun of Russia.

With those six gangly arms protecting the rim, Huertas will have to heave those floaters a little higher than usual, and he’ll need more consistency around him than he’s gotten in the first two frames.

If help arrives, Brazil can keep their record spotless and join the medal conversation. If not, then Russia keeps one foot on the podium.

Let’s pick us some winners, shall we?

Group A

France (1-1, 5th) vs. Lithuania (1-1, 3rd)   |   Tip: 4:00 AM EST

Nicolas Batum hit a two, a three, and then assisted on France’s third bucket against Argentina, and that’s exactly the hot start Vincent Collet needs out of his small forward.  I’d even categorize his goaltending violation in the first few minutes as a positive; making an aggressive mistake beats floating around with his hands stapled to his hips.

Containing Tony Parker is obviously a priority, and nobody on Lithuania can do it alone.  In last summer’s EuroBasket, Kestutis Kemzura spun a carousel of defenders at quick ball handlers—Milos Teodosic, Bo McCalebb and even Parker himself—so expect Mantas Kalnieits, Martynas Pocius and even the cagey vet, Sarunas Jasikevicius, to give it a whirl.

And as long as Parker’s goggles are making the rim look fuzzy (8-of-21 from the floor, 0-of-7 from three), Kalnietis & Co. should slide right under those picks and make him convert from outside.

Figuring out who hedges on which screens is even more important than who applies initial ball pressure, so Paulius Jankunas, Darius Songaila and the other Lithuanian bigs will need to be even more active than usual to keep TP out of the lane.

Given Jonas Valanciunas’ history of foul trouble, he’ll need to be extra cautious when the situation calls for a switch.  Lithuania’s at their best when the 20-year-old is diving toward the rim and finishing around the rim, not brooding on the sideline in his warm-ups.

The Pick: Lithuania by 4

Argentina (1-1, 2nd) vs. Tunisia (0-2, 6th)   |   Tip: 9:30 AM EST

Both teams are coming off losses, but only one has the firepower to make amends on Thursday. If you caught any of Team USA’s game on Tuesday night, you might have surmised that Tunisia is not that team.

Of the five players averaging 20 or more in these Olympics, coach Julio Lamas has two of them in Luis Scola and Manu Ginobili.  Quite the luxury.

An even grander luxury?  The chance to give those old horses a rest in favor of an underutilized, unproven bench.  If Argentina can push the lead above 20, Lamas should send a fresh five to the scorer’s table.

Hopefully that leads to an epic duel between 5’10″ point guards Facundo Campazzo and Marouan Kechrid because, really, that’s why we’re all here.

The Pick: Argentina by 25

USA  (2-0, 1st) vs. Nigeria (1-1, 4th)   |   5:15 PM EST

After USA’s 47-point destruction of Tunisia, the betting lines for Nigeria and the States have shot into the forties.  If you call yourself a gambler, I’d throw some money (naira, if you’ve got some) on the Aminu Brothers.

Nigeria is not Tunisia, nor should they be treated as such.  Salah Mejri and Macrah Ben Romdhane were the only Tunisians worth boxing out on Thursday, while Nigeria has the bodies to board with Team USA for 40 minutes.  Their front court of Ike Diogu, the Hornets’ Al-Farouq Aminu and his older brother Alade is averaging 27 rebounds as a unit, and Nigeria as a team has snagged 41 offensive boards through two games.

But to grab O-boards you need to miss shots, and Nigeria’s Olympics-leading stats may be due to an excess of opportunity.  The team is shooting 29 percent as a whole and a sickly 10 percent (3-of-29) from distance.  Whereas Nigeria has one player making more than half his shots (Diogu), Team USA has seven.

And lastly: do you remember George Mason’s Final Four run in 2006?  Of course you do.  Tony Skinn ran point for the Patriots then, and he’ll be bringing the ball up the court for Nigeria tomorrow.

The Pick: USA by 27

Group B

Australia (0-2, 4th) vs. China (0-2, 6th)   |   6:15 AM EST

Aleks Maric ripped the Euroleague to shreds during the 2009-10 season as he and Bo McCalebb led Partizan to a Final Four appearance in Paris.  Maric was named to the All-Euroleague squad behind 14.6 points and 8.4 rebounds (in just 26 minutes per game) and that summer, both Serbia and Australia tugged at the 6’11″ center in hopes that he’d join them in Turkey for the World Championships.

The center with dual citizenship chose to play in the country that birthed him, but three summers later Australia is still itching for that Partizan beast to resurface.  So far in London, the 27-year-old Maric has eked out just two points, four boards and five fouls in a total of 18 minutes.

