If someone ever wondered why I haven’t written an update in over than a month, answers are:

1) a shitload of work

2) my home computer decided to die and I still have to buy a new one

3) I am working at building Sixers4guidos 2.0.

The new site (new network, new domain, new graphics, new features etc) will be up …well, soon, I hope. I won’t say any precise deadline because I already missed like 2-3, but it will be… uhm, surely before the first tip off of 2009-2010, ok ???

BTW the latest deadline I scheduled, and missed, was today, the day of the opener of Eurobasket 2009 in Poland. But you can follow my updates about the games on Twitter4guidos:

http://twitter.com/sixers4guidos/

Let’s meet there ! I will be rooting for my beloved Serbia, that shocked favored Spain in the first upset of the competition.

Thanks for your patience, it will be rewarded !!

In a pretty quiet period with (no) real Sixers-related news, Hoopshype made this nice interview with former Net Bostjan Nachbar.

Why I post it here?

First because I have to prove I am alive, second because it’s an interesting read, especially in terms of understanding the economic situation of int’l bball and reminding the differences between european and NBA hoops, third because there is a fun Sixers reference at the end, as you will check.

Since the quality of the video from Hoopshype is not very good, I found another video of the same play, that you might ‘enjoy’:

So much for the “intimidating presence”.

Sam got shawnbradleylized there…

UPDATE: since we are in a You Tube mood, enjoy also this great Dr. J – George Gervin video, via Twitter4guidos – FreeDarko:

(NOTE: I will be working at my new site in the next days, I hope I will be able to launch Sixers4guidos 2.0 soon, let’s say within the end of the month. Stay tuned, it’s gonna be a great, brand new blog)

Here we are, blogging again after a well deserved 9 day vacation in the beatiful island of Zanzibar (Africa).

So what did I miss in the meantime? In chronological order:

1) Iguodala was officially signed to a 6 year-80 million extention (the pic shows that both him and Stefanski were happy for the deal…)

2) Sixers brought back Theo Ratliff, signed to a 1 year contract for the veteran minimum

3) Sixers’ GM Ed Stefanski made a conference call with a panel of selected bloggers.

Brian/Depressed fan has the links to all posts of other sites, Sixers.com has the transcript of the conference, Recliner GM has the podcast.

I had the privilege to get the invitation to the conference from Micheal Preston, Sixers’ PR director (thanks again), but unfortunately couldn’t join it because I was out. I will surely be part of the next one, scheduled… well, they don’t know yet, but it will be before the season starts.

Anyway it’s great to see that Sixers keep us bloggers/fans in such high consideration, and that a GM takes some of his time to talk directly to us. This is something new in the NBA, as far as I know, and hopefully it becomes a trend and eventually a standard for every team. Hats off to Stefanski and the Sixers’ public relations dept for setting up this.

4) Sixers brought back Jeff Ruland also, this time as an assistant coach

5) USA Team won the gold medal at the Olympics in China, beating Spain after a fantastic game. 

My quick takes on the aforementioned subjects are:

1) good move overall, but with some further thoughts. It’s great to have Iguodala locked for so long, but the amount of money seems really too high, considering Iguodala’s poor playoffs and almost the fact that NO OTHER TEAM was able to make him a big offer - that we eventually couldn’t match, I mean.

So if it was Billy King doing it, I’d definitely say he overpaid Andre, but since it was Stefanski… well, he probably knew what he was doing !

2) great move. We needed a veteran back up C, especially after the bad injury occured to Jason Smith shortened the big men rotation. Theo will provide what we need, quality minutes of (still) intimidating presence, rebounding, playoffs experience, hard working attitude. Also he’s a good guy, fans still love him and he comes for cheap… what else would you want ???

3) great stuff. I also love what Stefanski said about Iguodala, Thaddeus Young and Willie Green, read carefully.

4) I don’t know, honestly. Ruland basically replaces Henry Bibby, it has to be determined what happened between him and Cheeks, assuming there was something wrong, of course. Ruland’s resume as a coach is nothing to be excited for, actually, so we’ll just have to wait and see.

