Sanyarin wrote:





Howl for all the updates!!!

Well, bringing this thread back to the original topic (Germany's national B-Ball team, in case someone forgot ):

Germany faces France today it our first game in the Qualifying Round of the tournament which also features Turkey, Italy, Slovenia and Lithuania in the same group as the Germans and has the first four of this group advancing to the quarter finals.

With regard the performance of the Germans in the first round, I would say they have a pretty good chance of making the third or even second place in this group:

The Turks were lucky to sneak into this round and although they will probably never play as bad as against the Germans in the next five decades again, they are to be considered the weakest team in this round.
Italy who was considered one of the favorites prior to the tournament has played far below their talent so far and from the stuff I have seen from them so far, I doubt they will be able to get their act together soon enough to avoid elimination.
France really played well so far behind their NBA studs Parker, Diaw and Turiaf, and lost by just one point to Slovenia, so I expect them to really do some damage in this group as well.
Germany had a difficult start against the Czechs, but bounced back with strong showings against Turkey and Lithuania. The defeat against the latter one came in a very close game which the Germans could have won but lost mostly because of overzeal. Depending on a strong game by Dirk, around whom the whole game of the Germans is build around, and at least a pinch of support by our other players, Germany will be able to beat every opponent in this group.
Slovenia and Lithuania both won their respective divisions unbeaten and therefore have to be considered the favorites to divide the places one and two in this division between them as well. But like the games France-Slovenia and Germany-Lithuania showed, the talent gap between those squads isn't really that the next times those squads face of, the resulted could be reversed.

For Germany, it is important to consider every game like a final. If they start well with a victory against France today, which will surely not come easy since the Germans lack their best defender on the guard position to shadow Tony Parker, they will have a really good chance securing the third place in this division.

My take on todays game: If Germany is well rested and can keep up their 3/4 quater court pressure defense, they will win by 5 point difference.

I already guessed the result against Lithuania right (unfortunately ), hopefully I have the same luck today

Short notices at halftime GER 39 : 47 FRA

- The Germans do not defend as well as they did in the preliminary round. 47 points at halftime are the most the Germans have allowed so far in the tournament and difficult to swallow. The defense NEEDS to get better in the 2nd half or we're toast.

- For Germany, Nowitzki (19) and Okulaja (12) have scored well, especially Nowitzki with pressured threes, the last one beating the halftime buzzer. But besides them, there are no other Germans scoring. That needs improvement as well.

- For France, Parker (11) and Pietrus (10) have delivered the most, but the overall scoring is more balanced. The Germans are struggling with that.

- The Germans shoot better and own the boards (16:10)so far, but they allow to many easy points in the paint and turn the ball over to often (6:3). With Tony Parker on board, the Frensh have also doubled the Germans assists (8:4), moving the ball extremely well.

- I might be biased, but the refs are calling a little bit for the French, in my opinion. The Germans have already been called for two flagrants, but Dirk have also been obviously hacked at least three times without a ref blowing a whistle. But overall, I have to admit...if the Germans loose this one, it won't be because of the refs.

Well, the second half went even worse for Germany than the first one did.

Final score: GER 66:78 FRA

- Germany's defence was a little bit better than in the first half, but the offense struggled mightily, with Okulaja (who rebounded well) impressing with some sort of disappearing act. Without any help for the other Germans, Nowitzki obviously felt the need to carry the team al by himself and forced lots of shots against the solid Frensh defence, maing his shot percentage drop considerably.

- The Frensh used a very balanced attack to keep the surprisingly lifeless German defense on their heels.

- It was really felt that the French had a serious advantage both in height and athletecism over the most German players.

- Tony Parker played a great game and was just uncontainable for every of the German guards. Thanks to his steady lead, the Frensh controlled the tempo all the time, took the lead early in the first quater and never let the German come closer than 4 Pts. the rest of the Game.

- Honestly - just as I said in my post at halftime, the Germans did not lost because of the refs, but because the French were clearly the better team today. But nonetheless, the refs, especially the Portugese one, did clearly use their whistles in favor of the Frensh! Many, many obvious fouls against Dirk were not called, oppoosed to some of the fouls that were called against the Germans. There were some other dubious calls as well, but however...the Frensh were clearly the better team, so not too much bad blood over that.

