Quick Recap: Olympics Day #3

United States 156, Nigeria 73 

Just when we all thought the debate regarding who was the best USA team of all time was over, something like this happened. Carmelo Anthony scored 37 points, including 10-12 from three,  in 14 minutes of play to set a record for most point scored in a game by a Basketball player from the United States in an Olympic game, the previous record was 34 by no other than former Knick Stephon Marbury.  More records were set, largest margin of victory ever (83), most three pointers in a game (29) & three points attempts (46) Kobe Bryant and Kevin Durant started hot in the first quarter, but no one was hotter than Anthony.  The only positive for Nigeria was former NBA player Ike Diogu had a nice showing with 27 points and 7 rebounds.

France 82, Lithuania 74


Tony Parker had his best game of the Olympics so far with 27 points (2 three pointers, 7-10 from the FT line), and 5 rebounds. Nicolas Batum contribute with 21 points, 6 rebounds, 3 blocks, and 2 steals. Lithuania was very cold in the 2nd half (France's defense had something to with that) but they also missed some shots they normally make, you can read more about this game here.


Australia 81, China 71

Wang Shipeng made 7 three pointers for China, he finished with 21 points, but they weren't enough to beat an Australia team that was hungry for a win.  Patty Mills got rid of his poor three point shooting, he went 4 out of 8 from downtown and 21 points, David Andersen had 17 and 7.


Argentina 92, Tunisia 69 

Argentina started really poorly, after one quarter of play they were behind 28-14.. Yes, they were losing by 14 against Tunisia.. But they quickly recover from the 2nd quarter on to defeat them by 23 points.  Manu Ginobili was perfect from the three point like (4-4) and 24 points, 6 boards, 3 assists, 2 steals.  Luis Scola had a double double of 20 & 10, Carlos Delfino scored 21 points.  Salah Mejri had 19 points, 14 boards and 7 rebounds for Tunsia.


Russia 75, Brazil 74 

This was definitely the game of the day, Russia was leading almost all game until suddenly Brazil tied the game in the 4th quarter and went up by 5, but Russia didn't panic, they remained playing with composure.  Alexey Shved made a three pointer to tie the game, Marcelo Huertas gave Brazil a one point lead with a few seconds to go, however, Russia had one final timeout to draw a final play and they did just that. Vitaly Fridzon made the three pointer (and getting fouled in the process, which they didn't called) to give Russia the win.  For Brazil,  Larry Taylor played really good, he scored 12 points (5-7 FG) off the bench and Leandro Barbosa scored 16.  Andrei Kirilenko finished with 19 and Alexey Shved with 16 for Russia.



Spain 79, Great Britain 78 

Spain played poorly for the second game in a row, it could be because of the absence of star player, Juan Carlos Navarro, who sat down due to an injury he has fought during the entire season (Plantar)  or maybe they were underestimating their opponents.  Spain took a 9 point lead in the first half, only to see it slip away and almost came out with the defeat. Luol Deng and Joel Freeland played outstanding when it mattered most for Great Britain. Deng finished with 26 points, 9 rebounds, 7 assists, and 1 steal. Freeland with 25 points, 7 rebounds.  Spain was lead by Pau Gasol 17 points and his brother Marc had 12. 

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Quick Recap: Olympics Day #2

Russia 73 - China 54

Russia had yet another strong defensive effort against  China, they allowed the Chinese to score just 54 points (Yi Jianlian had 30 against Spain)  in the game and didn't let them reach 20 points in any of the quarters.  Andrei Kirilenko, Alexey Shved, Sasha Kaun and Timofey Mozvov had 53 points between them while China had 54.  Yi Jianlian, China's best scorer, only had 16 points.

Spain 82 - Australia 70

Spain didn't started the game that well, they missed Juan Carlos Navarro's offense terribly in the game. Australia kept the game close for two quarters, but Rudy Fernandez exploded in the third quarter, he made three shots from downtown, he finished with 17 points and the Gasol brothers combined for 29 points.  Patty Mills shot 5-16 from the field and only scored 11 points.

Lithuania 72 - Nigeria 53

Lithuania took advantage of Nigeria's poor shooting right from the start. Nigeria made 1 out of 16 three pointers and shot a bad percentage from the line.  Lithuania was lead by Linas Kleiza 11 points and Darius Songaila 12, however, Jonas Valanciunas kept struggling for the second straight game. Ike Diogu had another double double for Nigeria with 12 points and 10 boards.

Brazil  67 - Great Britain 62


Tiago Splitter lead Brazil with 21 and 6, this game was much closer than what everyone was anticipating, the Brazilians scored just 4 points in the first quarter and shot horribly from the three point line, they made 3 out of 22 attempts.  Luol Deng had 12 points, 8 rebounds, 7 assists and 2 steals.

