Big news for Greece, Zisis is out for the rest of the tournament, huge blow

Fuck Fuck Fuck

Live commentary from our World cup basketball experts

elliniko_dj_nate (10:16 pm) -- i play and am a NBL season ticket holder, not that NBL counts as basketball. .. lol
niko (10:16 pm) -- turks called it i believe
Femme Fatale (10:16 pm) -- gamoto ta kolo time outs
JIMMYJUMP. (10:16 pm) -- giamounde i kolotourki \ /
niko (10:15 pm) -- suspence, i doubt a lot of people ever saw a game of basket before this, it reminds me of euro in many ways
elliniko_dj_nate (10:15 pm) -- who called it?
Monty Python (10:15 pm) -- maybe it might be a good idea to put the link for the soccer scores on the main page
JIMMYJUMP. (10:15 pm) -- 3 pointer oleeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee
niko (10:15 pm) -- timeout
elliniko_dj_nate (10:15 pm) -- how much time left, who has possesion?
Femme Fatale (10:15 pm) -- 72-69
niko (10:14 pm) -- 72-69
**Soccer Chick** (10:14 pm) -- lol @ the suspence
Femme Fatale (10:14 pm) -- 69-69
Femme Fatale (10:14 pm) -- JJ beat ya to it mate
JIMMYJUMP. (10:14 pm) -- 69 67 greece
elliniko_dj_nate (10:14 pm) -- whose way?
Femme Fatale (10:13 pm) -- 69-67
Femme Fatale (10:13 pm) -- dont want to go down by the turks
Femme Fatale (10:13 pm) -- lets jope so this time koukla

Poutsaaaaaaaaaa

Turkiyeeeeeeeeeee

Greece beats Turkey for top spot

From correspondents in Hamamatsu, Japan
August 24, 2006

EUROPEAN champion Greece overcame a fierce challenge from Turkey to win 76-69 and take the top spot in Group C at the world basketball championship in Hamamatsu, Japan, today.

Greece won all five of their pool matches and next play the Yao Ming-led China in the knockout rounds in Saitama on Sunday.

Turkey finshed the group srtage with a 4-1 win-loss record to finish second in the group and set up a knockout match against Slovenia on Saturday.

Greece has been on a roll in the lead up to, and during, the tournament, and it again lived up to its billing as a favourite to make the medals against a tough opponent that had surprised many pundits after gaining a wildcard entry.

The Greeks came out of the blcoks firing to take an early first-quarter lead on the back of a three-point shot and a slam dunk from Dynamo Moscow power forward Antonios Fotsis.

They ended the period with a 24-19 lead but threw it away in the second quarter as Turkey went into half-time 42-37 ahead.

Greece tightened its defence after the break to restrict the Turks to just five points while scoring 17 itself in the third quarter.

But Turkey bounced back and levelled the scores at 69-69 with barely two minutes on the clock.

Vasileious Spanoulis then nailed a three-point shot to give Greece the inspiration to finish it off.

Serkan Erdogan top scored for Turkey with 30 points, Lazaros Papadopoulos and Mihalis Kakiouszus bagged 17 apeice for Greece.

Because we won the group, if we make it to the Quarters, we will face the USA.

No, if Greece makes it to the Semis then they will face the USA.

It's harsh but that's the way it all pans out... even if they were on opposite sides of the draw, if Greece were to make the Final it would most likely be against the USA anyway.

If Greece beats China (which they should!) then the quarter final matchup looks relatively easy too (against either Angola or France). None of these teams have been performing particularly well so hopefully greece doesn't stuff things up.

Hope you are right Otis. Though Zisis being injured will hurt.

Any injured player hurts, but Zisis hadn't been used much in the tournament until the injury. Diamantidis is getting his minutes and he's a good replacement. What sucks is that Zisis was probably due for a big game too but he never got a chance to unleash.

I remember Schortsianitis was picked up by an NBA team last year but was waived shortly before the season started, although there was a lot of talk about how he would do pretty well in the NBA given the opportunity. Funny how he has been our least effective player all tournament, lol.

