End score?
SLOVENIA - GEORGIA
87:75 (15:25, 25:15, 19:18, 28:17)
Lakovič 22 Pačulia 22
Ožbolt 21 Markoišvili 16
Z. Dragić 15 Sanikidze 10
Lorbek 12 Gamkrelidze 6
Jagodnik 10 Haynes 6
Smodiš 3 Šengelia 6
G. Dragić 2 Cincadze 5
Begić 2 V. Boisa 3
Ckitišvili 1
2pts: 11/30; 21/37
3pts: 15/35; 7/16
Fts: 20/24; 12/20
Rebounds: 29; 38
www.eurobasket2011.comSlovenia's Shooting Touch Delivers Win
Turning Point: With 3:18 left to play, Jaka Lakovic went for his famous off-dribble lefty three-point shot to push the margin up to 73-65. Instead of standing neck-to-neck with Georgia in the closing minutes Slovenia had a safety net that made the difference.
Game Heroes: With Goran Dragic scoring just two points on 13% shooting from the floor, Slovenia needed someone to step up and Lakovic together with Saso Ozbolt were the men with the plan. Lakovic had 22 points on five three-pointers and seven free-throws. He also handed out four assists. Ozbolt had 21 points including four long bombs and also accounted for four steals in the win.
Stats Don't Lie: Slovenia's defense was tough as ever and forced Georgia into 21 turnovers. The Slovenians themselves only turned the ball over seven times.
Slovenia remain perfect for one more day after an 87-75 victory over Georgia in Group D at Klaipeda on Saturday evening.
With this win, Slovenia jump to a 3-0 record on top of the group while Georgia drop to 1-2 tied with Bulgaria and Ukraine.
Not many marked this game as one to follow but it was one of the best EuroBasket 2011 has seen so far with great intensity for 40 minutes.
The 12-point final margin doesn't tell the story of the game as Georgia held a double-digit lead themselves and put up a great fight.
Jaka Lakovic was the top scorer with 22 points, with all of his field goals - made and attempted - came from beyond the arc, as he hit five of nine three-pointers (56% accuracy).
Saso Ozbolt stepped up with his best performance of the tournament, hitting four long bombs of his own as part of 21-point effort to go with four steals.
Zoran Dragic added 15 points, Erazem Lorbek had a dozen and Goran Jagodnik chipped in with 10.
For Georgia, Zaza Pachulia bounced back from sub-par performances with 22 points, while Manuchar Markoishvili finished with 16 and Viktor Sanikidze with 10.
"We took a lot of three-pointers because they played zone defense and it proved a good tactic because our shots went in and made our life easier," Lakovic sad after the game.
Slovenia hit 15 of 35 three-point attempts for 43%, four more made shots than they had inside the arc.
Georgia had the better start and, with a great blitz on defense, managed to open a 10-point gap at the end of the first quarter once Marquez Haynes scored from the arc to make it 25-15.
The gap grew to 13 points before Slovenia used their three-point proficiency to rally all the way back and tie the game at 40 at the break.
They connected on 11 shots from beyond the arc in the first half alone.
The close game continued for 17 more minutes before Lakovic hit another big three-pointer that pushed the lead to eight, 73-65, and forced Georgia to spend the closing minutes chasing Slovenia.
On Sunday, Slovenia will take on Belgium while Georgia have a tough and very important battle against Ukraine.
Slovenia v Belgium - Sunday at 21:00 (20:00 CET)
Prior to this EuroBasket, Belgium's last appearance in the tournament dated back to 1993 and it was also the last time they won a game.
The opponent they beat back then? Slovenia.
Yet it seems like Sunday's game will be anything but easy for Belgium to get their first win.
Slovenia's win over Georgia gave them great momentum as they qualified for the next round.
Dropping a game against the winless Belgium could put a stop to that momentum, yet this will be no walk in the park.
Belgium put up a fight for three quarters against Russia and nearly beat Bulgaria on Thursday.
Thomas van den Spiegel and Ilunga Mbenga will try to limit Slovenia's frontline and keep Belgium in the game long enough to possibly re-create the win from 18 years ago.
Group D Preview - Day 5
I remember the game 18 years ago. Wow, I'm old, that's depressing
I tried to suppress the memory, i don't think i will ever be able to. It was the start of a long series of disappointments from our national teamI remember the game 18 years ago. Wow, I'm old, that's depressing
Wow!! We defeated Beligum!! YEA BABY!!!
