2014 FIBA Basketball World Cup

[Darwin]

I lost interest after our poor performance against the Dominican Republic. It was a game we probably should have won, but our shooting let us down badly (I suppose we are bound to have a bad day now and then when we rely so heavily on 3 point shooting). I didn't see the USA match today, but it was good to see we got within 50 for a change! Obviously USA would not have been taking it too seriously, but it was good for NZ points differential that we didn't get too badly beaten. New Zealand still has a chance to make it through to the playoffs if we win our next two matches (vs Ukraine and Finland). We certainly have the potential to win both matches, but I'm not overly confident at the moment....

 

[Big Ewis]

Haka, even in basketball love the Americans' facial expressions:
http://espn.go.com/video/clip?id=11453358

 

[Big Ewis]

hey TRF (well, Darwin...): NZ can really play. Beat Ukraine comfortably, they're no joke. Well done Tall Blacks !

Ohhhh shhiit....ohhh fukkkk....today is D day...I DON'T WANT TO PLAY SPAIN IN SPAIN WITH BOTH GASOLS AND THE BIGGEST POACH IN BBALL HISTORY IBAKA AND THE REST OF THE TEAM IS RREALLY GOOD TOO AND THEY'VE GOT GREAT CHEMISTRY !!! :cryy: :cryy: :cryy: :cryy: :cryy: :cryy:

 

[Darwin]

It appears Spain gave you guys the beating you were expecting. It looks like the score blew out a bit in that final quarter though.

It was great to see New Zealand finally put together a decent performance. The key to our victory was our bench (which has been disappointing up until now), with the likes of Bartlett and Fotu making key contributions (Fotu has NBA potential in my opinion). The good thing is that because of the margin of victory we have left our destiny in our own hands. If we beat Finland we are in. If we lose we are out.

 

[Big Ewis]

disappointed but not all that much. France (as you know, being a fan of Rugby) won't pull out their best cards when it's pools or when their backs aren't against the wall big time. Losing to Brazil, esp. by a bucket, was fkng painful in retrospect and that was really disappointing now that I think about it. But Spain couldn't play their blitzkrieg attack against us and we were pretty even for good stretches, but France is just being its standard frustrating self. Big intensity, then untidy, will do good things and throw that to waste with mediocre/bad things. France obviously wasn't ready for this, and it's likely we'll meet Spain again in the playoff stages given our terrible position.

Did you know Serge Ibaka should've "become" French btw ? He's from Congo, therefor francophone and partially of French culture, and played in France during his youth. The papers were getting done and Spain came out of nowhere to "steal" him, dubiously, and he's now "Spanish". This is what you call real poaching, if it exists at all. This is trivia for your knowledge, I'm not butthurt about it we have a good chance of hosting the Euro Cup next summer, and this time we'll have TP back, and Joakim Noah, amongst the other absentees. But I'm not quite despaired with this one quite yet.

 

[Darwin]

Ibaka would have been very handy for France. It is a pity Spain out-poached you I do think this Spainsh side could give USA a very good run for their money. Ibaka and the Gasol brothers are a pretty intimidating in the paint, and the they have an excellent rotation of guards too (Fernandez, Rubio, Navarro, Calderon) most who have had NBA experience so will be familar with the USA 'style' of play.

You would think France should be too good for Iran (whose sole tactic I understand is to pass the ball to Haddadi, who is really tall...) and hence qualify 3rd in their pool. That would match them up against the 2nd ranked team in group B which would either be Argentina, Senegal, Greece or Croatia (so not the Philippines or Puerto Rico....). It is great to see Senegal have qualified out of their group already. They apparently hadn't won a game at these world champs for 16 years but they have won two already, and will be favoured to beat the Philippines in their next match too. I quite enjoy watching the African nations play, as they have a very different (less structured) style than many of the European teams, and they usually have some pretty outstanding athletes...

 

[Big Ewis]

really hope the US will smash em. Can't stand Spain, in any sport. Whining *****es, and a glance at Rubio's, Pau Gasol's or Rudy Fernandez' face is enough to make me want to go to war and kill innocent people. Many of them. Gasol is one of the biggest *****es we've ever had in the NBA...and Spain might be used to Team USA's style of ball, but they still can't stop it. Rubio or Calderon will struggle guarding D.Rose for e.g., and the rest of them can be decent on defense and may know what's coming but still will struggle stopping it. I hope the US smash em good, by 75 or smt...yeah I'd settle for that.
And honestly I'm cool with not having Ibaka at all, but I'm not cool of course with Spain having em. They literally bought him out.