Chris Paul looks like taking out player of the tournament, what a gun he is gonna be in the NBA, silky smooth skills.

SAITAMA (FIBA World Championship) – European champions Greece are gearing up to face Yao Ming and China in the in the last 16 of the FIBA World Championship.

The Greeks went unbeaten in the hardest pool of the first round, Group C, and now find themselves in a game against the Asian champions.

Yao will be the focal point of the Chinese attack after averaging better than 32 points per game in Group D, but Greece star Theo Papaloukas said: "I don't think they're just Yao Ming.

"We have to remained focused on defense and offense. And it's going to really be a tough game."

China lost their first three games but came back to beat Puerto Rico and the Slovenia.

Shipeng Wang's three-pointer at the buzzer gave China victory over the Slovenians in their last Group D game and sealed their place in the eight-finals.

Greece start as heavy favourites, and for good reason. The defense the team has played under coach Panagiotis Yannakis has been second to none.

The side is also mentally tough. Greece have learned how to win in tight situations over the past couple of years.

In Hamamatsu, they overcome Lithuania in overtime, beat Australia with a pair of three-pointers in the final nine seconds and held off Brazil in a thrilling encounter which saw them lose Nikos Zisis to a bad facial injury.

Zisis will not play for six weeks while he recovers from the three broken bones he suffered in collision with Anderson Varejao.

Greece also won a tough encounter against their old rivals, Turkey, to take first place in the group.

"It's the top 16," Papaloukas said. "Now we have to get to the final eight.

"We did our best in the first round, at least from the results and getting wins. We had some good moments and some bad moments."

"We tried to correct some things and I think we'll be ready against China and for Yao," Papaloukas said.

"We just have to play good team defense like we always do. But I don't think it is only Yao Ming.

"He is always the key to every game. We just have to play really tough defense and see who steps up.

"We always get one of two players, and I don't think will be any different against China and they're going to lead us to the win."

Papaloukas says he and his team-mates are not burdened by expectations back home.

"No, why should we feel any pressure? It's the same. We have to do what we've been doing until now."

Greece have just 11 players for the remainder of the tournament due to Zisis' injury. China do not have any injury concerns.

Qatar- ÐÅËÁÔÅÓ
Lithuania-ÐÅËÁÔÅÓ
Brazil-ÐÅËÁÔÅÓ
Australia-ÐÅËÁÔÅÓ
Turkey-ÐÅËÁÔÅÓ

China-ÓÅ ËÉÃÙ, ÊÅ ÈÁ ÅÉÍÁÉ ÐÅËÁÔÅÓ.

NEXTTTTTTTTTT

GREECE TO PLAY FRANCE ON WEDNESDAY

article: http://www.tsn.ca/nba/news_story/?ID=175487&hubname=nba


SAITAMA, Japan (Ticker) -- It took a while, but Greece found an answer for Yao Ming and China.

A pressure defense coupled with a strong performance by Sofoklis Schortsianitis lifted unbeaten Greece to a 95-64 rout of China and a berth in the quarterfinals of the World Championships.

Theo Papaloukas scored 19 points and spearheaded the defense for Greece (6-0), which next faces France in Wednesday's round of eight. In the Eurobasket 2005 semifinals, Greece upset France en route to the championship.

Yao, the 7-5 superstar center of the Houston Rockets, came into the contest leading the tournament in scoring at 28.4 points per game. But he was limited to 10 points and eight rebounds partially by the 6-9 Schortsianitis, whose wide body bothered Yao.

Schortsianitis showed his performance in the Group C win over Turkey was no fluke. In just under 15 minutes, he made all three of his shots and was 4-of-7 at the free-throw line.

Early in the fourth quarter, Schortsianitis was on his way to a rim-rocking dunk when Yao intervened and hit him on the arm, forcing him to the line. Shortly thereafter, he showed great footwork and went past Yao for a thunderous two-handed jam that may have sent tremors to Athens.