The Germans now desperately need to win against favorised Slovenia and the disappointing team from Italy to keep their chances alive. Next game Monday against Slovenia.

Top 3:

GER:
Nowitzki - 28 Pts. 6 Rebs.
Okulaja - 14 Pts. 9 Rebs.
Hamann- 8 Pts. 5 Rebs.

FRA:
Parker - 23 Pts. 4 Rebs. 3 Asts.
Pietrus - 12 Pts. 4 Rebs.
Kirksey - 12 Pts. 3. Rebs.

Oh, bullcrap!

I watched the basketball game between Germany and Slovenia yesterday on tape and I can't help but to admit that this was by far the most awful showing by a German basketball team I have seen in years. And I am even including the pre-Nowitzki years. They were so bad, they made even the shitty play the Turks brought to the ECs look like a brand of superior basketball.

I do not know if you are that interested into international basketball, that you usually read the recaps on the internet (SI or ESPN), so I will just add a few impressions instead of a recap of my own...because for high quality analysis, you better refer to professional sportswriting, but mostly because I am really pissed!

So I won't go into to much detail how the Slovenians kicked our sorry buttocks and by how many points they send us back to basketball-kindergarten (22:45 at halftime, 47:77 total) or how subterranean our shooting percentage was (28% from the field, 56% from the line) or that the Slovenian had the edge in rebounds, turnovers and every other stat that matters in basketball.

There are two other things that do really scare me:

First: this was by far not the best the Slovenians had to offer. If a team that misses four NBA-Players and two top-tier-players from the European leagues still has the luxury of sitting their starters and even their sixth and seventh man in the second quarter already with the opposing team with its top players (minus Dirk who also sat some time when the game was out of reach) on the field not able to close the gap...then you have aserious problem on hand.

Second: What really bothers me most is that even Nowitzki, who usually is the perfect teamplayer upt to the point of self-abandonment, seems to have lost faith in his team much like the rest of the Germans seems to have lost confidence in their own skills. Everybody, maybe except Okulaja, who is the only one besides Nowitzki playing a somewhat solid tournament, is playing with their heads down, afraid of having the ball in his hands and hoping for someone else to do something with it. And when they do take a shot, they are so nervous that their fear of missing becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy. And being blown out by the bench warmers of the Slovenian team surely won't boost their self-esteem.

I do not know what happened to the German Basketball team that won silver at the last ECs and bronce at the last WCs. The trademark agressive 3/4 court defence, that has helped Germany to prevail against more talented teams was just a shadow of former times in the preliminary round already and seems to be gone for good now. And on the offensive end, Dirk is the only one willing to take responsibility, but with virtually no other German even threatening to score, he is forced to create shots in a one on five situation. He is still the topscorer in this tournament, but this is less a compliment to him but an insult to the rest of the German team.

I guess this is the so called \"death struggle\" of maybe the best basketball generation Germany had so far, with every one of the main guys except Dirk almost or above thirty and none of them blessed with talents that age very well. Sad to think that with Basketball having become a popular sport in Germany (not like soccer, but at least equal to handball), that there is almost no young talent with international talent in sigth.

Now it's \"do or die\" against Italy, or this will probably be the last we have seen of any German national team at international tournaments for a long time. The team who wins this matchup today, will secure the last spot in the qualifying round that allows to advance to the quaterfinals, probably to get spanked by Russia.

Note: Germany has lost to Italy at international tournaments the last 16 times the two teams played each other and albeit underperfoming so far, Italy is still to be considered on of the dark horses to win this tournament. Things are really looking mirky...

Another note: Rasho is playing a really good tournament here and really dominated against the Germans although we do have some big and strong bodies to go against him and he is usually ill famed as \"soft\" in the NBA.

Yesterday the gods and goddesses of sport truly smiled on Germany's national teams!

Not only beat the soccer team the unbeaten Romanians 1:3 on their home turf, but - surprise, surprise - like phoenix from the ahses rose the German B-Ball team, overcoming a mediocre showing by Dirk (15 pts., 5/19 from the field, but solid defence and rebounding and some huge baskets down the stretch), to beat the favorised but young Italian team 67:58.