And what you're saying about African teams is true, and true about football too. Ghana and Algeria were two of the teams that really gave Germany a hard time in the last World Cup (with France of course ) because of that: little structure, but long outlets, super quick on the wings, few passes and they're already way deep in the opposition's danger zone...
But it does seem that in any sport, technique beats athleticism ultimately.

Anyways, fk Spain.

 

[Darwin]

^^^^I'm not sure I understand the main point you are making in your post? Is it that you love Spain? You will have to be less subtle in future

Anyways..... New Zealand managed to make it through to the playoffs. Just. We had a comfortable 20 point lead in the 3rd quarter but managed to almost completely blow it before scrapping through with a 2 point victory. Isaac Fotu was again our key player - we need the likes of Penny and Abercrombie to really step up in our next match though if we are going to win.

France look like that had a narrow victory over Iran (securing themselves a spot in the playoffs).

 

[Big Ewis]

France is just being France, no surprise, but always just as disappointing. Iran was up 23-13 after the 1st qtr............................IRAN........was up..............23-13........





IRAAAN WAS UP TWENT....

Moving on.

and then we played really well and got a 20-point lead. And then they came storming back into the game, runs, streaks....made it a game in the final minute. We panicked a bit, and eventually got the win.
As very minor consolation, France beat Spain at football some hours ago in a friendly..
Congrats Tall Blacks !!

 

[Darwin]

So the "round of 16" starts in a couple of days:

USA vs Mexico
France vs Croatia
Dominican Republic vs Slovenia
Spain vs Senegal
New Zealand vs Lithuania
Serbia vs Greece
Turkey vs Australia
Brazil vs Argentina

There should be some tight games there. You would think USA and Spain should win their matches pretty comfortably, but the rest of the matches could go either way (though perhaps I'm being slightly optimistic in terms of New Zealand).

 

[Darwin]

Well France won. As a reward they get to play........ Spain again!

 

[Big Ewis]

yup. couldn't watch the match unfortunately. Apparently another late push by our opponents and a big finale scare. Something tells me we'll be way more competitive against Spain this time. Not saying we'll win, but the conditions are just right, just chaotic enough for France to play well.

 

[Darwin]

The Tall Blacks ended up doing about as well as I expected. We pushed Lithuania (who are pretty good!), but we really struggle to win close games, losing by 5 points in the end. Cory Webster had a bit of a break-out game with 26 points, but he didn't get enough help from our other scorers. Kirk Penny had a very poor tournament overall - I wonder whether this is the last we will see of him in the Tall Blacks? He is not exactly old for a basketball player (33) but he looked completely out of sorts all tournament. He has been the Tall Blacks best (often only) scoring threat for the last 10+ years (he averaged 25 points per game at the last World Champs), but only scored 10 ppg this tournament at a pretty horrendous shooting percentage (30%).

Mika Vukona again played with plenty of commitment. If he was 6 inches taller he would be an outstanding player (he's listed as a 6'6 power forward, but would be 6'4 at most). I'm very excited about Isaac Fotu's potential. New Zealand basketball players struggle to match the top sides in 2 main areas: size and athleticism. We do have the odd athlete who has some size (Alex Pledger) and the odd athlete who has some athleticism (Vukona / Abercrombie), but seldom do we produce players with both. Fotu looks like one of those rare NZ players who has both the size and athleticism to complete with the worlds best. Unfortunately that means he may be signed by a NBA side and we will never see him play for the Tall Blacks again (like Steve Adams...).

So the quarter final match-ups are as follows (with my predicted winners):

Lithuania v Turkey (Lithuania)
Slovenia v USA (USA)
Serbia vs Brazil (Serbia)
France vs Spain (Spain)

Interesting to see Australia lost to Turkey in the playoffs. In some ways I feel they deserve it. Though they deny they deliberately lost to Angola, they rested all of their top players against them. This conveniently meant they got 3rd rather than 2nd in their pool, which would have meant they avoided facing USA in the quarter-finals (if they had got that far...).

 

[Big Ewis]

The Tall Blacks ended up doing about as well as I expected. We pushed Lithuania (who are pretty good!), but we really struggle to win close games, losing by 5 points in the end. Cory Webster had a bit of a break-out game with 26 points, but he didn't get enough help from our other scorers. Kirk Penny had a very poor tournament overall - I wonder whether this is the last we will see of him in the Tall Blacks? He is not exactly old for a basketball player (33) but he looked completely out of sorts all tournament. He has been the Tall Blacks best (often only) scoring threat for the last 10+ years (he averaged 25 points per game at the last World Champs), but only scored 10 ppg this tournament at a pretty horrendous shooting percentage (30%).

