Classification Round 5th to 8th place
Germany - 69 - 65 - Slovenia (18-16, 14-15, 14-23, 23-11)
Placings 5th and 6th
Croatia - 71 - 80 - Germany (25-16, 19-20, 13-22, 14-22)
Placings 7th and 8th
France - 74 - 88 - Slovenia (17-18, 23-18, 17-15, 17-37)
SEMI-FINALS
Spain - 82 - 77 - Greece (24-18, 17-21, 18-21, 23-17)
Russia - 86 - 74 - Lithuania (25-12, 15-21, 25-25, 21-16)
FINALS
Spain - Russia - Date : 16.09.2007 Time : 21:30
source : eurobasket2007.org
Sunday, September 16, 2007
EURO BASKETBALL 2007 (Final Round) - Update 16 Sept 2007
Parker Not Ready To Quit France
Tony Parker intends to keep playing for France’s national team despite their EuroBasket failure in Madrid.
The NBA Finals MVP had 31 points on Sunday but it wasn’t enough to lead the French past Slovenia, who won 88-74 to finish in seventh place and claim the final berth on offer to European sides for next year’s pre-Olympic qualifying tournament.
“It’s tough, it’s tough,” said Parker.
“Basketball is weird sometimes. We had the game, we were up by six or seven points in the fourth quarter and then we were hit by eight 3-pointers in the fourth quarter and they killed us.”
France could have beaten Russia in their semi-final but Parker and Boris Diaw missed late free throws as they slipped to a 75-71 defeat.
The French then lost back-to-back classification games, including on Sunday to Slovenia.
“We were doing great,” Parker said. “We were third in 2005 and finished fifth at the world championship.
“We were looking for some stability and to try to go to the Olympics and now we are back to zero. It’s kind of tough, we just have to use this as experience.”
France finished fourth at EuroBasket 2003, losing a close game to Italy, and that result prevented them from playing at the Athens Games.
In 2000, they won the silver medal in Sydney.
France will have plenty of time to recover from this disappointment as their next task will be to qualify for the EuroBasket 2009, which will be hosted in Poland.
“We are young, I’m 25, everybody can come back,” said Parker. “But it’s very disappointing, you don’t have a lot of chances to go to the Olympics and that was my second and we didn’t make it so I’ll try again.”
Parker leaves the tournament having averaged 20.1 points per game.
“It’s very different from NBA basketball, I just love the challenge and the opportunity to go to the Olympics,” he said.
Fabricio Oberto and Manu Ginobili both elected not to play for Argentina this summer and rested instead.
But the two Spurs were not missed as their national team won silver at the FIBA Americas Championship.
“I need some rest definitely. Pop (Gregg Popovich) watched some of my games so he knows I need some rest.”
source : eurobasket2007.org
Germany End On High Note
Germany finished their EuroBasket 2007 performance with an 80-71 win over Croatia in the 5-6 classification game.
Croatia tried to ride the wave of their good performance last night, and led for almost 30 minutes, but once Germany took over the game went in one direction.
Dirk Nowitzki made sure to leave EuroBasket 2007 with a sweet taste. After several human performances he once again stepped up finishing the game with 31 points on 59% from the field and 12 rebounds, in addition to four assists.
Marko Banic showed his best game today for Croatia with 16 points and only two missed shots, but that wasn't enough to surrender the Germans who forced 18 turnovers on the Croatian side.
"You always want to go out with a win, with a good feeling, with a dream for everybody," shared Germany's center, Patrick Femerling in what might be his last EuroBasket game.
"We tried to do that and played hard and gave everything we had."
Croatia counted on the Marko's – Banic and Tomas to grant them a 9-2 run in the opening minutes, but Dirk Nowitzki led Germany back to tie the game with a 7-0 run.
The teams were neck-and-neck before Nikola Prkacin carried Croatia on another run, this time 0-9, the shut down the first quarter with his team up 25-16.
Marko Popovic gave Croatia their first double-digit lead of the day early in the second quarter, and an unsportsmanlike foul by Herber halfway through the quarter didn't help Germany.
Going down to the locker rooms Croatia was up 44-36, but that margin sustained for at least seven more minutes until Germany came to life.
Jan-Hendrik Jagla and Nowitzki carried yet another 9-2 run to give Germany their first lead of the night, 58-57, with 1:25 to play in the third quarter.