Being the oldest team in the whole EC (avarage 28,8 years), the Germans found not only their legs, playing pressure defence again to suffocate the Italian high octane offence, but their confidence, with finally some other players besides Nowitki and more defensive-minded Okulaja stepping up to score some baskets.

Relatively young players SG Herber (15pts., 10 in a decisive run at the end of the 3rd quater and 3/3 from the arc, 6 Rebs.), PG Hamann (10 Pts. all in the second half) and F/C Jagla (5 Pts., 10 Rebs) finally took responsibility, aggressivly attacking the basket and defending tirelessly.

My highest respect to German coach Bauermann who somehow turned this unconfident and listless bunch of fraidy-cats into a team again...a team suddenly that cocky, that they are talking the finals already and launching taunts towards reigning EC and WC Spain, which they will face today in the Quaterfinals on their home turf, in the cauldron of Madrid. I can't wait to see which German team will show up today.

Fun note: I really like Dirk for being such a fun guy and great teammate. Right after the game, when the interviews where held on the court with the sweating athletes and German TV was crowding Johannes Herber (who really had a great game, taking the Germans on the road to victory with his 3rd quater scoring), Nowitki sneaked onto Herber from behind, shocked everyone and especially Herber by shouting loudly \"matchwinner\" and then joking around Herber should stop stealing all the media guys from him, with Herber smiling bashfully. A great scene!

To continue my fun note from last post:
I heard yesterday, that after the game GER - ITA back at the hotel, matchwinner Herber was served at the dinner by all his teammates, including Nowitzki, who brought the main dish to him. That I call great team chemistry.

To continue to the expected but nonetheless less fun notes:
Germany lost to Spain in the quarterfinal game yestereday...by a whopping 55:83, again playing against the Spanish secondary for most of the second half. But nonetheless, I am not as disappointed as by the game against Slovenia. Let's face it: The Spaniards are stacked with NBA players as well as the best the European top teams have to offer while most of the German national players, even from the starting five, would be roleplayers on those teams...at most.

With that unbelievably huge talent gap, a victory would have been possible only if every German had brought his A+++ game and the Spaniards had a veeery bad day. But playing in front of a frenetic Spanish crowd and their King Juan Carlos at their capital Madrid, the Spaniards, battle hardened in European ans international title games, didn't falter. And to be honest, the Germans also brought just their C game as well. But they played with heart (at least for parts of the game) and everything their talent allowed them to, which is all I ask from my team, so I am not too unhappy with the result. You have always to know where your place is.

I am even delighted with the fact, that the Germans kept the game close against the Spanish staring five until the middle of the second quarter (20:20), defending aggressively and trying to emulate some sort of team offense. I could once again argue, like so many times during this tournament, that despite a very physical defense by the Spaniards, the Germans were always called for the double amount of personal fouls and despite some so-so-decisions in their favor, I can't help but to state the refs were influenced by the roaring home crowd. But as it is my style, I will not hold the refs responsible for the German loss.

Fact is: The Germans just could not keep the pace once the Spaniards geared up behind a barrage of points by NBA-Stars Garbajosa (who played very little due to a sore ankle) and Calderón (17 Pts.) in the second quarter, resulting in a score at halftime of 27:40. With Nowitzki (11 Pts. 6 Rebs.) again playing below his talent, although extremely well defended by the Spanish 3-2 Zone defence and also sitting some time to be rested for the fight for places 5-8 in the next days, Pau Gasol (7 Pts. 5 Rebs.) barely saw playing time. But having blocked three shots in the opening quarter already (4 overall), he did not need to do much while coming NBA players Marc Gasol (10 Pts. 5 Rebs.) and hyperquick Rudy Fernandez (12 Pts.) along with current NBA guard JC Navarro (12Pts.) steamrolled the Germans which simply did not had an answer to the Spanish up-tempo attack.

At least the (very few) younger German players tried to respond with JH Jagla (10 Pts. 7 Rebs.) and Joe Herber (7 Pts. 2 Rebs.) showing the unwillingsness to back down, while other German players had clearly given up all resistance late in the 3rd quarter already. I guess that is something to build upon for the future.