5) the final game between USA and Spain was something that will remain in the books, but I think USA team was poorly selected and poorly coached, despite the plethora of bball “minds” working at the project. So I will not follow the chorus of enthusiastic, in some cases pathetically celebrative, reports I’m reading. More to come about this soon.

The more I think about the upcoming season, the more I am pumped about this new Sixers team.

(on a side note, former Sixer Gordan Giricek went to Turkey, where he will play for Fenerbahce… sretan put, Gordane, neces nam nedostajati !)

Unlikely and for several reasons.

Russians came to Spain with no other ambition than getting a pass for the 2008 Olympics. They were facing the hosts in the final, a team that everyone picked as final winner and that a whole country was ready to carry to the victory, after five silver medals in the previous competitions (make it six, now…).

It’s not over. Russia gave up 17 offensive rebounds. Russia was down five (59-54) with 1.30 to go.

BUT…

Euro 2007 will be remembered for the many close games, crazy comebacks and buzzer beaters and in the final game we had them all. To spice things up even more, the hero of the game was the most unlikely one.

Yes, because it was a black player named Jon Robert Holden, a Pittsburgh native, to take Russia to the 59-60 “road” win in the final seconds, a weird and enjoyable show at the same time. 

The point guard – who, in case yo don’t know was given the russian citizenship by president Vladimir Putin in person !!! – first pulled a Michael Jordan, stripping the ball to Pau Gasol (a play very similar to the one MJ did vs Karl Malone in his last appearance, game 6 vs Jazz in 1998, seconds before scoring over Byron Russell) with Russia down one and 25 seconds to go… then pulled a Gary Payton in the other half of the court, dribbling, pump faking and hitting the game winner with 2 seconds to go (a play very similar to the one Payton did in game 3 of the 2006 Finals vs Dallas).*

That was the end of the game, but I have to tell you the whole story, once again it’s really worth.

1st quarter

Spain’s start was excellent: 3-0 with Rudy Fernandez connecting from the corner, then a couple of threes from Jose Calderon (very good also tonight) to push the lead to 15-4. Russia was playing like your typical jump shooting team so Spain could overcome Pau Gasol’s slow start (0/3), finding 5 points from his brother Marc, very effective under the boards, to close the quarter 22-11 with a lucky shot by Cabezas at the buzzer. “A sign”, everyone thought. 

2nd quarter

After another three by Raptor Jorge Garbajosa, Aleksey Savrashenko and Andrei Kirilenko began shaking their team A couple of dunks by AK 47 (10 points) and another pair of baskets by his big man cut the deficit to 31-25.  Here came what I thought was “another sign”: a three by Pau Gasol, his first basket of the night (34-25). But he went back missing shots, while russian 7′3 center continued punishing spanyards in the paint (8 pts) and let his team end the first half down only 3, at an acceptable 34-31.

Some half time stats were really curious: Spain was 3/18 from 2 points (!! Gasol 0/4, new grizzlie Navarro 0/3…) and 7/15 from 3 (Calderon 3/3), Russia shot 1/9 from 3 pt and a nice 11/19 from 2. Rebounds were very close, (21-19 Spain), same for turnovers (Russia 8, Spain 7).

3rd quarter

Gasol finally managed to score his first two pointer, the fourth three by Calderon pushed the lead back to 9 points at 40-31. Ponkrashov replied with another one from behind the arc and Spain didn’t take advantage from the fact that Savrashenko AND Kirilenko picked their 3rd fouls and had to leave the game. Gasol in fact cound’t find a rythm and Victor Khryapa made it a three point game at the end of the quarter (49-46) with a couple of misses that could have tied it.

4th quarter

Russia baby, Russia !!! A quick 5-0 run (10-0 if you include the end of the third) and the orthodox brothers were up for the first time at 49-51. Here came the ugliest part of the game, with russians committing a lot of offensive fouls (spanyards are very good in taking charges so for once don’t think about refs helping the home team…) and Spain bricking shot after shot.