"We were able to recover from a poor start, when we were cold shooting and got better from the second quarter onwards," Schortsianitis said. "In the second half, we got our rhythm going and were able to extend our lead and get a great win."

Coming off its stunning buzzer victory over Slovenia in Group D, China began quickly and opened an 8-0 lead as Greece missed its first nine shots. The European champions still trailed, 23-11, early in the second quarter before Papaloukas led a pressure defense that outscored the Chinese, 30-13, over the last 9:19 of the first half to take the lead for good.

Papaloukas attacked the basket and teamed with Dimitris Diamantidis and Vasilis Spanoulis to pressure China's guards which led to so many mistakes for the Asian champions.

Greece forced 12 first-half turnovers and 24 overall. When China did manage to hold onto the ball, it often was forced into bad shots.

"In the first minutes, it seemed we had prepared well for the game, but after the first quarter we played very badly on offense against a full-court press, and made one turnover after the other," China coach Jonas Kazlauskas said.

"The team that makes more mistakes will lose the game, and we made fewer mistakes," Greece coach Panagiotis Yannakis said. "This was the key for us, because we knew against China we need to be more careful, because if Yao can get the ball, he can score very easily. So we needed to play basketball on the floor."

China were a pushover as expected. One man (Ming) doesn't make a team. Greece have great court awareness and look to be playing a good no-frills TEAM game...

We now face France, who we beat twice in qualifying. Greece won't take France lightly (and they shouldn't after the near-upset game against Australia) although based on stats and form we should win very comfortably. The absense of NBA superstar Tony Parker (injured) from the French team will be the difference between Greece and France. If he were playing we probably would struggle without Zisis.

Don't mean to jump the gun but I'm looking forward to the Greece v USA semi.

The USA totally raped Australia, as expected (and as they've done to all other opponents in their path thus far). Their team is quite young in comparison to past "dream teams" they've fielded. The USA are killing it in the back-court with Carmelo Anthony and Dwayne Wade being their leading scorers in the competition. Their front-court players are getting shared minutes and are all performing brilliantly. Chris Bosh, Dwight Howard and LeBron James are dominating the boards, even offensive rebounds (which Greece really need to look out for). If we can lose by under 10 points i'd be extremely impressed. A semi final appearance will definately push Greece's ranking up from 8th, one would imagine (i don't know how the ranking system works in FIBA).

It's a shame foxtel are showing the highlights at utterly ridiculous times, have to keep updated online.

Otis, totally agree with you on that, games shown on delay.

Even the Australian games are on delay, and what gets me is the games are played during prime time. Why show the Greece v France game at 7.30 am on Thursday?

Coverage is farcial at the best, and mind you, basketball is one of the biggest sports after soccer, and its a shame SBS didnt get the rights to show the FIBA world cup, they always do a great job.

Greece beating australia

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gb8qgSPznxs

Greekprince, we can now add yourtube videos directly on forum, just click on the yourtube icon when posting and add the yourtube link and u have the following [youtube]Gb8qgSPznxs[/youtube]


Just the Gb8qgSPznxs partof the link is needed, not the entire url.

what time is tomorrows game? like our time so i can watch it on NET.....

I dont think its on net, i pray its on NET coz i have it at home

well the commentators of greece- china said they would be showing greece-france on wednesday. i just dont know what time it is for us.

Ill find out for you, best thing is to go to www.fiba.com and find out what time the game ison, add one hr for Aus time.

thanks JJ didnt know the time dif was only one hour.

EDIT: should be 5:30 if i calculated correctly.

I tried to do what u said JJ on the olympiakos video link but it hasn't worked not sure why

pm me and ill show u

The game Greece v France is on at 530 pm AEST

Whoever wants to come over my place and watch it(if NET is showing it) is more than welcome.

Argentina and Spain are into the semi final in the top half of the draw, both teams totally destroying their opponents Turkey and Lithuania. No surprises that Argentina and Spain made it into the semis, but it was a surprise to see them both win by such enormous margins.