Mika Vukona again played with plenty of commitment. If he was 6 inches taller he would be an outstanding player (he's listed as a 6'6 power forward, but would be 6'4 at most). I'm very excited about Isaac Fotu's potential. New Zealand basketball players struggle to match the top sides in 2 main areas: size and athleticism. We do have the odd athlete who has some size (Alex Pledger) and the odd athlete who has some athleticism (Vukona / Abercrombie), but seldom do we produce players with both. Fotu looks like one of those rare NZ players who has both the size and athleticism to complete with the worlds best. Unfortunately that means he may be signed by a NBA side and we will never see him play for the Tall Blacks again (like Steve Adams...).

So the quarter final match-ups are as follows (with my predicted winners):

Lithuania v Turkey (Lithuania)
Slovenia v USA (USA)
Serbia vs Brazil (Serbia)
France vs Spain (Spain)

Interesting to see Australia lost to Turkey in the playoffs. In some ways I feel they deserve it. Though they deny they deliberately lost to Angola, they rested all of their top players against them. This conveniently meant they got 3rd rather than 2nd in their pool, which would have meant they avoided facing USA in the quarter-finals (if they had got that far...).

of course you do, ya damn kiwi !! but you can't blame em for it, it's only sensible, every team in the world would've done the same. Yeah saw NZ put up a good fight, they had a pretty good run overall, even made nba.com with their haka vs Team USA.
In a couple of days, the big match for us...yikes. But I maintain what I've said earlier, France will show up this time.
Agree with your preds, except Brazil over Serbia for me.

 

[Big Ewis]

check this play out:



Nice.

 

[Darwin]

of course you do, ya damn kiwi !! but you can't blame em for it, it's only sensible, every team in the world would've done the same. Yeah saw NZ put up a good fight, they had a pretty good run overall, even made nba.com with their haka vs Team USA.
In a couple of days, the big match for us...yikes. But I maintain what I've said earlier, France will show up this time.
Agree with your preds, except Brazil over Serbia for me.

I'm a bit atypical in terms of kiwis though as I have lived in Australia for the last few years, and have developed some sympathies for Australian sports teams. Indeed I even found myself cheering when Australia scored the winning try against South Africa in the weekend (don't tell anyone though)...

Anyways it seems I'm not the only one disappointed in Australia's performance vs Angola. Indeed FIBA have launched an official investigation into Australia's performance vs Angola. It appears you are not allowed to deliberately lose (which Australia clearly did, no matter how much they deny it...). I'm not sure 'every team in the world would have done the same' either, but I'm sure if other sides decide to do it in future they will do it a bit more subtlety

 

[Big Ewis]

I'm a bit atypical in terms of kiwis though as I have lived in Australia for the last few years, and have developed some sympathies for Australian sports teams. Indeed I even found myself cheering when Australia scored the winning try against South Africa in the weekend (don't tell anyone though)...

don't worry, they wouldn't believe me anyways !
And about Aus losing intentionally, that's just the tournament's stupid setup. They should review the way it works, because clearly it encourages that and sure enough teams will do what's best for their chances, so it's a bit ridiculous.

 

[Big Ewis]

muahahaha.....muuuaaaaaahahahahaaaaaaaaa.......MUUHHUHHH....MUHUHHH..



MUAAAAAAAAAAAAHAHAAAAHAAHAHAHAHAHAHAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA !!!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

[Darwin]

Well that's pretty typical of the French isn't it.....

I hear their was a bit of a fight in the game too. I love it when basketballer's try to fight. Here is some exclusive footage: Spain vs France basketball fight

 

[Big Ewis]

yes, and yes ! Spanish are always going to try to get their opponents to fight, being fkng *****es is just what they do, can't blame em...there's even at one point, something magnificent happened: Rubio was applying full court pressure on our PG Heurtel, Heurtel moved his arm up a bit and Rubio flopped, pretended he'd been elbowed on the chin and just stayed at half court standing, pushing for a whistle, Heurtel just continues his run, pulls up, elbow J, 2 points. I had a semi-hard one after that.

And yes, typical typical typical French. In fact, losing largely in the pools to a team, and then returning to give them a game later in the tournament reminds me of something strangely !
Pau Gasol was excellent but his usual *****. God, what a *****ing *****...awful.

What can I say, Vincent Collet has got to be the best coach in world basketball, barring the really great US coaches in the NBA like Pop. Our defense was *extraordinary* and we played with consistency, poise and good execution. We were...great, in short. Dominating the entire first half like that, owning them in the 4th qtr, against Spain IN SPAIN...without Tony Parker or other absentees, against a full Spanish roster. Crazy.

Now hopefully we don't lose to Serbia in a few days !! I can see it...the exploit, and then we lose narrowly to Serbia......