I expect a 25 point loss agains Russia... I really hope I'm wrong.
Slovenia Made To Sweat By Belgium
04.09.2011
EUROBASKET 2011
Turning Point: Thomas van den Spiegel had a great game and was the reason Belgium almost stunned Slovenia, but his turnover inside the last minute with his team down by five made the difference between just a three-point game and the seven-point difference that ensued after Zoran Dragic converted the turnover into a basket at the other end.
Game Hero: Goran Dragic scored 18 points and got five steals but more important was his clutch performance. He scored eight points in the closing five minutes.
Stats Don't Lie: Slovenia shot 57% inside the arc and pulled down 14 offensive rebounds against only six for Belgium.
It was anything but easy yet Slovenia is still perfect in Group D following a 70-61 victory over Belgium at Klaipeda on Sunday night.
Goran Dragic was the top scorer of Slovenia with 18 points, no less than eight of them coming in the last five minutes.
Mirza Begic had a good night inside with 14 points and five rebounds.
Thomas Van Den Spiegel collected 16 points and seven rebounds for Belgium in a big game, and was seconded by another veteran Marcus Faison who scored 13.
"We knew that we're going to fight until the end as long as we have a chance to qualify, and that's what we brought to the floor tonight," said Van Den Spiegel.
The nine-point gap was created only in the last seconds of the game.
Before that, Belgium was on the edge of a big upset, but gave in to Slovenia's experience.
Slovenia scored the first points of the game, but saw Belgium answer with 10 points in a row to take their biggest lead of the night.
Yet, quickly the players of Coach Bozidar Maljkovic came back and, by the end of the first quarter, were within one, 15-14.
The close game continued in the second quarter and the teams went into the halftime break with Belgium up 30-29.
However, in the third quarter, Goran and Zoran Dragic took over to put their team up 50-43 lead after 29 minutes.
Van Den Spiegel and Faison showed off their offensive arsenal to bring Belgium back to life.
A three-pointer by Christophe Beghin made it 62-61 with 2:15 to play.
However, once again, Goran Dragic stepped up and made sure his team take the floor on the last day still without a single loss.
On Monday, Slovenia face Russia with the winner taking top honours in the group, while loser finishes second.
Belgium will face Ukraine in the last game to get their first win in a game that won't influence the future of these two teams.
It's interesting how much more formal and technical FIBA articles are compared to NBA articles. It's like when you read NBA articles, it's expected that you already understand the game.
Game Of The Day: Russia v Slovenia
05.09.2011
EUROBASKET 2011
Russia v Slovenia - Monday at 18:00 (17:00 CET)
Russia and Slovenia will take the floor for a winner-takes-all battle.
Both teams go into their last Group D game with matching 4-0 records, but both had to work hard to get there.
Slovenia didn't run over any opponent and in most games entered the last minutes still with a big question mark.
Russia managed to win an easy game only against Belgium, and had to play down to the wire in the other three contests.
Before mentioning the players involved, one look must be taken at the coaches.
Bozidar Maljkovic on Slovenia's bench will take on David Blatt on Russia's bench.
Two great basketball minds and European basketball legends will turn this game into one of the more interesting tactical wars EuroBasket has to offer.
Don't expect high numbers and great execution.
Both teams take pride first and foremost in their defense and to score against them is one of the most frustrating experiences a player can have these days.
Erazem Lorbek on one side and Andrei Kirilenko on the other will set the tone, but the power of both sides lies in other values.
Slovenia take pride in their guards - the Dragic brothers and Jaka Lakovic form a trio of experience players that have been around.
For Russia, the backcourt leaders are Vitaliy Fridzon - who is shooting 66.7% from beyond the arc - and the crafty Alexey Shved.
However, they are both young and inexperienced in such big stage.
This will be a tough and aggressive battle for 40 minutes, and one thing is for sure - the winner will earn that win with a hard-nosed job.
Head-to-Head: These two have met only four times in the past and the last time was many moons ago, back in 2002 during the Qualifying Round. The record stands at three wins for Russia and one for Slovenia, but they took the last one. In EuroBasket games, not counting qualifying rounds, Russia won both games and both wins were by a double-digit margin.
Last Time Out: Slovenia had to sweat it out for 40 minutes to beat Belgium 70-61, while Russia had more trouble than planned against Bulgaria but took an 89-77 win.