Argentina beat Turkey 83-58, NBA players Nocioni and Delfino starring
Spain beat Lithuania 89-67, Pao Gasol and J.Navarro dominating.

I hope Greece wins. If they do then we have a chance to be the best team in Europe again!!!!!

Greece on fire 58-46 7 mins to go

67-50 5 mins to go


Bring on the Yankssssss

73-56

France is another pelati of Greece

Greece to play the winner of USA vs Germany in semi finals

Thats the way Greece you kick the French ass.

America here we come.

GOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO GREECE

i believe that to sikosoume to timimeno.

Femme

Game Report, Greece vs France, 73-56, QUARTER-FINALS
SAITAMA (FIBA World Championship) - Reigning European champions Greece booked their spot in the semi-finals of the 2006 FIBA World Championship with a convincing victory over France.

Five players scored in double figures for the Greeks, who proved too balanced for the French in a 73-56 quarter-final win at the Saitama Super Arena.

"My players came out with a lot of concentration, and they really wanted to win this game," said Greece coach Panagiotis Yannakis, whose team will next meet the winner of the United States-Germany quarter-final.

"We put our egos aside for the team. And our respect for the opponent gave us an advantage."

Antonis Fotsis and Lazaros Papadopoulos each scored 14 points while Dimitris Diamantidis collected 13 points, eight rebounds and five assists.

"The first key for us is defense. All players know we must begin with this. After that, the offense comes easier," added Diamantidis.

Mickael Gelabale was the only French player to score in double digits with 12 points. Boris Diaw was held to nine points, 3.8 below his average coming into the game.

"The way we played on offense was not all down to Greece's defense. It was our inability to execute that got us in trouble and falling behind," said French power forward Ronny Turiaf, who saw the team shoot just 35 percent from the field for the game.

"It's not necessarily something they did. It's more something we weren't able to do because they struggled at the start of the game as we did but the difference is that they woke up eventually and we didn't," added Yannick Boloko, who contributed seven points in six minutes off the bench.

France failed to avenge their loss at the hands of Greece in the semi-finals of the 2005 EuroBasket.

Both teams started cold with Gelabale's bank shot opening the scoring nearly three minutes into the game.

Greece scored seven straight points and would open a 12-6 lead on Papadopoulos' hook shot with 2:05 left in the first. The score was 12-8 after the first period as the teams combined for just eight baskets in 29 shots from the field.

The complexion of the game changed when Yannakis brought in Sofoklis Schortsanitis for the second quarter.

French center Frederic Weis fouled the dominant big man on three of four possessions and Schortsanitis made five free throws. Power forward Antonis Fotsis added five points of his own in helping the Greeks open a 31-21 lead with 2:11 to go in the first half.

The lead remained 10 points at the break - 34-24.

After going scoreless in the first half, Theodoros Papaloukas took control early in the third quarter, scoring back-to-back baskets - his only four points of the game - to push the lead to 13 points - 42-29.

Schortsanitis also returned and continued to wreak havoc in the lane, getting to the foul line and putting the French inside players in foul trouble. Weis was slapped with his fourth foul at the 4:15 mark of the third with Schortsanitis converting one foul shot to make it 43-31.

In his 11 minutes, Schortsanitis scored 10 points, grabbed three rebounds and was fouled five times. His only problem was making just six of his 10 foul shots. And Papadopoulos made six of 11 shots in causing plenty of problems of his own.

"France were a very athletic team, and I was just trying to draw fouls to put them in trouble and give them second thoughts before jumping again," Schortsanitis said.

Diamantidis, who buried the three-pointer to beat France in the 2005 EuroBasket semi-final, gave Greece a 15-point advantage with a trey to make it 48-33.

Diaw's three-pointer sparked a 7-0 run to trim the lead to eight with 1:05 left in the third - 48-40. And it was 51-43 before Fotsis buried a long jumper on an inbounds play with 0.9 seconds remaining in the period for a 53-43 Greek lead going into the fourth.

Fotsis opened the fourth quarter with a trey and the lead was back up to 15 points - 58-43 - on Vasilis Spanoulis' long jumper with eight minutes to go.

