EuroBasket 2013 - day 2

[mcege]

Croatia - Georgia Croatia got humiliated against Spain, I was expecting them to lose definitely, but I wasn't expecting such a one-sided game. I thought, they have one of the worst squads of the entire championship, as I shared it yesterday, but I was a little bit optimistic not to see such a disharmonious display as they showed every friendly game I watched, when things get serious. They don't share the ball, they don't have solid and stable offensive options from perimeter. Their starting point guard and so-called star Roko Ukic is a terrible point guard, despite having flashy scoring skills, I mean how can a "PG" of a team finish the game with 0 assists in 31 minutes? Spain killed them despite not using players like R.Rubio, J.Calderon, S.Rodriguez, S.Llull and R.Fernandez for more than 22 mins. You may expect a bounce back performance, after losing so heavy, but this is a weaker team then the one which exited 2011 campaign at first round... Despite missing two important frontcourt force Zaza Pachulia and Tornike Shengelia, Georgia destroyed Poland, even though they shot only %57.1 from free throw line (16/28) and Ricky Hickman played a bad game. They're a team which shared the ball really well and protected the ball really well, they seemed overly confident, they minimized the unforced errors and had an impressive start. I know Polish team is not world beaters, but I would definitely have a hard time to which is better, when I compare them with Croatian team. My only concern about Georgian team is that they really lack depth, five players played 27+ minutes yesterday, but this is not a concern for today's game, it's what will prevent them to get further and further. Georgia to win... Georgia(+4.5) 5/10 @ 1.99 Italy - Turkey You may think after looking the stats of today's game that Turkey will not shoot that terrible again, and yesterday was a special day. But, this is a team without a true PG, this is a team whose only solid shooter from perimeter is a guy who never played in such a big tournament before and this is a team whose biggest stars suck for recent couple years, when they play for NT. I don't know if you watched the game against Finland, I hope you didn't, it was a terrible basketball game and you couldn't believe what couple solid Nba players namely H.Turkoglu and E.Ilyasova was doing in the court. And, I don't want to you get into such a misunderstanding that "Oh, Turkey played bad, Finns had days of their lives...", no, Finns won this game, despite their two very best players, most accurate perimeter scorers shot only 8/26. (P.Kopponen and S.Salin) They turned the ball over as much as Turks did and although shot a little better then Turks, they were still very bad from free throw line. Turks even could've won this one, if those biggest stars hadn't melted mentally during the game, despite shooting 4/22 behind the arc and 19/60 in total. Finns were that bad. So, that will lead us the conclusion to how bad was Turkish team, as well. They will probably play better, but this team has too many structural problems and most reliable hands back in the day are playing like they even don't belong to pro level. Also, it was obvious that team got hurt psychologically a lot and Italy is not a good opponent to have a bounce back win. Italians lack depth a lot, they have very solid five players and couple ok back ups, they will not also go much further because of that and absences of players like D.Hackett, D.Gallinari, A.Gigli and A.Bargnani will hurt them then, but not now. Coach Pianigiani created a team with massive amount of fighting spirit, a team putting maximum effort in the defensive end and makes good decisions at the offensive end, sharing the ball, making extra passes and they have proven, excellent play makers from perimeter. They will not have any solution if something happens to C Marco Cusin, but coach Pianigiani will have his chances to rest him more against Sweden and Finland, in the upcoming days. Also their system with stretch four Luigi Datome will perfectly fit Turkey's outlook, as he can easily match up with E.Ilyasova and Turkey doesn't have any offensively talented frontcourt player, anyway. All in all, these two teams psychologically headed completely different directions yesterday and I don't believe there's too much quality difference on paper, as well. Italy to win... Italy(+5) 5/10 @ 1.98 ps1: I'll personally take ml bets for Georgia and Italy as well. ps2: Since, there is move on the lines and odds, I'm posting them now. I'll add one more and I'll inspect other games to find more. ps3: taken from pinnacle ps4: GL!

[mcege]

Re: EuroBasket 2013 - day 2 Poland - Czech Republic I really like Dirk Bauermann as a coach, I truly respect what he did with very limited German squad and Dirk Nowitzki, for numerous years and championships. But, he's a defensive specialist and he doesn't have such personnel to create a decent defensive team out of them. Three players from starting line up are defensive handicapped players, their only Nba player Marcin Gortat is not a solid defender as well, despite being a center with nice mobility. Besides P.Zamojski (whose career is destroyed by incedible amount of injuries, by the way), they don't a reliable guy to come from bench and it's a team which lacks composure as most of perimeter players lack Euro basketball experience outside of Poland, except couple guys like M.Lampe and M.Gortat, only players who played in Euroleague are bench players from Prokom, so they didn't play too much as well. They let Georgians to shoot almost at %50 and these defensive problems can't be solved in just one night, especially if you don't have appropriate personnel for it and after a humiliating loss to start the campaign, I doubt they have enough experience to bounce back that easily, as well. Czechs put a brave performance against hosts, Slovenia and lost the game at clutch time, had chances to win, but couldn't convert them. I already wrote what I think about Czechs and Slovenians yesterday and there's no need to repeat them. To play a close game against Slovenians doesn't mean too much for me, since I already believe Slovenia has a bad squad. But, to produce a close game against the hosts under a hot atmosphere might do some good to this team, which doesn't have a true center and tries to run in every single occassion they have. They have decent perimeter shooters, who have green lights to take early shots and they had an off day against Slovenia, I don't expect this to get repeated. Besides some young players, they have couple experienced veterans, who spent their careers around top level basketball leagues, I expect them to get better as well. Czechs to win 82-78. Czech Republic(+5) 5/10 @ 1.926 Over 144.5 5/10 @ 1.926