Euro Basket 2017: some nice Group previews

Juozuu · 08-31-17, 02:37 AM

It's going to be an incredibly boring tournament. A lot of good players are either injured or refused to play. Spain should be a head above the rest of the competition. The rest is hard to predict. Serbia, Croatia, Lithuania could be dangerous but could also completely fall apart if an injury to one of the starters occured.

IBetYou · 08-31-17, 02:56 AM

The Eurobasket is never boring, it's one of the best tournaments on the basketball calender. The Serbs are missing a lot, but when elite team is lacking that means parity (if only the Warriors would have had an injury or two). Spain favs, but even if you consider them a dead cert there's still silver/ bronze to play for.

Juozuu · 08-31-17, 04:04 AM

If the teams were full strength, I'd agree. Now it's just about who has the least injuries. Could be an opportunity for teams like Georgia or Latvia to pick up a medal with a little bit of luck. Besides that, too many teams that should not even be here (Romania?).

IBetYou · 08-31-17, 04:22 AM

I like contested matchups. Too difficult to tell who's winning what individual player matchup when the team talent is lopsided. Like for instance who's the better centre out of mozgov/ boban? karnowski vs papagiannis?

Romania did poorly in the preparations but their game 1 opponent is quite poor with Vesely sidelined. They have Satoransky, but otherwise we'll be watching the best of the Czech league vs the best of the Romanian league. 12pts seems a bit much to me.

IBetYou · 08-31-17, 04:33 AM

Shame there's no DFS for this

xdodger19 · 08-31-17, 10:49 PM

Slovenia is + ev

Juozuu · 09-01-17, 04:20 AM

France loses to Finland and we have the first big upset of the tournament. Lithuania loosing to Georgia could be noted as well, but I feel like Georgia is underrated and could possibly do well in the tournament.

xdodger19 · 09-03-17, 05:01 AM

Georgia seems to play close contested game
Slovenia can win vs Greece on the ml not getting the line at +3
and Italy a dog makes no sense vs Lithuania

IBetYou · 09-03-17, 05:38 PM

you got 2 out of 3. Italy as a dog made perfect sense.

Juozuu · 09-05-17, 03:32 AM

Lithuania is tough to measure. The team itself is good, possibly top 3, but the coach is horrible. Unless they manage to reduce turnovers and get consistent good looks on offense, they can lose to Georgia one day and beat Italy the day after.

So far, Croatia, Spain and Slovenia are looking solid.

IBetYou · 09-05-17, 05:10 AM

Coach horrible? What?! They play tough defense and their offensive execution is a sight to behold. They're not top 3.

Italy aren't much better than Georgia anyway.

Croatia have been awful. Bojan is the only one to show up so far. Saric & Bender sleepwalking.

IBetYou · 09-05-17, 05:19 AM

Saric is a funny player. Very up & down. The Sixers experienced it last season. Croatia need him to flip the switch some time in the next week.

Juozuu · 09-05-17, 06:28 AM

All his teams play slow, destructive, low scoring basketball. Kuzminskas hit 3 or 4 three pointers in the first quarter, some of them not good looks. If it wasn't for him, the quarter would have ended with Italy being up by ~10. I mean, the couch could not even get an extension for his contract after the season was over. That should be saying enough.

The reason I call them top 3 is because I think they could easily beat any other team besides Spain. Most of them, like the Croatian example you gave are very unstable. Serbia, Slovenia could all be up there.

IBetYou · 09-05-17, 07:19 AM

I'd say Croatia are top 3 if they want to be. Otherwise Serbia and Russia round out the top three with Spain. Russia are the surprise team of the tournament imo. I think Shved is overlooked -I liked him when he was in the NBA 5 or so years ago. Better player now.

IBetYou · 09-05-17, 07:21 AM

Croatia will get a strength test today whether they're ready or not. They will feel the full force of Spain (whome they upset last year). Could get ugly.

Conqueror · 09-05-17, 09:05 AM

I think Italy will cover the 3.5-point spread against Germany.

IBetYou · 09-05-17, 09:21 AM

And why is that?