Kirilenko came back when the score was tied at 52-52, only to see the Red team taking another lead with Pau Gasol scoring twice after being fouled but missing also four three throws in the spurt (he was 3/8 overall in the 4th and ended the game with a costly 5/12 from the line). His last miss came at 59-54 (1.30 to go), and here Russia built its (unlikely) win.

AK 47 was precise where Pau wasn’t (two foul shots, 59-56 at -1.17), Morgunov used the glass to make it 59-58 at -0.43, so that Spain went to its best player for the deciding shot. But Pau dribbled too much in the low post and when he tried to release his jump hook Holden came from nowhere to steal him the ball.

The honorary russian citizen wasn’t done with his heroics… with a little help from the rim AND the board he hit the game winner in the way I told you, silencing the 16.000 spanish fans. With 2 seconds to play Spain had a last chance and inbounded the ball to Pau again, but his desperate (and unlikely) shot (unluckily) went in and out.

The 28th miss out of 35 two pointers for the home team (that means 20 % !!) let Russia became the new european champion, showing how all the “signs” seen before were definitely misleading.

Kirilenko, 17 points, was named MVP of the competition.

An honour he should share with an (unlikely) ”russian” from Pittsburgh.

(* = update: here is the link to the You Tube video of the last minute of the game)

For sure.

This slogan is written in many t-shirts and banners that greek fans wear and take to the  arenas when their national team plays.

Well, they just show it’s not only some marketing trick, as I watched one of the most unbelievable comebacks ever seen in these competitions, that ended with Greece’s 63-62 win over Slovenia.

The end reminded me of another historic resurrection (or collapse, depending from your standpoint) in the fourth quarter: the 17 points lead squandered by Blazers vs Lakers in game 7 of the 2000 Western Conference Finals.

Because the game was completely in Slovenia’s hands with a comfortable 16 points lead with 6.49 to go, 42-58. Yes, Greece scored 42 points in more than 33 minutes (jeez… gotta love FIBA basketball), and with the two offenses so cold, it seemed more than closed at that time.

Well, you do the maths: in the last 6.49 minutes Greece outscored Slovenia 21-4, scoring half the points they managed to put in the previous 33.

Even harder to believe, the score was 49-61 with 2.30 to go, meaning the game ended with a 14-1 Greece run in 150 seconds !!!!!!!!!

The question is: what happened? Slovenia simply quit playing, perhaps “fearing” the win vs the last European champs. It’s the worst mistake you can do when facing a fierce, veteran, winning team that never, and I mean never, gives up.

It was a mix of idiotic turnovers (many), bad shots (a bit), good shots missed (some), combined with an amazing amount of offensive rebounds given up to the greeks, who progressively started believing what was frankly unforeseeable.

Basically the exact opposite of what slovenians did in the first three quarters & a half, building a deserved and even surprising lead in another low scoring, tough, even ugly (100% FIBA…) battle.

The first quarter ended with “the green team” up three (14-17), a difference doubled at the half (28-34) with Rasho Nesterovic and Matjaz Smodis carrying the others. Greece went to the locker room for the break having shot 0/7 from  three point land, but the game was clearly still open.

In the third quarter Slovenia played its best basketball on both sides of the court, closing it at 40-51. That immediately became 40-54 at the start of the fourth with a three pointer by Dragic, and the aforementioned 42-58 some minutes later, on a nice left handed hook by Slokar… 

A three pointer by Tsartsaris seemingly gave Greece some life (49-58) but when Jaka Lakovic responded, connecting on a corner trey for the 12 points lead (49-61 with 2.30 to go) everyone, me included, thought that the champs were done. 

After Lakovic scored the last slovenian point from the free throw line (53-62), the night came on the Triglav mountain, and Theodoros Papaloukas went finally to work.

European best player scored on a drive + foul (and missed free throw) for the 55-62, then the first three pointer to cut it to 58-62, before Zisis with another three made it 61-62 with 33 seconds on the clock.

