EuroBasket 2009 — Day 10
France got eliminated, and there was no debate about it. They have been absolutely outplayed by a very strong Spanish team, especially Pau Gasol back with a revenge. 28 points and 9 rebounds, he killed single-handedly Turiaf and Traoré. The French came back to a promising -11 in qtr 4, but then their momentum was killed in the bud by a turnover by Diaw. The Spanish defence was too strong, Navarro put in the right 3-pointers, and Tony Parker didn’t score the healing points that would have brought France on the right trck. Not really a surprise, but still a bit disappointed… It looks like the predictions of the experts might be right: all the teams of Group F will go through.
In the other quarter final of the day, Serbia got rid of Russia quite easily (surprisingly, but hey not so much given Russia’s output in the previous games, but hey, you could also say that of Spain): 68–79.
So there you go. I’m really disappointed, even though I could feel France was really up not to the other good team standards (I wouldn’t have given France a chance against Slovenia for example), but having Spain playing tonight, Great Britain is forgotten, and we might very well have a winner here.
Last question: is Rubio the most overrated player of this tournament?
And a remark: I can’t help but like Nando de Colo. He looks a bit inexperienced at times, a bit clumsy, but he comes up with these fantastic passes or shoots: so, I can’t decide if he deserves it, but I really wish him all the best!!