No points were added until the buzzer, but Germany woke up first scoring the first four points in the last period.
Prkacin made it a one point game, before Germany's back court fired from long range to open a 70-61 lead.
Croatia never managed to test the German lead from that point.
"We reached our goal which was to finish among the top seven teams and make the pre-Olympic tournament," concluded Croatian guard, Roko-Leni Ukic, ""but we have a lot to learn from this tournament."
"We had a lot of highs and lows and did a lot of good things and bad things. We have to improve on that before next year."
Germany goes home with the fifth spot while Croatia is taking the sixth. Both teams will play in next summer's in the pre-Olympic tournament.
source : eurobasket2007.org
Slovenia Grab Last Olympic Qualifying Spot
Slovenia drained seven three-pointers during a 24-6 run to start the fourth quarter in knocking off France 88-74 to clinch seventh place at the 2007 EuroBasket as well as a berth in next summer's pre-Olympic tournament.
Jaka Lakovic hit three long bombs in the big stretch on his way to 26 points, six rebounds and seven assists.
Uros Slokar struck twice from long distance and converted a three-pointer in the spurt as part of his 13-point showing and Radoslav Nesterovic added 19 points, eight rebounds and two blocked shots.
“This is just unbelievable,” said Lakovic. "We played so well in this tournament and were just one step away from the semi-finals. At least we have met our aim before the EuroBasket of reaching the pre-Olympic tournament.”
Slovenia were able to overcome two heart-breaking losses to Greece and Germany in the past two days in clinching seventh place, one spot worse than in 2005.
France star Tony Parker scored a game-high 31 points and did all he could to keep the French in the game late, scoring his team's first 10 points of the fourth period.
France, who also got 13 points from Ronny Turiaf and 10 points from Joseph Gomis, crashed to eighth place - their worst EuroBasket showing since taking 10th place in 1997.
click for more details
source : eurobasket2007.org
Anyone Got A Slingshot?
When Russia take on Spain in Sunday's EuroBasket final, European basketball will witness a true David (Blatt) and Goliath showdown.
Russia's aim before this year's EuroBasket was to qualify for the Olympics.
For tournament hosts Spain however, only a gold medal was acceptable after claiming silver on five previous trips in this event.
Spain, by virtue of their world title triumph over Greece last year in Japan, booked a place at next year's Beijing Games.
Because of past near-misses in EuroBaskets and with this year's tournament being staged in Madrid, the European Championship has remained hugely important for the team, the federation and fans.
Russia will have no pressure on them when they run to the court for the final time on Sunday at the Palacio de Deportes.
"We are in the Olympic Games and that was our goal," said Andrei Kirilenko.
"They are the hosts, we can play great and we need to pick it up ourselves and play the same kind of defense as tonight, if we do, we will be fine."
click for more details
source : eurobasket2007.org
Lithuania And Greece Battle For Bronze
Not only is the bronze medal up for grabs in the 2007 EuroBasket third place game between 2003 champions Lithuania and 2005 title-holders Greece but the winners also will clinch a spot in the 2008 Beijing Olympics.
So, there is plenty of motivation for both teams to bounce back from tough losses in the semi-finals.
click for more detailssource : eurobasket2007.org
Reaching For The Rings
In most international competitions, the game for seventh place means very little other than the two quarter-finalists wanting to end their tournament on a high note after two straight losses.
But the game for seventh at the 2007 EuroBasket promises to be an extremely contested affair as Slovenia take on France with a spot in the pre-Olympic tournament up for grabs.
click for more details
source : eurobasket2007.org
Fighting For Fifth
Having both secured a spot in the pre-Olympic qualifying tournament with wins on Saturday, Germany and Croatia will meet Sunday to decide between fifth and sixth place at EuroBasket 2007.
Both teams had struggled to win games prior to their wins on Saturday though Croatia had lost four straight by slim margins while for the Germans it was the second straight time they had bounced back from a hefty defeat, having fallen to hosts Spain by 28 the night before.
“It was a long hard summer and I’m just really happy they were rewarded,” said German coach Dirk Bauermann after the win.
“If you work so hard and go home with nothing, that’s so hard. So this keeps our dream (of going to the Olympics) alive.”