Germany now faces the loser of the game Slovenia vs. Greece (probably Slovenia, again) in the Semi-Final for the places 5-8, with only the places 3-7 granting the opportunity to compete in one of the qualifying torunaments for Beijing 2008, meaning the Germans need to win at least one of their last two games to keep the dream of the Olympics alive.

another note:
After the first 1:30 into the first quater, the game had to be paused for over 15 minutes, because first the 24 second clock and then all clocks stopped working. The 24 sce. clock was never brought back into operating, so the palyers had to trust their insticts, when to shoot...but at least the TV systems kept wokring so I knew when it was time to shoot. But I did not notice this fact becoming a problem, either for the refs not the players. Experience, experience!

OK, I'm pissed!

I had a loooong new post almost finished and then accedentally clicked on one of my bookmarks, resulting into the whole text being lost, unretrievable by clicking the \"back-button\".

Now I have to rewrite it! Oh whatever...it only cost me one and a half hour or so...

I guess that is what you get for not wrtiting your post in the editor or whatever and copying it afterwards.

Well, since I am now retyping nearly all of this post (except the last paragraph) and being reasonably fuming, I would ask you to please understand that I will keep things a little bit shorter than I initially planned (and already had written). So albeit the fact that this will probably be my last post on that topic, I will just leave you with a few impressions...again.

@ Germany and the ECs in total:
Honestly: That the German team was able to finish 5th in the tournament, thanks to victories over the supposedly superior teams Slovenia (who had already crushed us in the preliminary round) and Croatia, came really as a surprise to me if you consider that this basically means we're the best team that did not play in the quaterfinals. This once again proves how important it is to bring your best each and every game in such an elimination tournament. With no \"series\" to make up for one bad showing, a collective bad day of a team at the wrong moment can prove devastating to the future of a whole basketball nation as the fate of teams with talent far superior than Germany such as Turkey, Italy, Serbia and especially France (who lost the decisive game for the 7th place against Slovenia albeit their 4 NBA players and 31 pts. by Tony Parker, thereby missing the last ticket to the Beijing qualifying tournament) for years. I don't know if you personally prefer the format of the NBA playoffs, where the series makes an upset less likely to happen or if you wished that despite all the TV stations want, the NBA would use a format similar to the NCAA, but you can't deny that, with every game being a \"Game 7\", things become a whole lot more thrilling.

@ Germany and Nowitzki:
I would assume, that the common US-basketball fan would not be too surprised if I told him that, over the course of the tournament, Nowitzki struggled to score in the most decisive Games and shined in those played for the golden pineapple...like for instance in the game for places 5-6, where both temas had already secured their ticket to the Beijing qualifiers, Dirk poured 31 points on the poor Croatians to go along with 12 rebounds, 4 assists and a few blocks as well. But it would only tell half of the story to think he had once again vanished in important games, lacking the \"leadership qualities\" or \"killer instinct\" or whatever you would like to call it. Fact is: Dirk might be the best in basketball Germany will ever produce and he is a true superstar, both in the NBA and internationally, but he simply is no Baskteball deity, no Jordan and no Bird, lacking the ability to win a game all and all alone by himself. With a German team consisting merely of roleplayers mostly athletically overmatched by every opponent they face and either inconsistent, far beyond the peak of their careers or simply of inferior talent compared even to the European average, Nowitzki was once again the one and only focus of opposing defenses, often double and triple teamed and mostly defended by NBA talent defenders. The Germans simply lack a reliable other scoring option and therefore employ a system that does anything else but resembling the legendary \"ice-ice strategy\" Sacramento used with Mitch Richmond around...

With that being said, I consider it a great accomplishment that, albeit being the focal point of every opponent's defense and although sitting reasonable time during games to be rested for coming showdowns, Dirk still managed to become the scoring champion of the tournament, scoring 24.0 ppg, eclipsing 2nd placed Tony Parker (20,1) by almost four points. And what I really would like to emphasize is that Dirk never faltered, backed down or shied away from the responsibility, even when the wild shots he was forced to take (because there simply is NO 2nd scoring option the German team) were not falling, he defended well, rebounded solidly and fought for every loose ball. I am scared of what will become of the German Basketball team once Dirk decides that finishing 5th or 7th at the ECs and merely reaching the Olympics just is not worth the torture anymore.