Conqueror · 09-05-17, 09:42 AM

Originally posted by IBetYou

And why is that?

Nice question.

History and current form.
1) History: Italy is 12-2 vs Germany.
2) Current form: Italy sits atop the group and is looking forward to getting back on track after their loss to Lithuania.
3) Italy's defense is much better than Germany's.

IBetYou · 09-05-17, 10:13 AM

GL

I quite like Germany. Teams are having a hard time stopping Schroder getting to the rim. His teammates are quite poor but he sets the table for them.

Conqueror · 09-05-17, 10:21 AM

Originally posted by IBetYou

GL

I quite like Germany. Teams are having a hard time stopping Schroder getting to the rim. His teammates are quite poor but he sets the table for them.

I get that but he can't do it all by himself.
I'm not betting on the game anyways. Just giving my opinion. I've been following the tourny.

IBetYou · 09-05-17, 04:07 PM

France vs Slovenia tomorrow for the #1 seed. France had a tough/ draining game today while Slovenia had it easy. Slovenia are the better team because they have the dragon and the French don't. Slovenia (2/1) will win

IBetYou · 09-06-17, 03:40 AM

Looking forward to the Greece/ Poland elimination game later. Greece have been called out on social media by some of their former greats for their pitiful performances.

Juozuu · 09-06-17, 04:10 AM

There were some reports of Greece players fighting between each other. If I recall well, Barousis punched Papas, or was close to doing that. Only saw one game, but they looked very uninspired. Talent wise Greece is the better team, however, I would guess that Poland wants it more. They almost pulled an upset against France yesterday, my only concern would be if they will have enough energy to play to full strength today.

IBetYou · 09-06-17, 04:23 AM

I read there were at least two fights within the Greek team. One like you said, and the other featuring Papanikolau and someone. I just think they're overrated. People associate Greece with clinical execution but this is a different generation.

Poland rested Slaughter yesterday specifically for this game. They also didn't play their other stars heavy mins in spite of leading most of the way vs France.

I would say the key matchups are Calathes vs Slaughter, and Papanikolau vs Ponitka. Should be a great game.

IBetYou · 09-06-17, 04:27 AM

Slovenia +4 now. Might be (should be) pick 'em by game time.

IBetYou · 09-06-17, 05:37 AM

How embarrassing for Israel. KO of the group phase yesterday and now everyone's getting robbed over there. So much for holy land.

IBetYou · 09-06-17, 07:31 AM

Les Bleus in meltdown mode

Slovenia 52-35 at the half

Juozuu · 09-06-17, 09:11 AM

Really curious to see how will the 2nd pair of games go. I considered Georgia to be a dark horse in the competition, but they fell flat after the first win against Lithuania.

IBetYou · 09-06-17, 09:21 AM

They're a tired horse today.

Juozuu · 09-11-17, 03:20 AM

Quite a few favorites kicked out during the weekend. Unfortunate for Slovenia to be in the same branch as Spain.

IBetYou · 09-11-17, 06:10 AM

Who do you see advancing besides Spain?

12-Sep	ger	esp	-15.5
12-Sep	slo	lat	1.5
13-Sep	gre	rus	-1
13-Sep	ita	srb	-6

IBetYou · 09-11-17, 06:13 AM

Latvia eliminated Slovenia at the Eurobasket two years ago. They had great success with a zone defense. Slovenia had the other Dragic that year (Zoran). Shame they don't have both in what is supposedly Goran's last go.

Juozuu · 09-11-17, 06:46 AM

I only saw Latvia in the friendly games, but really liked their playing style. Will be rooting for them. I think Slovenia should take this one though. Goran is playing at a very high level, not sure if Latvians can stop him.

Greece/Russia - coinflip. If Greece shows up, they should take it with ease. Personally, I really dislike the russian team, but they will probably advance.

Serbia should advance with ease. Italy relies too much on 3 pointers, very weak inside presence. I see Serbs winning by 10 or so.

IBetYou · 09-11-17, 06:09 PM

Of course Greece are going to show up it's the QF! They will give it their all. I see Russia winning because they're tougher/ better.