Key Match-Up: The obvious key match-up is between the two star power-forwards - Lorbek and Kirilenko - but pay attention to the two giants. Timofey Mozgov of Russia and Mirza Begic of Slovenia are big towers in the paint. Each had good and bad games here, but the one who steps up on Monday can make it very difficult on the other side to score around the rim.
Key Stat: Russia and Slovenia are ranked second and third in fewest points allowed in the tournament. Russia allow only 27.5% shooting from three-point land while Slovenia limit their opponent by holding them to the fewest attempts from long range than any other team. The numbers from beyond the arc could be the decisive ones in this great battle.
X-Factor: Goran Dragic of Slovenia had two decent performances and two good ones. Without him in good shape against Russia, it will be very difficult for Slovenia to win. So far in the compe ion he has hit just one three pointer out of 14 attempts. If he finds his stroke, it could add great value for Slovenia.
Sounding Off: "In theory it's just one game for the first place in the group, but actually both teams will carry this result to the next round so if you win it's actually more than one win. We know it, and Russia knows that too so it's going to be a huge battle" - Uros Slokar of Slovenia knows math.
Hey all!
Sorry I've been such a slacker in the thread.
Life got crazy on me, but even so I've been rooting for Slovenia.
Looks like they're doing great! How thrilling!
Kirilenko: "Defense Is Our Trademark"
05.09.2011
EUROBASKET 2011
By Yarone Arbel
The curtain will come down on the Preliminary Round on Monday evening, and Group D has saved the best for last - a game for the first place between two big teams as Russia and Slovenia.
The next round is already around the corner and both teams know the result of the game will be carried intor Round 2 in Vilnius, which makes it even more important than just taking top honours in Group D.
For Andrei Kirilenko every game matters and he knows why.
The EuroBasket 2007 gold medalist and MVP didn't participate in the 2009 campaign so his winning streak in EuroBasket goes far back to an 81-69 defeat to Spain in the Qualifying Round four years ago.
Since then, he has won eight games in a row at EuroBasket and that's not a common thing considering the heavy load on players and the tough opponent in such compe ion.
With averages of 18.5 points, 6.8 rebounds and 3.0 steals through the first four games, Kirilenko is once again the main player on Russia's squad and the guy to stop.
So Russia is 4-0 but three of those wins were earned with sweat and went down to the wire, even against teams that on paper aren't considered in the same class as Russia.
"I'm not sure what we do to win these games in the stretch," said Kirilenko.
"There are a lot of good teams here and it's not easy to win by a large margin these days in European basketball because the level improved so much.
"Maybe we have some players with more experience that know what to do with the ball in the closing minutes and that's what helps us to win."
Trying to compare between the experiences of the golden team and the current one is a bit too far-fetched for Kirilenko who prefers to give each of the squads the credit they deserve.
"There are some differences between this team and the one from 2007," Kirilenko offered.
"First of all the 2007 won gold and this team still didn't do anything.
"The one from 2007 had a lot of veterans on it that felt like it's their last chance to do something big and fought really hard for it.
"The one from this year has a lot of young players that are still developing and gaining experience, but they are still great players who want to learn and become better.
"EuroBasket is really a great field for them to do that because the level is very high and it's very demanding also in the national level."
Targeting the le again might be a bit too early, but for a team that won only four years ago, Russia can't settle for less than a good performance again.
"We're a defensive oriented team and it's our business card," he explained.
"If we want to win games here that's what we need to do, and that's the only way we could beat Slovenia and roll on from there.
"They are a very good team with a lot of strong players here but we have our hopes.
"We want to make it to the le game again, but if that doesn't work out the minimum is to get a ticket to the Olympics Qualifying games.
"But we don't think about that yet. We take it game by game and that's the only way to make these things happen."
The first step towards achieveing those targets starts with taking care of Slovenia on Monday.
Great is not the word i would use, ok would be better.Looks like they're doing great! How thrilling!
Our old coach Pipan just showed how bad of a coach he really is... Reall happy that I don't need to watch him on our bench anymore.
, so close and Turkey would be out.
I bet we get Turkey in QF, Pipan ing us over even when not on our bench.
Good start.
Whatever you're doing-- keep doing it!!
Did we even score since they put up the zone D?
Damn, i don't know what about this game makes me so nervous...
40-34 @ half. Good defense so far, they hit some though shots. If we can keep this level of defense throughout the game we have a chance.
Good defense. I should be thrilled being up by 6 at half, but I can not help but think the lead should be larger.
Poor rebounding. I don't think we win this one.
Grab a rebound!!!
Dragic (?) drawing the charge!
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