And in the other half court ?? I told you: no one was taking care of the ball (blame also  coach Pipan for that), sort of five dead men walking… balls thrown in the stands or delivered to greek hands, 24 seconds violations, bricks…

So after Lorbek’s miss on a open three it was Greece to have the ball to win the game, and (smart) coach Yannakis did the right choice: put it in Papaloukas’ hands… another drive of his and the ball went in (63-62) with 7 seconds to go. The comeback was complete.

The average fan could think that 7 seconds it’s a lot of time in basketball, that a decent coach can draw several plays for a good shot, right ?? … uhm, not in Slovenia’s case: Lakovic dribbled and took an ill advised long three pointer that fell wayyyyy short, hitting the ground exactly like his team. He couldn’t repeat his winning shot vs Italy, so that greek players celebrated the win. 

Never underestimate the heart of MANY champions.

(Before this, Lithuania beat Croatia 74-72, with former New Jersey Net Zoran Planinic missing two free throws with 1 seconds to go: slavic basketball is out of the semifinals, another impressive fact).

Spain-Greece and Russia-Lithuania are the two (fantastic) semifinals planned for tomorrow that I will NOT watch due to a wedding… I always knew that getting married is insane. 

Maybe someone is waiting for my recap of today’s game.

Well, the truth is I didn’t watch it. The game started at 4.30 PM european time and I was out for a job meeting that ended at 8…

Seems the (devastating, by the way) meeting saved me nearly two hours of real pain: how could I have described a 58-67 loss vs an average opponent like Germany?

Dirk’s smile (!!) is perhaps the funniest thing in this sad afternoon for guidos hoops fans.

The boxscore is also clear enough: when you shoot 13/33 from 2 pt, 5/23 from 3 pt and the other team grabs 52 rebounds vs yours 31 (!!!!!!!!!!!!!!) every further comment should be useless.

I made a little research and found also these info, just to make the picture complete:

- the first half ended 27-27 (no, it’s not a typo. And when I mean “half” it’s two quarters = 20 minutes of play…) 

- Germany missed its first 10 three pointers before Demirel made one

- Italy missed 13 consecutive shots in the second quarter (…)

- in the same second quarter Germany got 19 rebounds, Italy 9 (in the picture Stefano Mancinelli fighting for a rebound with Patrick Femerling). Center Jagla had 6 boards in 6 minutes, three less than our whole team in 10 (!).

- after 25 minutes the scored was tied to an unbelievable 33-33, Germany closed the third quarter with a couple of treys by Herbert and ended the period up nine (37-46, with a 8-0 break). That’s like being up 20 in a “normal” game, I guess.

- in the forth quartes Bargnani scored his only three pointer to make it a two point game (52-54 with 2′20” to go) but Herbert punished us with another one from the long range. Nowitzki had scored his first two behind the arc some minutes before.

So we basically managed to lose a game in which we kept Nowitzki to a quiet 15 points with very bad percentages: 3-10 from two, 2-9 from three.

It was unknown guard Johannes Herber from Alba Berlin (not exactly a basketball powerhouse…) to send us home.

It doesn’t take a rocket scientist to conclude that when you lose games like this, when your overall record in the competition is 2-4, you deserve to fly back home.

It’s unfortunate because not only we will watch the rest of the Euro 2007 on tv – which could be even fun, at least we won’t have to suffer anymore… – but mainly because this quick exit means we won’t go to the 2008 Olympics in China.

That really sucks because I would have liked to see guidos playing vs USA team.

Germany will play (and lose to) Spain tomorrow in the quarterfinals. Russia-France is the first elimination game scheduled, that I would like to catch (and cover here).

The other quartefinals Croatia-Lithuania and Greece-Slovenia are planned for Friday 14th.

Still a lot of hoops to watch, even without Italy.

…you don’t like basketball.

And I’m not talking about NBA basketball, but hoops in general.

The list of the amazing finishes increased last night, with Vassilis Spanoulis beating Croatia with a long (very long…) three before time expired. I’ll try to post the link later. So after Lakovic (Slovenia, vs Italy) and Gurovic (Serbia, vs Greece) we watched another exciting, tough basket at the buzzer.