And that’s too bad, because Australia really could use him.

Few bigs in these Olympics have the international résumé of David Andersen—seven Euroleague Final Fours with three different teams, three Euroleague championships, two NBA seasons, both the 2004 and 2008 Olympics—but the 6’11″ Boomer would rather stretch the floor than bang inside, and Matthew Nielsen is a scrapper, not a skills guy.

The door is open for Maric to thrive, especially when Aron Baynes is the only other center trying to squeeze through.

On the perimeter, it’s all about threes for Australia: keeping China from getting open looks on defense—they’ve made 12-of-29 from deep—and convincing Patty Mills (1-of-14) to stop shooting so many on the other end.

The Pick: Australia by 11

Brazil (2-0, 3rd) vs. Russia (2-0, 1st)   |   11:45 AM EST

Leandro Barbosa and Anderson Varejao both played well against Australia.  Then against Great Britain, Barbosa went silent as Varejao flopped and whined his way to a subdued stat line.

Tiago Splitter flipped the script, going 2-of-10 in the opener before blasting the Brits for 21 points on 9-of-11 shooting in game two.

Then there’s Nene, who’s been fairly mediocre since Muhammad Ali lit the torch.

And while Brazil’s legion of NBAers is having trouble stringing together solid outings, their Euroleague representative is picking up the slack.  Marcelinho Huertas plays his club ball for Regal Barcelona in Spain, and he’s put Brazil on his back so far in the United Kingdom.

In a frightening display of what life without Marcelinho might look like, Brazil sat him for five minutes of the opening period against Great Britain and the result was disastrous: just four points scored in the entire quarter.  The hosts lifted their foot from Brazil’s neck a little too early, but Russia has the length in their backcourt—6’6″ Alexey Shved, 6’8″ Anton Ponkrashov, 6’5″ Vitaly Firdzon—to harass the 6’3″ Marcelinho from the moment he crosses half court.

If it’s one thing Russia has plenty of it’s big, versatile forwards.  And if there’s one thing Brazil lacks it’s…big, versatile forwards.

Brazil will have to get creative to limit Andrei Kirilenko and Viktor Khryapa’s touches inside the arc.  That might mean more Marcus Vieira at small forward and it might even mean more Guillherme Giovannoni, who’s not especially fleet of foot but at least offers some height at the three.

No matter what Ruben Magnano dials up defensively, David Blatt will look to exploit Brazil’s personnel issues early and often.

The Pick: Russia by 8

Spain (2-0, 2nd) vs. Great Britain (0-2, 5th)   |   3:00 PM EST

Pau Gasol missed all four of his threes in Beijing.  Here in London, he’s already gotten two to fall.

But fans of British basketball—I promise they exist; I’ve even met a couple—should remember one particular Gasol triple very clearly.

It was EuroBasket 2009 in Poland, and Great Britain had battled back from down 14 to take an improbable lead in the fourth quarter.  Then Pau, destroyer of miracles, knocked one in from the top of the key with 3:11 on the clock to recapture the lead for good and deprive Great Britain of their fledgling program’s biggest milestone.

Team GB gets another crack at Spain on Thursday, who will likely be missing scorer extraordinaire, Juan Carlos Navarro, with a foot injury.  JCN’s absence takes a boat load of pressure off of Nate Reinking and especially Andrew Sullivan, who has picked up eight fouls in the first two games and would have had fits chasing a healthy Navarro around the arena.

Pops Mensah-Bonsu’s made it perfectly clear that he’s going up if you throw him the ball, and if Joel Freeland adopts the same attacking mentality they could force the Gasols and Serge Ibaka into foul trouble.  Add Luol Deng’s potential mismatch at the two and you’ve got a recipe for British redemption.

The Pick: Spain by 14

Nick Gibson, editor of EuroleagueAdventures.com, covers the Euroleague and other international basketball developments for SheridanHoops.com. Follow him on Twitter.

Filed Under: Editor's Picks, Olympics Tagged With: , , , , , ,

Olympic Basketball: What We’ve Learned So Far

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Andrei Kirilenko makes Russia scary.  Luis Scola is the craftiest big man in London.  Let Pau Gasol catch the ball inside of seven feet and you’re toast.  Yi Jianlian is a better player for China than he is in the NBA. And you should probably get a hand in Kevin Durant’s face.

Long before Durant circled Olympic Stadium with his newly shaved head underneath a Ralph Lauren beret on Friday night, we knew this about him.