France 71 - Argentina 64

This was the first time Spurs teammates, Manu Ginobili and Tony Parker, played against each other and they both had  very good games.  Ginobili scored 26 points to lead Argentina in scoring, but Tony Parker saved his best for last, despite shooting a horribly 4 for 17 from the field,  Parker had 11 out of his 17 points in the 4th quarter to beat Argentina. Luis Scola struggled against France's athleticism, he finished with 16 points and 8 rebounds.

USA 110 - Tunisia 63

The Americans weren't playing a smart game in the beginning of the game and it showed, Tunisia had the lead more that once in the first quarter, including a 15-13 lead.  Coach K had enough of his team coasting and once he brought the bench into the game, the game was over for Tunisia.  Carmelo Anthony and Kevin Love had 16 points and Kevin Durant had a double double with 13 points and 10 rebounds. Makrem  Ben Romdhane had a good game with 22 and 12 for Tunisia.

Standings

Group A

United States                    2-0                              France                                1-1

Argentina                          1-1                              Lithuania                             1-1

Nigeria                             1-1                              Tunisia                                 0-2

Group B

Spain                              2-0                                China                                 0-2

Brazil                              2-0                                Australia                             0-2    

Russia                             2-0                                Great Britain                       0-2

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Olympics Day #2 Group B: Russia - China instant recap.

1st Quarter


Russia finished with a 20-12 lead after the game first 10 minutes, five of Russia's seven field goals were assisted (Alexey Shved got 3 assists)  Russia's defense was suffocating China.

Alexey Shved scored 5 points, 3 assists & Andrei Kirilenko had 4 points, 3 rebounds and a block.  Yi Jianlian tried to keep China afloat with 4 points and 4 boards.

2nd Quarter


7:56 - Shved dishes the ball to Ak-47 for a basket and a foul, this duo keeps looking for each other and doing so perfectly. Russia leads 23-15


5:57 - A Timofey Mozgov dunk gives Russia their biggest lead of the game, 30-18.  Russsia's cutting to the basket, running their offense for easy layups and open baskets, however, China is struggling to even get a clean look, Russia's defense is very good.


4:31 - Yi Jianlian  is 2 out of 6 from the field, not exploding offensively like he did against Spain, Russia has him in check.


2:10 -  This is a no contest, Russia has stolen the ball at least 3 times in a row against the Chinese, Russia's being doing alley oops, trying passes behind their backs, they couldn't be more relaxed.  Andrei Kirikenko has 13 points, 6-9 FG.

End of 2nd quarter -  Shved missed a three at the last second and Russia goes to the locker room with a 40-25 lead.  Kirilenko lead all scorers with 15.

Russia out rebounded China by 11 (28-17) and forced them to commit 9 turnovers, just one less than all the baskets they made in the first half  (10)



Impressive stat:  Kirilenko, Shved and Khryapa have scored 25 points, grabbed 15 boards and dished out 7 assists. China as a team has 25 points, 17 rebounds and 4 assists.



3rd Quarter


9:00 -  Sun Yue got a beautiful and took layup around AK-47. 


6:13 - Russia leads 49-30.  Last 2 Russia baskets have been a three by  Vitaly Fridzon and a pretty well executed give and go.


5:00 -  China started the quarter by making their first 2 baskets, for 5 quick points, but haven't scored in at least 3 minutes.


2:07 -  Sasha Kaun has scored 7 points in the quarter (Including last 2 baskets)  he's getting really good position and there's nothing China can do.  Kaun has 7 points, while China as a team have 9.

China got 5 quick points in the last minute of the quarter and cut the lead from 27 to 22. China finished with 15 points in the quarter, however, there were times i didn't even thought they were going to reach 10. 

End of 3rd quarter:   Russia 61, China 39.

4th Quarter

9:00 - Yi Anlian took his frustration out and put Timofey Mozgov on a poster.  China's down 21 (63-42)

2:30 - Russia has an 18 points lead (69-51) China has actually outscored Russia this quarter 12 to 8.

1:35 -  Shved dunked the ball and brings Russia up by 20 again. Biggest lead was 27

Final score:  Russia 73, China 54.  

China scored 12 points in the first quarter, 13, 14 & 15 in the other three. When was the last time something like that happened in a game? Really a bizarre stat line. 

Andrei Kirilenko ended up with 16 points & 9 boards, 14 and 6 for Shved,  13 and 6 for Kaun and 10 points for Mozgov,  Yi Jianlian had 16 points and 7 boards for China

China now falls to two losses and no wins, while Russia stays undefeated.

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Quick Recap: Olympics Day #1

Nigeria 60, Tunisia 56. 