But the excitiment continues, and this time Italy was a part of it. Yes, because here I am telling you the story of a nice, OT, comeback 84-75 win vs Turkey. Follow my recap, it’s fun.

1st quarter. It ended with Turkey up 14 (15-29), a score that actually was 10-25 (largest lead), with a 14-3 turkish edge under the boards !! Need more? Belinelli started with 0/3, Turkey scored twice just before the shot clock expired, once on a fallaway three, Italy shot 5/16, Turkey 9/14. Clear enough?

Ok, you got the picture. Mehmet Okur and mostly Hidayet Turkoglu started doing their job, scoring whenever they wanted, and Peker did the rest. Italy was… well, I don’t know. Zero ideas, no offensive game, ghosts walking under the boards. Terrific start.

2nd quarter.  We simply started playing. It was our bench shaking things a little bit: seldom used center Crosariol (!), point guard Di Bella, but mainly forward Mancinelli (9 points in the quarter) and pf/c Angelo Gigli. Gigli went on for the whole game, by the way, ending with an amazing 17 points and 10 boards - and Sixers4guidos MVP title, but I am digressing….

Turkey’s lead was cut to 30-35 thanks to many stupid turnovers by Tanjevic’s team more than due to our good defense. But Turkoglu had another couple of great plays to end the first half at 34-43. Rebounds? 11-24… how can you win the game if your opponent outrebounds you that way ?? But games last 40 minutes, and we played only 20. Italy stayed in it also because Turkey shot only 11/20 from the free throw line. So…

3rd quarter. It was Gigli again sparkling a furious comeback: 44-49 with a driving dunk by our center, that added a corner three immediately after. Yes !! We have a game !

Turkey’s simply shocked, the comeback becomes impressive with Belinelli scoring his first basket on a three and starting a run that made us tie the game at 51-51 on a soft lefthanded layup by the Golden State rookie: but it wasn’t over, Soragna and Belinelli again put us ahead at 58-51 (a 14-0 break !) before Turkoglu ended the draught with a three. It’s 58-54 Italy at the end. Nice job guys, definitely. You see? Boxing out  makes you get the rebounds…

4th quarter. Turkoglu and also Okur have range. They remind us of that to make it 59-62, when Italy takes bad shots, forcing drives, long threes or quick jumpers, withouth making them work on defense. 61-67 with another three by the Orlando Magic guard at -3.40… tough situation but here comes our heart. Gigli pulls a Okur and scores his second basket from behind the arc, Belinelli adds another two to cut the deficit to 66-67.

Gollum splits a pair from the line to set the stage for Belinelli heroics. Marco wants the ball, dribbles and takes it to the rack strongly, very strongly: he actually explodes and dunks in traffic, posterizing Okur and ties the game at 68-68 with 1.14 to go !!!

Jeeeeeezzz !! Check You Tube until you find this, and in the meantime enjoy the picture !!!!!  That would have made it to Sportscenter, and for sure it’s worth a place in the “Top 3″ actions of this competition.

No time to celebrate, there’s a finish to follow. “Brother Hedo” (who else ?) knocks down a pair from the line with 20 seconds to go, same for Bulleri with 9 so Turkey has the last ball and a chance to send us home.

Fortunately for us veteran Ibrahim Kutluay, turkish basketball legend – with a short, meaningless stint in the NBA with the Seattle Supersonics – misses a wide open corner three at the buzzer after Turkoglu gets doubled and smartly, unselfishly kicks it out. Kutluay has a perfect look but can’t connect. It’s overtime.

Overtime. Same story. Turkey in the beginning, Italy at the end.

Turkoglu (34) scores on a drive but misses the additional free throw (only 9/15 his final stat) so that the score is set at 72-75. Gigli replies with a nice low post move, Belinelli puts us ahead at 76-75 with a pair from the charity stripe and in the following play feeds Bargnani (finally !!) for a three.

Yes, “Il Mago” is clutch from the top of the key: 79-75 Italy and that basket is  the decisive one, because Okur eventually fouls out, sends the Raptor to the free throw line and with a 81-75 lead with 1.09 to go the game is over.

