2012 London Olympics 1st round Recap + Schedule.

The pool play is now over, 8 teams have advance to the quarterfinals and four have been eliminated.  The quarterfinals start on Wednesday and here are the recaps from each team during the first round and the schedule. 


Russia (B1)  -  Lithuania (A4)      2:00 PM London time,  9:00 am EST.

Russia finished with a 4-1 record in pool play, they defeated Great Britain and China easily.  Russia also came away with a one point win over Brazil due to a miracle three pointer by Vitaliy Fridzon and a game that stunned half the world, the Russians beat Spain 77-74 after they felt behind 20-2 in the first quarter.  Their only loss was to Australia in their final day of pool play, and the Aussies needed  a Patty Mills buzzer beating three to get the W. If Shaq was here, he would've typed "One lucky shot deserves another"

Lithuania finished with a disappointing 2-3 record,  didn't played well during pool play and they still managed to come as close as anyone to beat team USA.   Lithuania beat Tunisia and Nigeria (Honestly, who didn't?!) and lost to Team USA, France & Argentina.  All of the teams that beat Lithuania are better than them, but they were disappointing in their lack of effort, they got blown out in the first day against Argentina, struggle to beat Tunisia in a must win game, but there's hope for them, they almost beat team USA and not even Argentina did that in pool play.

France  (A2)  -    Spain  (B3) 4:15 PM London time,   11:15 am EST


France lost their first game in the Olympics to the United States and didn't looked any good after the first quarter of that game, however, they bounced back and won the remaining four games and finished with a 4-1 record.   Beating Tunisia and Nigeria was expected, even beating Lithuania wasn't a surprise, but beating Argentina was a huge plus for the team's confidence and frankly, not a lot of people expected it.


At the beginning of the tournament Spain was regarded as the challenger to team USA, how the might have fallen.  After beating China and Australia by double digits, Spain struggle vitally against a Great Britain team that isn't even close to Spain's level,  beating them just by a single point, then choked away a 20-2 lead against Russia to lose by three (77-74) and being accused of tanking their last game against Brazil to avoid facing The United States (if they beat their first quarterfinals opponent.) 

To Spain's defense, the Eurobasket 2011 most valuable player and longtime member of their squad, Juan Carlos Navarro, has been facing different injuries including plantar fasciitis and it's obviously not himself. Navarro is the most consistent player after the Gasol Brothers, he can knock down three pointers with ease and can create his own shot, unlike many of Spain's guards, he doesn't need someone else to create for him.


Argentina  (A3) -   Brazil (B2)  8:00 pm London time, 3:00 pm EST


Argentina ended up with a 3-2 record, they beat Lithuania by twenty three points in the opener, then lost to France (Which wasn't a huge surprise, but still most expected ARG to win that game) then took care of  Tunisia and Nigeria before going down again, this time to the United States.  Pablo Prigioni missed two of the five games due to having kidney stones.

Brazil struggled in the early part of the Olympics, but they still managed to beat their first two opponents even without playing their best.  They beat Australia by 4 points and Great Britain by 5, they lost to Russia by a point, then beat China by a million (Only by 39) and defeat Spain in the last game of the first round.  Coach Magnano sat Nene from their final game, but it was more of rest thing than an injury situation.

United States (A1)  -  Australia (B4)  10:15 pm London time, 5:15 pm EST

Australia went 3-2 after five games, they did better than expected.   They  started 0-2 after losing to Brazil and Spain, then they beat Nigeria and Tunisia (Again, who didn't!?) and then defeated Russia with a buzzer beating three, that last one was the only surprising result.

The United States finished  undefeated with a  5-0 record, they beat France by 27, Nigeria and Tunisia by more than 30, Lithuania played them tough and only beat them by 5, then they beat Argentina by 29. The 83 point win against Nigeria was a historic thing, most likely to never happen again.  Team USA was impressive, nothing new here, they haven't played perfect and will still get better (Scary, scary sight for the rest)

Photo Credit:  Garett W. Ellwood (Getty Images)

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2012 London Olympics Individual leaders.

