Originally Posted by
tullamore21
After the break, Greece and FYROM are back in action. Greece is perfect with 2 wins against Bosnia and Finland, while FYROM lost its first against Montenegro at a dramatic game and won its second against Croatia.
Everyone's expecting Greece to utilize inside game with Bourousis and Koufos. This is the more likely to happen as their neighbours haven't response for this one. Pero Antic, Todor Gechevski and Predrag Samardziski will defend Greek Big Men. These three are averaging almost 30 points per game while grabbing 18 rebounds p/g. On the other hand Bourousis, Fotsis and Koufos will recieve many balls tonight and will try to reach or overpass the combined 33 points they averaging at the 2 first games.The rebounds' average is 18 (the same as FYROM).
Let's see some more stats.
The matchup is Greece-FYROM
Rebs p/g: 41.0-34.0
Pts p/g: 78.5-71.5
Ass p/g: 16.0-10.0
TO p/g: 18.0-12.5
As we can see Greece is dominating at every single category, but they turn the ball too often and cannot hit anything from downtown as they are shooting about 25% beyond the arc. This is a key factor at Greece's fate at this tournament in my opinion. It is not the team, it used to be recently, as fresh men with lower potential-talent joined it. At tonight's game i expect a tought battle, but the great rotation of Ilias Zouros can keep his team refreshed and "save" energy for the last period.
FYROM has McCalebb, a great scorer, but that's all. McCalebb Ilievski, Antic. Those 3 cannot win Greek team. Plus the fact that Greece find its rythm while playing together. It is a roster that's improving game by game. Tonight they will drop FYROM down.
Greece vs FYROM
pick Greece -10,5 (58-72)
pick Ioannis Bourousis over 14,5 points (10 points)
Russia facing Belgium, a team that was blown out even from Georgia. Russia has not impressed anyone at this tournament, but found the way to win the 2 previous games. The line is -16.5, so i am not too confident picking it. I think they will run the court and find open shots tonight, so i am gonna pick Russia to score much.
Russia vs Belgium
pick Russia over 76,5 points (79-58)
Good Luck