EuroBasket 2009 — Day 1
The biggest surprise of Day 1 of the EuroBasket 2009 is for me Turkey teaching Lithuanian basket to Lithuania by scoring 3 pointers after 3 pointers (7/17 opposed to 9/25 for Lithuania!). Led by 10 pts with less than 2 min to go, Lithuania has never really seemed able to recover from the panic stance they displayed after the crazy session soon after half-time, despite coming back to -2 at the beginning of q4. Turkoglu and Arlsan were imperial.
The other surprise is… actually not so surprising. Spain were defeated by a Serbia in great form (-9) in a display very much in line with what they showed in Vilnius a few days ago where they suffered an “embarrassing” -22, and a not so convincing win against Poland in August. Hopefully, they’ll become themselves again after a match against Great Britain that should be a formality.
France did a good match against Germany, and won 70-65. It was a tense match, with Germany leading for quite some time, until the 3rd quarter when the French decided to defend quite high and aggressively, which earned them a 17-11 that made all the difference in the end. The 4th quarter is all Tony Parker, typical of a NBA money time, but I think what made the difference is that 3rd quarter.
Tonight, France is playing Latvia and could get their qualification for the next round if they win. Other matches to watch: Greece–Croatia, Germany–Russia, Slovenia–Serbia.