Kutluay misses another two, this time from the stripe, to “cap” his horrendous night. I feel sorry for him because he’s a nice player, a warrior and a true leader. He wouldn’t have deserved it, but this is basketball… 84-75, the horn sounds and we can party.

It took balls, heart, pride to turn a 15 points first quarter deficit into a 9 points final win;  that’s why we are guidos, I guess. It took also a kind help from Turkey, becase they could (should?) have won the game and/or close it earlier.

We are still alive but we need another win. Herr Dirk is waiting for us. We are ready.

Italy’s second round at the Eurobasketball 2007 in Spain started with another defeat (wow !).

Ok, a 74-79 loss vs Lithuania is somehow honourable, since everybody picked Lithuania at least as semifinal bound before the competition. I say: yes, it is, but we could have won this game.

While it’s not suprising that we were simply overwhelmed under the boards (44-29), with guard Siskauskas (6 rebounds), Nuggets forward Linas Kleiza (9) and Ksistof Lavrinovic (5) whipping our centers (?), it’s disappointing that we forgot to run plays for Belinelli and Bargnani down the stretch, when they were hot and could have given us a chance to win the game.

Golden State Warriors’ rookie scored 9 consecutive points in the fourth quarter only to be forgotten in the last minutes, while Bargnani had another solid game (15 + 7, leading us in both categories) but wasn’t feeded enough at the end, when Italy collected silly turnovers and missed shots. So we couldn’t cut the 74-77 deficit with 50” to go.

With star Sarunas Jasikevicius (yes, at international level the 12th man of the Golden State Warriors is a star…) pretty quiet with 13 points, it was “italian” Rimantas Kaukenas to beat the country he plays in. The boxscore of the Montepaschi Siena’s guard is impressive indeed, and shows who the MVP was.

Of course the 16 offensive rebounds (!!) were a huge factor, giving Lithuania many second chances and 19 points off, but this is no news, we are aware of our troubles under the boards since the beginning of the Euro 2007.

With Italy down one and 2 seconds to go, Siskauskas missed a couple of free throws but Kleiza got the rebound to put an end to the whole story. When you can’t box out a player after a free throw you don’t deserve to win, simple as that.

So it was a close game, again, and another loss. This time vs the best team we faced until now.

The amazing thing is that Italy’s record is currently 1-3, but we still have a chance to advance. We have to beat Turkey on Monday and Germany later.

I just hope that tis group will not break up. Belinelli refused to talk to reporters after the game, clerly pissed off for being misused (or NOT USED) after that nice stretch, and Bargnani echoed his feelings saying that Italy made “terrible offensive choices” in the final minutes.

“On defense they were switching player at every play, creating many mismatches, so we simply had to give the ball to who could take advantage of it”. This, in case you didn’t realize, means: “me”…

It didn’t happen, and we lost. But I like this attitude. Not cocky but self confident. Next time give the ball to the young fella.

Mixed feelings at the end of this final day of the first round.

As largely predicted, Italy beat Poland, even if our win (79-70) was tougher than excpected. Azzurri were in control basically for the whole game, with margins between 14 and 5 points. The key factors for this win were two: shooting percentages and controllling the boards.

I mean, it’s pretty difficult to lose when you 1) shoot 12/21 from three point land and 2) outrebound the other team 34-26.

My deep knowledge of the game is displayed by these smart comments: 1) knocking down shots always helps when you play basketball ; 2) considering that Italy still has the weakeast frontcourt in this Euro 2007 championship, you have an idea of how Poland big men were…

Italy dropped threes on Poland (weak) defense for 40 minutes, with Belinelli & Bargnani leading the show and resurrected guard Gianluca Basile (4/6) doing the main part of the damage when we needed the most. Even PF/C Angelo Gigli scored a three from the corner, another sign that it was “one of those nights”.

This win vs a proud but weak opponent doesn’t delete many doubts that fans with a minum experience still see: we still have no low post scoring (I counted one, I swear, ONE !! back-to-the basket move in the whole game that ended with two points, made by center Denis Marconato) so we won’t have any answers for good zone defenses or for when our shooters will cool off. 