Germany trailed for a large portion of their game with Slovenia while Croatia led their game with France more or less from start to finish.
“It was very hard to forget last night’s game,” said forward Damir Markota, referring to their gut-wrenching loss to Lithuania in the quarter-finals.
“We came here to be in the Olympic qualifications so we wanted to play hard for that.”
With both teams secondary mission accomplished there is little on the line but the pride of finishing fifth instead of sixth.
Spain Topple Greeks Again
A new EuroBasket champion will be crowned in Madrid after reigning world title-holders and hosts Spain dethroned Greece 82-77 in the semi-finals of the 2007 EuroBasket thanks to sterling performances by the Spanish trio of Juan Carlos Navarro, Pau Gasol and Jose Manuel Calderon.
The trio combined for 64 points and Calderon's three-pointer and break-away lay-up started and finished a crucial 9-1 run which turned a 67-65 Greece lead into a 74-68 advantage for the Iberians, who advanced to their sixth European final while still waiting for their first continental crown.
"We expected this type of game, a really hard one against a really great rival like the defending European champions Greece," said Spain forward Jorge Garbajosa, who collected six points, five rebounds and four assists.
"Having won last night (against Slovenia), Greece had a lot of confidence coming into this game. But we showed a lot of character. Those who thought this game would be easy for Spain were mistaken."
In Sunday's final at the Palacio de Deportes, Spain will face either Lithuania - who knocked off Spain in the 2003 finale - or Russia, who face off in the second semi-final.
Greece will face the loser of that match with the victor on Sunday clinching the bronze medal as well as an automatic berth in the 2008 Olympics.
source : eurobasket2007.org
The Kirilenko Show
For the first time since 1993 Russia is in the EuroBasket finals, and will get a shot to win the title for the first time since 1985, back when it was still known as the USSR.
Russia shocked favorites Lithuania on Saturday night in the Palacio de Deportes as David Blatt led a brilliant group who took control of the game from the tip and never trailed, but on top of it showed great character.
Lithuania, coming to this game unbeatable in EuroBasket 2007, chased after the Russian side from the first moment.
They made a heroic comeback from minus 19 to a tied game, but Russia didn't blink for a second.
Andrei Kirilenko, in an amazing individual performance of 29 points and eight rebounds, carried his team to a big win, and didn't allow anybody to take this win from his team.
"It was a very physical game, but we played great defense," he said after the buzzer.
"Our goal coming to this EuroBakset was to reach the Olympics. We've done that and now we're aiming at the finals. If we play as we did tonight, nobody can count us out."
Ramunas Siskauskas was the only one who stepped up for Lithuania. He scored 30 points, including five shots from long range, which cut into Russia's lead time after time, but couldn't secure the win alone.
Russia played 40 minutes of very aggressive defense and didn't allow any Lithuanian to get anywhere close to the rim without being hammered down.
The bad side was that with six minutes on the clock Russia had three big men in big foul trouble – Morgunov, Khryapa and Savrasenko had four fouls each, but eventually none fouled out.
The good side was Lithuania's front line was out of the game.
click for more details
source : eurobasket2007.org
Germany Find A Way
Less than 24 hours after their inexplicable loss to Greece last night, Slovenia had a sense of deja-vu. Facing Germany in the 5-8 classification games Slovenia lost 69-65 after a big comeback by their opponent in the last minutes.
It wasn't as bad as last night, but once again Slovenia managed to lose a big lead in the
last minutes. Oddly the fourth quarter score from last night, 23-11 against Slovenia, was the exact score of today's last quarter.
"We were really disappointed after not playing so great in the last couple of days," said Germany's Demond Greene who had 16 points. "We didn't reach our main goal here which was a medal, but at least we got the ticket to the pre-Olympic tournament."
Slovenia played the last game last night and was six seconds short of a historical performance in the semi-finals over favourites Greece, but seemed to have recovered just fine, until the last minutes.
Germany on the other hand had one more day to rest and lost by a big margin to Spain in the quarters, so their mental readiness seemed better, and they stepped up in the last minutes.
Germany deleted a 60-51 Slovenian lead in the last 5:16 behind an 18-5 run led by Dirk Nowitzki who made 10 of his team's last 12 points and finished the game with 28 points and 10 rebounds.
click for more details
source : eurobasket2007.org
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