Mickael Pietrus answered with a three-pointer but Greece responded with a Papadopoulos basket inside and a Spanoulis three-pointer for a 17-point advantage.

France could not get closer than 15 points the rest of the way as Greece never let down their pressure.

The victory could have been more convincing if the Greeks had done better from beyond the arc, making just seven of 24 three-pointers (29 percent).

France coach Claude Bergeaud said the Greeks showed they are a better team then France.

"We were very nervous and we lost our confidence too. I think we were scared, not by the opponent but by ourselves," he said.

"During the development of the game we saw the great team play of Greece. I was surprised to see our team, who normally play easy, play this way under pressure."


Update score US 35 Germany 33 with 5 mins to go in the 2nd 1/4

thats aswsome. i had to ditch the game half way through to go to some information evening and i was wondering the whole time how our ellas was going. im so happy.

USA vs. Germany
40 : 39
3rd Quarter
USA Germany
9/24 (38%) 2-POINTERS 10/22 (45%)
5/20 (25%) 3-POINTERS 2/7 (29%)
7/9 (78%) FREE THROWS 13/13 (100%)
12 FOULS 9
3 STEALS 0
6 TURNOVERS 11
11 OFF. REBOUNDS 4
13 DEF. REBOUNDS 16
6 BIGGEST LEAD 5
7 BIGGEST RUN 7

It might not be US V Greece in the semi just yet, stay tuned

USA won by 20

The remaining 3(not including us) teams are MILES better then what we have played so far.... its gonna be tough.

We had two of the easiest Round of 16 and quarter final opponents, but in the group stage Greece had the toughest and most competitive group. Three of the four group C qualifiers made it into the quarter finals. Only australia fell short (having to face the USA).

We will be the USA's toughest opponent since they played Italy in the group stage. Germany are good but too dependant on Nowitzki.

We need to tighten up our back-court and we need to get as many defensive rebounds as possible. An early lead would be nice too.

same coculd be said about the USSR team that was "unbeatable" in the Euro games some 20 years ago, but Greece truimphed. Lets hope w can do the same.

cant wait for this game will be good.

Godwilling, we'll beat the US by 30 points!!!!

Game is on at 5.30pm Aus time, I believe Fox is showing the game live. So make sure you get to a venue that has Fox2

not going to miss this one thats for sure!!!

Im sorry, but i have to correct myself.

Foxtel are Fucked, and will not be showing the game live, but on delay at 9pm friday night.

They are showing the tennis instead, they can stick a tennis racket up their arse, imagine choosing to show 2nd round games in the US Open rather than a semi final in one of the World's biggest sports.

No wonder why Ill never get pay TV, if they show shit like that , why even pay $50 a month to see malakies.

Foxtel and Murdock, na gamithite paliomounia kolomalakes pisoglendithes.

that's shit i was told foxtell is showing the games live. thats shit

All these aussie keeping bagging me ou for not having foxtel!!! who wants it if all u get is golf afl and delayed telecast sports!!!!!

We cant afford to fall behind early, the USA just get stronger as the matches go on. I think we can win, that being said, we will only win in a thriller. Lets not kid ourselves, the USA are the best team in the world.

I don't think Greece can win but having said that stranger things have happened.

Good luck to Greece hope we do win.

greece will win not to worry

half time Greece 45 Yanks 41

Ela gamotooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo

half time stats

Greece USA
13/19 (68%) 2-POINTERS 12/21 (57%)
2/7 (29%) 3-POINTERS 2/10 (20%)
13/16 (81%) FREE THROWS 10/15 (67%)
12 FOULS 12
4 STEALS 2
6 TURNOVERS 9
1 OFF. REBOUNDS 8
12 DEF. REBOUNDS 10
5 BIGGEST LEAD 12
9 BIGGEST RUN 7

ligo akoma, ke tha fana Elliniki poutsaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa

We won

Ke tora borite na gamithiteeeeeeeeeeeeeeee