Nigeria and Tunisia played in their first ever Olympics, but only one team could come up with their first ever win and that was Nigeria.  Ike Diogu had a double double of 13 points and 10 rebounds, his teammate Al Farouq Aminu almost got a double double himself, but failed to grabbed that 10th board, he ended up with 10 points and 9 rebounds.

Brazil 75, Australia 71. 

Brazil's depth demonstrated  it will play a key role for them in this tournament.  Barcelona Regal's player, Marcelinho Huertas, had a double double with 15 point & 10 assists, Leandro Barbosa scored 16 and Anderson Varejao finished with 12 points and 7 boards.  Australia made a good come back in the fourth quarter, cutting the lead to two points, but couldn't take the lead.  Patty Mills scored 20 points,  David Andersen 14 points, 8 rebounds & Joe Ingles scored 15 for Australia.


USA 98, France 71. 

The United States won the first quarter by a single point, and that was taking France's best punch of the day.   Lebron James finished with 9 points,  8 assists, 5 boards & 2 steals. Kevin Durant scored 22 points and grabbed 9 boards.  Tony Parker had a bad game with only 10 points, 1 rebound and 1 assist for France.


Spain 97, China 81. 

Pau Gasol had 21 points & 11 rebounds, Juan Carlos Navarro scored 14,  Jose Calderon scored 12 and Spain was too much for China. Spain started off slow in the first period and was only up by two, but they changed that in a hurry by scoring 34 points in the 2nd quarter and they didn't looked back.  China's only consistant scoring came from Yi Anlian he played fantastic on the offensive end, hitting mid range jumpers and some impressive dunks, he finished with 30 points and 12 rebounds.

Russia 95, Great Britain 75. 

The Andrei Kirilenko and Alexey Shved show was a phenomenal display of basketball.  Kirilenko had 35 points (14-17 FG) & 4 rebounds. Shved almost got a triple double, he finished the game with 16 points, 13 assists and 6 rebounds.  Great Britain was no match for Russia, there only was so much Luol Deng could do for Great Britain. Deng had 26 points, but shot poorly from the field.

Argentina 102, Lithuania 79. 

 Argentina's golden generation proved they will keep playing with everything they have, just like they've shown us many times before. Luis Scola scored 32 points, Manu Ginobili had a double double with 21 points and 10 rebounds and Carlos Delfino had 20 points (Including six three pointers)  Argentina lead 51-39 at the half, but Lithuania couldn't stop them from scoring and lost the game by 23 points.   Linas Kleiza scored 20 points and 7 rebounds & Paulius Jankunas contributed for 14 points for Lithuania. 

Standings

Group A

United States                    1-0                              France                                0-1

Argentina                          1-0                              Lithuania                             0-1

Nigeria                             1-0                              Tunisia                                 0-1

Group B

Spain                              1-0                                China                                 0-1

Brazil                              1-0                                Australia                             0-1    

Russia                             1-0                                Great Britain                       0-1

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2012 FIBA Olympic Qualifying Tournament Update

Last night in the quarterfinals Russia, Nigeria, Dominican Republic and Lithuania advanced to the semifinals by beating Angola, Greece, FYROM & Puerto Rico.  Today Russia played against Nigeria and Lithuania faced off against the Dominican Republic for the chance to compete at the London Olympics. However, the two losing teams are still going to play against each other tomorrow for the third and final ticket to the Olympics.

In the first of two games, Russia defeated Nigeria 85-77.  Alexey Shved scored 22 points, Andrei Kirilenko had 19 points & 8 rebounds.  Russia won the first quarter 26-20, they had a bigger lead after the 2nd quarter, 46-31.  Nigeria tried cutting the lead down, but they couldn't get over the hump.  Nigeria seemed to play a little slow, perhaps they used a lot of their energy to beat tough opponents like Lithuania and Greece.  Ike Diogu had 16 points and 14 boards in the loss.

In the 2nd game of the day, Lithuania defeated the Dominican Republic easily, 109-83.  Jonas Maciulis scored 19 points,  Raptors lottery pick from last year, Jonas Valanciunas, rebounded from his awful performance last night against Puerto Rico and went ___ from the field for 17 points and 9 boards & Linas Kleiza had 13.

Lithuania had a 21-16 lead after the first quarter and the game remained close until the third period, in which Lithuania got themselves a 20 point lead, 63-43 and the game went downhill for the Dominicans. Jack Michael Martinez had 13 points and 10 rebounds, Al Horford 12 and 10 & Juan Coronado did his part with 10 points for the Dominicans.

With the win, the Lithuanians are now headed to London to play in the Olympics (Same with Russia) , the Dominicans can join them tomorrow if they beat Nigeria for the third and final spot,  if they do that, the Dominicans will be going to their first Olympics in their history.

Photo credit: Endi.com

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