The 2012 London Olympics have been full of excitement, buzzer beating shots, blowout and even some historic performances, However, there are some players in particular that showed they belong in a different class than all the rest.

Scoring leaders  

1. Pau Gasol   (SPA)            20. 6 PPG

2. Patty Mills   (AUS)           20.2  PPG
3. Luis Scola    (ARG)          20.2  PPG
4. Emanuel Ginobili  (ARG)   20.0 PPG
5. Kevin Durant       (USA)   18.6   PPG

Rebounds 

1. Yi Jianlian             (CHI)    10.2 RPG

2. Salah Mejri          (TUN)   10.0 RPG

3. Ike Diogu             (NIG)    9.0 RPG

4. Ben Romdhane      (TUN)  8.6 RPG

5. Anderson Varejao   (BRA)  7.4  RPG

Assists

1. Marcelinho Huertas         (BRA)  6.2 APG

2. Pablo Prigioni                 (ARG)   6.0 APG

3. Sarunas Jasikevicius        (LIT)     5.8 APG

4. Chris Paul                      (USA)    5.8 APG

5. Deron Williams              (USA)     5.6 APG

Steals 

1.  Chris Paul               (USA)   2.2 APG

2.  Emanuel Ginobili    (ARG)    2.0 APG

3.  Andrei Kirilenko    (RUS)     2.0 APG

4.  Al Farouq Aminu    (NIG)    2.0 APG

5.  Matt Nielsen          (AUS)    2.0 APG

Blocks

1.  Salah Mejri     (TUN)     3.4 BPG

2.  Yi Jianlian        (CHI)      2.2 BPG

3.  Serge Ibaka     (SPA)     1.8 BPG 

4.  Nicolas Batum (FRA)     1.6 BPG

5.  Kevin Seraphin (FRA)    1.6 BPG

Credit:  London 2012 Website

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Olympics Day #2 Group A: Argentina - France instant recap.

1st Quarter

France leads 19-12 after the first 10 minutes. Nicolas Batum got a dunk in the first possession and that seemed to get him going, he added two three pointers along with the dunk for 8 points in the quarter. Tony Parker has been struggling with his shot, but still has taken the ball to the hoop, penetrating and dishing the ball to teammates.  Gelabale contributed with a three pointer and Turiaf played good defense on Luis Scola.


Argentina couldn't get any offense whatsoever, Luis Scola and Manu Ginobili each scored 4 points apiece, Carlos Delfino couldn't knock down a three pointer.  Argentina had long droughts without scoring & Scola couldn't get into his spots like he did against Lithuania.



2nd Quarter

Argentina started the quarter with a 6-0 run until Nando de Colo made a three pointer and stopped the run. After the first five minutes, Argentina has outscored France 12 to 5, looked like Argentina was closing the gap, but Kevin Seraphin started dominating the inside and France took a 9 point lead in the quarter.   Despite the lead, Argentina hung around, they didn't get anyone going and made  just one three pointer.  But they made some free throws, tough defense and that was enough.  France leads 32-29 after two quarters of play.

Halftime Stats:
Manu Ginobili (ARG)  8 points
Luis Scola (ARG)        6 points.
Tony Parker (FRA)      4 points, 2 assists.
Nicolas Batum (FRA)  10 points & 6 rebounds.
Kevin Seraphin (FRA)  6 Points

3rd Quarter

The energy level picked up during this quarter, Gelabale continued his hot shooting by making yet another three and a two point field goal, Nando De Colo also made his second triple of the game.  Argentina got more contributions from  Scola, Prigioni and Ginobili, they have been playing with more efficiency than in the first half. 

Manu Ginobili scored 12 points in the quarter, he took over the game, he hit a three, drove to the basket for layups and also made his free throws.  France still leads the game,  55-53 at the end of three.  Manu and De Colo (Both Spurs) are leading their respective teams in scoring.