Our bench is still short, being Marco Belinelli the only player that do contributes and that can turn a game in our favour.

So I am happy for the win but I don’t expect to advance further, honestly. It was nice to see Bargnani and mainly Belinelli playing a good game, though. Now I want them to repeat it with stronger, tougher teams/defenses, to show they are not finesse players. Next games vs Lithuania, Turkey and Germany will tell us more about that.

On the other side, I am really disappointed to see Serbia going home, after the 83-87 loss vs Israel. I didn’t watch the game so you have to rely on Eurobasket 2007 recap (usually they are pretty good).

Serbians were probably tired and/or still shocked after yesterday night’s hurting overtime loss vs Greece, that ended with some very hard statments from Milicic and other players towards the refs, but no excuses here, they should have done better, even with a young and unexperienced team.

Time to seriously reconsider all the national team organisation, and to find a solution for the NBA players. Dealing with them is a problem that many european teams have, but one should ask why Parker, Gasol, Nowitzki etc (= way better players than Stojakovic, Radmanovic, Krstic etc) don’t miss a single game for their country in these competitions, while serbian “stars” prefer go surfing or watch tv.

Better game, bitter end. Same taste like last night.

Maybe I should just guve a cut to the “Mr. Longoria” jokes and simply say that Tony Parker is a fantastic basketball player.

He almost singlehandedly beat us in the second game of the Eurobasktball 2007 played in Alicante, a 62-69 loss to France. 

What can you say when a player ends with 36 points, more than 50% of his whole team? He started scoring France’s first 9 points and 13 of the first 17, answering Andrea Bargnani’s excellent start. 

Parker reached 27 after three quarters, when France’s total was 51, and carried the Blues in the last minutes.

After Bargnani’s three pointer put Italy ahead at 60-57 with 4 minutes to go, the Spurs PG ignited a 10-0 break that basically closed the game, nailing a tough trey just before the shot clock expired to tie Andrea’s shot and scoring on another two drives to make it 60-67. Boris Diaw then sealed the game blocking Belinelli’s (soft) layup attempt.

The game was pretty enjoyable, if you love close, hard fought, tactical battles. Your typical FIBA basketball, to sum it up.

Andrea - a.k.a. “Il Mago”, the wizard, in the picture - began perfectly, scoring the first 7 points for us and taking 7′3 bust Frederic Weis (yes, the guy who was jumped & dunked on by Vince Carter in that famous play… a Knicks first round pick, gotta love him !!!) to school for the entire first half with drives, pump fakes, mid range shots, post up moves.

Parker kept France in the game, doing exactly what he does every single night in the NBA. If he can do that playing vs Shaq, Garnett, Ilgauskas etc, what could make you think he would have struggled playing vs Crosariol, Marconato & Gigli ????

Speaking of our frontcourt, I think it’s the worst in the whole competition. The guys fight, always give their best, but they are simply not talented and not athletic enough at this level. I have a hard time recalling more than five three low post baskets in these two games, while our total of blocks is stuck at 4, I think.

Belinelli’s fans MIGHT think he played better than last night vs Slovenia looking at the boxscore, while I think he got worse.

Marco should stop with the idiotic fallaway three(s) when the closest opponent is 12 feet from him, and learn that when an immobile center is guarding you, you should beat him off the dribble and go to the rim instead of driving laterally to take (again) a corner three.

Italy went 6/13 overall from the charity stripe, an unforgivable mistake in these low scoring marathons. The ridiculous number of attempts is just another confirm of what I just said about our low post (no) game and lack of aggressiveness.

France not surprisingly won the battle under the boards, even if by an acceptable margin (40-31), and shoot just as bad as us. But they had the go to guy when it counted.

Italy has still a chance to make it past the first round: we simply have to beat Poland in the last game of this phase. 

France honestly didn’t impress me at all, showing only a nice new (at least to me) player in Tariq Kirksay: the rest is a bunch of role players that live off their star. 

Monsieur Parker, chapeau !