EuroBasket 2009 — Day 5
23 points. 6/22 (27,3%). These are yesterday’s figures. Lithuania have lost against Slovenia, and they’ve lost big. Never really dangerous, atrocious in 3 pts, taking bad decisions against a strong Slovenian defence, Lithuania collapsed and are now fearing for the rest of the competition. It is hard to think that maybe Turkey 2010 could be without Lithuania… On the other hand, Slovenia look like they have the team to go far: Lakovic and Lorbek have made an amazing match and have hurt the Lithuanian team very badly. The game finishes 58–81.
Earlier in the day, Turkey had confirmed their current strength by beating Spain 63–60. The 4th quarter started close (49–48), but was a festival of turnovers, shots a bit too short and silly fouls (Gasol), peaking with an absurdly lousy defence where Arslan (1.90m) concluded a lay-up after getting rid of 4 Spanish defenders (esp. Pau Gasol, 2.14m and Reyes, 2.04m).
In the last match of the day, despite showing a brave face and coming back at very close range in qtr 4, the Polish team didn’t manage to surprise the Serbian team, and lost the game 72–77. They are now in a very perilous situation along with Lithuania at the bottom of Group F, and that’s even before receiving Slovenia.
Matches to watch next: Macedonia–Germany. No mistake allowed for Germany; Croatia–France; Spain–Lithuania, Lithuania cannot afford to lose; Serbia–Turkey.