4th Quarter

After two minutes without any scoring, Nicolas Batum returned from the bench and immediately hit a three pointer, followed by a jump shot by Gelabale.  Manu Ginobili answered France run's by hitting a three, but Tony Parker made two straight baskets to give France a 6 point lead with less than 4 minutes to play.

France took a 67-58 lead and after a few unsuccessful tries Manu Ginobili made a three pointer, Scola got fouled twice and with 1:14 left to play, France lead has being cut to  5.    Tony Parker missed a jumper that would have given France the chance to be up 7 and he didn't, however, after missing the jumper he redeemed himself by stealing the ball right out of Scola's hand and then lobbing the ball to an alley oop to Kevin Seraphin.

Argentina couldn't convert three pointers to bring the lead down, France made their free throws and also got the win  71- 64.   Argentina only scored 11 points in the whole 4th quarter, Tony Parker had 11 in the quarter for France.  Manu Ginobili finished with 26 points

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Lin is a Rocket.

The Jeremy Lin saga in New York is now over. The Knicks decided not to match the three year,  $25.1 million offer made by the Houston Rockets.   The decision by the Knicks of not matching Jeremy Lin's contract is very odd, it doesn't make any sense.  

Lin single handily put the New York Knicks in a position to succeed after the team was left for dead and falling out of the playoff picture pretty fast.  One of the main reasons the Knicks didn't matched Lin's offer was because of the "Poison Pill" the Rockets made to Lin, the contract is set to give Lin 14.9 million during the third and final year of his contract, Knicks weren't so sure Jeremy was worth that, Carmelo Anthony called it "Ridiculous" so that's one player that wasn't too happy with it.

The Knicks traded for Raymond Felton to replace Lin. Felton played for the Knicks 2 seasons ago, but he isn't the same player as back then and also Mike Woodson wasn't the coach. It's unclear how Felton will fit in a Knicks team that still has players that always look for their shot first, Anthony, Stoudemire and JR Smith primarily. 

Jeremty Lin has upside, he still has a chance to be a better player, he loved making his teammates better (Just ask Tyson Chandler) he wasn't scared of taking shots in pressure situations, i don't think Felton will play any better than what he's done in his career so far.

New York is now in a not so good situation at the point guard position, Raymond Felton averaged 11.4 Points per game, but played as horribly as any other PG in the league last year with the Portland Trailblazers, Jason Kidd also had a rough year in Dallas,  avg 6 points and 5 assist and newly acquired Pablo Prigioni has been a solid point guard in Europe for many years, however, he hasn't played a minute of NBA basketball and that takes time to adjust no matter how good you are.

The Knicks made a  big mistake not keeping Jeremy Lin.

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Argentina started preparing for London.

The Argentinian national team got together on Saturday to start training for the London Olympics (July 27- August 12) some of the players that were present were  Manu Ginobili, Pablo Prigioni, Andres Nocioni, Federico Kammerichs, Luis Scola, Hernan Jasen,  Paolo Quinteros & Carlos Delfino. 

One player that wasn't at the practice and unfortunately isn't going to be available for the London Olympics is center, Fabricio Oberto, he dropped out of the competition due to personal reasons.

Argentina wants to give it one last shot with "The Golden Generation", after winning the gold medal at the 2004 Athens Olympics, they finished 3rd in the Beijing Olympics in 2008, this group wants to give it themselves and their fans one more opportunity to capture the magic they got in 2004.

Manu Ginobili said the chances of this being his last Olympic competition are really high.

Argentina will begin their preparations games on June 28th against Uruguay, rest of schedule below.

June
28 vs Uruguay
30 vs Uruguay

July
5-6        Super 4 Tournament   (Argentina, Brazil, Spain & Chile)
8 -         vs Spain
11-12 -  Super 4 Tournament  (Argentina, Brazil, Spain & Chile)
20 -       vs Spain
22 -       vs USA

More news regarding team Argentina will be posted as soon as they continue practicing, get an official roster and play against other teams.

Source:   http://cabb.com.ar


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