We knew all of these things about all of these guys, and when that orange and white Molten ball shot toward the rafters on Sunday, the aforementioned quartet had no problem reaffirming those truisms.

Each led his team in scoring and to victory on Olympic basketball’s first day of action.

Yes, they’re all big names and yes, all four of their teams are among the favorites to leave London with medals, but do me a favor while digesting these performances: resist the urge to take them even partially for granted.  As the past, with some help from Carlos Arroyo, has proven, all it takes is 40 Olympic minutes to flip what you know on its ear.

Just ask France, whose duo of Tony Parker and Nicolas Batum mustered just 17 points against Team USA’s rangy, spastic defense.  Then go talk to Lithuania, whose historically lofty Basketball IQ eluded them against Scola’s Argentines.  See how badly Tunisia’s hurting after losing by four to Nigeria, their African counterparts who weren’t even supposed to qualify for this thing.

With only a matter of weeks to train and a handful of exhibitions to gel, Olympic basketball requires adaptation between games and often between quarters. A coach should always be on his toes; an Olympic coach needs to hyperextend those toes.

As we enter the second day of games, we’ve got six winners, six losers, and 12 teams that still have a long way to go.  Here’s how each side can play better:

Argentina

Last Game: 102-79 W vs. Lithuania   |   Next Up:  France

It’s easy to pick on Argentina for being old and having no bench. It is when they lose, at least.  Then there are days like Sunday, when Scola (32), Manu Ginobili (21) and Carlos Delfino (20) combined for 73 points—that’s more than Nigeria, Tunisia, France or Australia scored as a team—and old feels more like experienced while praise for their starting five drowns out concerns about the team’s depth.  If the Golden Generation wants to remain untarnished in their last Olympic go-round, they will need something—anything—out of their bench.  Spanish League veteran Hernan ‘Pancho’ Jasen has been a lynchpin on this team for years, and his 24 minutes on the floor should yield more than a single shot attempt and two turnovers, while Juan and Leo Gutierrez (no relation) need to keep their bodies moving down low to create driving lanes for Ginobili and elbow jumpers for Scola.  With Manu and Luis reeling in help defenders, the Gutierrez boys should survive off put backs and dump downs offensively.  Argentina could beat almost anyone here on the strength of their starting five alone.  That’s great, if you want to almost medal.

Australia

Last Game: 75-71 L vs. Brazil   |   Next Up: Spain

If Matthew Dellavedova only gets two 3-point attempts in 28 minutes, then there’s no way Patty Mills should be chucking nine (and hitting just one) in 31 minutes.  Of all the guys playing point guard in London, only a few —Tony Parker, Alexey Shved, Chris Paul, Deron Williams — can get into the lane as creatively as Patty, who notched 16 of his 20 points from inside the arc. Mills is this team’s offensive compass, and right now they need him pointed toward the rim.

Brazil

Last Game: 75-71 W vs. Australia   |   Next Up: Great Britain

‘Twas a tale of two Marcelos for Brazil: Huertas scored 13 and added 10 assists in the win; Machado shot eight 3s and made one.  As a team, Brazil was 2-for-15 from beyond the arc and 28-for-68 overall.  With the sort of looks Huertas creates off the dribble and Varejao/Nene/Splitter down low, Brazil has no excuse for a shooting percentage in the low forties, and are lucky that Australia matched them, brick for brick.

China

Last Game: 97-81 L vs. Spain   |   Next Up: Russia

The Chinese only gave it away eight times and were themselves very active on defense.  Head coach Bob Donewald has a good handle on his men after two plus years at the helm, and it shows in their play, which is as spirited as it is disciplined.  Beating Spain was never a possibility Sunday, just as a win against Russia is out of the question today, but if they want to pick off Australia, Brazil or the very gettable hosts, Sun Yue needs to add more than three to Yi’s 30.

France

Last Game: 98-71 L vs. United States   |   Next Up: Argentina

What does it take to get Nicolas Batum good and rowdy?  Come up with that answer and you just might inherit coach Vincent Collet’s job.  With Joakim Noah on the mend, there’s not a soul with French heritage better equipped to assume the role of TP’s Sidekick than Batum, yet the freshly re-upped Blazer still appears reluctant. It’s not every day that he’ll face the sort of length and aggression with which Team USA defends, so we’ll wipe his line of seven points, two boards and zero assists clean if he can keep either Ginobili or Delfino quiet and help France past a wily Argentina side in tonight’s best game.