@ The Champions:
If you have not already heard (maybe because you were counting on my blogging^^): I was highly delighted to see the Russians beat the highly favorised Spaniards to win the ECs in one of the biggest upsets in European basketball of the last decade. In front of the frenetic Spanish audience, the game remained dramatic and emotional until the waning seconds of the fourth quarter, when, with the Russians being down by one, nationalized afro-american (is ist still political correct to say so?) J.R. Holden, first pilfered the ball from Pau Gasol, faked out his spanish defender at the other end of the floor and then scored the go-ahaed jumper with 0.02 sec remaining to put the Russians up for good. Pau Gasol had another chance to win the game, caught the inbound pass on the other side, but his fallaway jumper rattled of the rim, leaving the Spaniards defeated 70:71 in one of the bigger upsets in European B-Ball of the last decade. AK47 had a very solid game, topscoring with 17 Pts. while fellow NBA players Calderon scored 15 and Pau Gasol 14 for Spain. The Russians, who trailed after the first with 22:11, fought back during the second, dramatically increasing their shooting percentage against the trademark zone defense of the Spaniards and narrowing the gap to 3 at halftime. It was a hard fought and highly emotional second half, which even saw the Russian take the lead at the beginning of the fourth 51:49, but remained close until the last seconds, when bad free throw shooting, especially by Pau cost the Spaniards the a game lead of 6 points, leaving the door open for the greatest moment of J.R. Holden.

@ The Spanish national team:
I would like to make an announcement: It leaves me nothing but disgusted to have witnessed the Spaniards continue their behated unsportsmanlike behaviour in each and every game of this tournament. With the ECs being held in Spain and the Spaniards therefore being the \"hosts\" of the other teams, I really hoped that they would refrain from all the dirty play, the theatralic acting, the flopping and especially the the bench players' charade, loudly urging the refs to issue a flagrant foul every time a spanish player is merely touched. But hoping for them be more of a good rolemodel was more \"hope conquers experience\" I guess. So I was literally screaming with joy when one of the refs had the incredible guts to issue a technical foul on (I believe it was Navarro) for play-acting in the third quater of the finals in front of the roaring home crowd.

I really admire the Spaniards for their talent and the fast and beautiful style of basketball they play and I am grateful that they (together with the Greeks) gave to me one of the best basketball games I have ever seen with the semi-final game, which many (including me) believed to be the true final, but with all the talent they have, I just can't understand why they always refer to such underhanded tactics, turning admiration into disgust. But why do I expect the Spnaish B-Ballers to act any different than the Soccer players do???




So, that conclude this small private coverage of the European Basketball Championships 2007. I do hope you enjoyed it.

Wow. Thanks for all the updates!! I'm glad to hear Dirk and Germany made it to Beijing because Dirk is one of my favorite NBA players!! I do agree with you though, he does seem to lack that killer instinct that seperates to good players from the great ones. I hope he can come back to the NBA this season and prove all the critics wrong but even in the EC he showed the same traits...

Thanks again Sanyarin for all those posts and analysis!!! Howl for you good sir!!

Sanyarin wrote:

Ahhhh dude... I am very sorry to hear.

Believe me, I have had to learn this lesson the very hard way, as well. Definitely use Microsoft Word (or an editor or whatever) when you know you are doing really huge posts. I've lost tons of posts/articles to mis-clicks, timing out, accidental deletions, etc. NOT fun at all. I feel your pain.

BTW, thanks much for the updates!!! I am loving them. I'm not responding to each and every one, but I do enjoy reading them. Howls for you, and thanks!

My pleasure! I am glad I could contribute something to this Forum that maybe wasn't that easily accessible to you...just as NBA info for me .

Sanyarin wrote:
Hey, no problem. Thanks... your input is pretty interesting and unique.

I have another question. Are you one of the only people from your town/region that follows the NBA as closely as you do? Because honestly, I am very impressed by your knowledge of all the teams and players even though you can't watch the games. Do you get to see highlights on \"Sports shows aka ESPN?\" Do you talk NBA with friends? Or, do you just find things out from the internet?