Great Britain

Last Game: 95 -75 L vs. Russia   |   Next Up: Brazil

Andrei Kirilenko played a nearly perfect ballgame.  Fourteen of his seventeen shots found the bucket for 35 points in all to go with four boards, two steals and three blocks.  Yet on the same court, and in that same Russian jersey, British coach Chris Finch saw something that should have been far more disturbing than AK’s dominance: a point guard.  Finch watched as 23-year-old Alexey Shved orchestrated a dynamic Russian attack and finished with 13 assists; as a team, Great Britain only had 10. Luol Deng, Pops Mensah-Bonsu and Joel Freeland had 61 of the team’s 75, but without a point guard that can get the defense on its heels, we’ll never see that three-headed weapon properly deployed.

Lithuania

Last Game: 102-79 L vs. Argentina   |   Next Up: Nigeria

Lithuania rammed their head into a brick wall on Sunday, and the wall didn’t give.  Instead of setting a pick to get past it or passing around it, they lowered their shoulders and rammed harder.  Bad idea.  This wall was made of aging Argentines who would rather pop a forearm in your back than follow you closely on a cut through the lane.  Still, Lithuania couldn’t mobilize their offense against Argentina’s flatter feet, and a stagnant, discombobulated attack was the result.  Kestutis Kemzura needs to figure out the best way to create one on one opportunities for Linas Kleiza without slowing down Lithuania’s pick-and-roll game, which can be as potent as anyone’s with 36-year-old Sarunas Jasikevicius handling the ball.  Kemzura will dip deeper into his bench than any coach here, so the earlier he figures out which combinations give Lietuva the best shot at winning, the better.

Nigeria

Last Game: 60-56 W vs. Tunisia  |   Next Up: Lithuania

Derrick Obasohan has always had an itchy trigger finger, but the Nigerian swing man (from Texas, actually, but you get it with none Americans on the roster) might want to take an extra breath before firing up the next one.  Obasohan shot 1-for-6 and scored just six points on Sunday, 10 fewer than the 16 he averaged in last summer’s African Championships, where he led Nigeria in scoring. With Ike Diogu and the Aminu Bros (Marc and Pau Who?) forming an increasingly formidable frontcourt, some buckets from Obasohan could move Nigeria into contention for a quarterfinal spot.

Russia

Last Game: 95 -75 W vs. Great Britain   |   Next Up: China

Let Sunday’s shellacking go to show that it’s impossible to beat Russia if you can’t force their guards into mistakes.  If you give Shved and Vitaly Fridzon too much room to breathe on the perimeter, stopping Russia will be next to impossible.  If Kirilenko and Viktor Khryapa are getting consistent touches inside the arc, it’s bedtime. If Anton Ponkrashov can have a mini resurgence, or at least a return to legitimacy in London, then Russia will have something few other teams can boast: a 6’8″ point guard that can see over your press.  Might come in handy in, oh, I don’t know, a gold medal game against the States?

Spain

Last Game: 97-81 W vs. China   |   Next Up: Australia

It seems as though the task of replacing Ricky Rubio has coaxed a group effort out of the Spaniards, as eight players had at least two assists for the 2006 World Champions. Pau Gasol had a double-double, Serge Ibaka had one of his better games in a Spanish jersey with 17 points and three blocks and Juan Carlos Navarro looked healthier than he has all summer on his way to 14.  But on the other end, China’s Yi Jianlian used post ups, midrange jumpers and a steady diet of baseline drives to torch Spain for 30 on 13-of-19 shooting.  They got past China in spite of Yi’s dominance, but Spain better figure out their approach to defending versatile forwards before Linas Kleiza, Nicolas Batum, Andrei Kirilenko and half of Team USA show up for layup lines.

Tunisia

Last Game: 60-56 L vs. Nigeria   |   Next Up: United States

The reigning African Champions sent Nigeria to the line 31 times and only took five free throws themselves.  If you were wondering how Nigeria shot 33 percent from the field and still walked away the victors, that should answer your question.  Tunisia’s best shot at an Olympic win is now behind them.

 

United States

Last Game: 98-71 W vs. France   |   Next Up: Tunisia

It would be a real treat to see the United States run a play other than Wait For Teammate To Gain Head Of Steam On Baseline, Throw Ball In General Vicinty Of Rim, but until they meet someone who’s ready to challenge them physically and apply adequate pressure on USA’s ball handlers, Coach K might not need to call much else. The line on tonight’s game (10:15 p.m. London time start) is 56!

Nick Gibson, editor of EuroleagueAdventures.com, covers Euroleague and other European basketball developments for SheridanHoops.com. Follow him on Twitter.

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