Day 2 is in the books, and well, I watched ZERO of these games. I also pretty much have ZERO interest right now in this tournament. The USA team is just too strong, and there is no real challenge. It is fun to see how the other teams fare against one another though. Today's big interest contest pitted San Antonio Spurs team mates Manu Ginobili (of Arg) and Tony Parker (Fra) against one another.
Find out what happened today after the jump!
Here is what happened today:
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Game 1: Russia 73 - China 54: Russia's calling card is defense, and the Russians locked down China in this game. The Chinese team did not score more than 15 in any one quarter. As a team they only shot 37.5 fg%, and aside from Yi Jianlian who had 16 (off of 6-14 shooting) no one else seemed to make a difference. Russia isn't an offensive force either (they only shot 44.1 fg%, and went 4 for 17 from behind the arc, only 23.5%), but they win games through attrition. Essentially, they play like the Russian Winter. They do not attack, just slowly kill invasions. Andrei Kirilenko had 16 points (7-12 fg), 9 rebounds, 4 steals, and 1 block. Timofey Mozgov, Alexey Shved, and Alexander Kaun all added 10 or more points. Those four guys alone scored 53 points. As a team China scored 54.
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Game 2: Spain 82 - Australia 70: I have much love for the Aussies, but they were out classed in this game. Or at least, they were in the minds of the refs. Spain went to the free throw line 14 more times in this game. And hey, the final score was 12 points. Patrick Mills continues to try to do it all for his team, but continues to not be effected from three. (Which is something of interest because he made a good percentage of them last year as a member of the Spurs) Spain had 20 points from Pau Gasol, 17 points from Rudy Fernandez, and Marc Gasol finished with 12 and 7. Almost every player on Spain managed to get at least one assist. Australia did manage to make them turn the ball over 16 times, but were unable to capitalize on that.
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Game 3: Lithuania 72 - Nigeria 53: Nigeria was on the receiving end of what they did to Tunisia back on Day 1. Nigeria only managed to score 8 points in the first quarter, as they were behind early, and did not have a legit shot of getting back into the game. The team finished the game shooting 24.2 fg%, and 1-16 from downtown, 6.3 3pt%. Nigeria did play aggressive and went to the line 29 times, but only made 69.0 ft%. Lithuania, on the other hand, shot 90.5 ft% and went to the line almost as much (21). The Aminu brothers finished with 12 and 10 points, and Ike Diogu had another double double with 12 and 10. He also had to take two three pointers in this game. That's how far behind they were. Lithuania were led by point guards Mantas Kalnietis and super veteran Sarunas Jasikevicius. Kali had a 7 to 1 assist to turn over ratio, and Jasi came off the bench and had 9 and 9 in 20 minutes. The lead scorers for Lithuania were forwards Darius Songalia (12) and Linas Kleiza (11).
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Game 4: Brazil 67 - Great Britain 62: First of all, how the heck was this game so close? Well, to start with, Brazil scored 4 points in the first quarter. FOUR. Wow. Second, Brazil shot 3-22 from deep (13.6%). They also went to the line less than the Englishmen, and only shot 57.1 ft% there. Either Brazil was just off, or Great Britain was on. Good show. Luol Deng had 12 points, 8 rebounds, 7 assists, and 2 steals. He got to the line 8 times, but went 3-13 from the field. Pops Mensah-Bonsu (13 and 12), Joel Freeland (9 points, and I'm assuming some sort of defense), and Nate Reinking (13 points, 3 threes) all helped. But they were still not going enough to beat Brazil at their worst. Tiago Splitter (aka Misses Favors, in some cultures what Derrick Favors did to him in the playoffs denotes a strong relationship between the two) had 21 points and 6 rebounds. Marcelinho Huertas (whom I did not know much about) is a legit stud. He added 12 points, and 8 assists (only 2 turn overs). Leandro Barbosa continues to shoot like crap, but Nene Hilario came off the bench to score a whopping 3 points, grab 6 rebounds, and block 3 shots.
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Game 5: France 71 - Argentina 64: Is today Bastille Day? Because this was a straight up jailbreak game for France as they pulled off, arguably, an upset in Day 2. France finished the first quarter up by 7, buth Argentina came back and closed the gap by halftime - making it only a three point game. The South Americans then won the third quarter, making this the closest match of the day at the start of the fourth. France would pull away with a little too much Tony Parker down the stretch. Manu had 26 points (3 threes), 5 rebounds, 2 steals, and 1 assist. Tony had 17 points (9/10 FTs), 5 assists, 1 rebound, and 1 steal. He also had the win. Which means more in terms of their friendly rivalry. Luis Scola added 16 and 8 for Argentina. No one else really stepped up - Carlos Delfino (who was on fire from deep in Game 1) went 1/8 for the game, and 0/5 from deep. On the other side of the ball, Nicolas Batum, Kevin Seraphin, Mickael Gelabale, and Nando De Colo all added 10 or more points. Boris Diaw finished with 2 points, 6 rebounds, and 3 assists. I still am glad we didn't trade Kirilenko for him.
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Game 6: USA 110 - Tunisia 63: Salah Mejri will destroy all in his path! Well, maybe not, he did manage 4 points (2-9 shooting), 7 rebounds, and 2 blocks. The game was never really about him, and this game was never really in question. The Americans coasted, significantly, into a very decisive victory. They really came out focused, and obliterated Tunisia in the second half - scoring 39 points in the third quarter alone. The USA team had another balanced game, Kevin Love and Carmelo Anthony both finished with 16 points. Melo did not miss a shot (6-6, 2-2, and 2-2), while Love made 3-5 from downtown. Kevin Durant finished with a 13 and 10 double double, and added 5 assists and 1 steal. The US team went 10-25 from downtown, which is good enough for 40.0%. Tunisia was knocking down threes as well, but finished the game with a sub-40% mark there (they were about 40% for most of the game). Tunisia almost shot better from three than they did from the free throw line. They made only 8 of their 21 freebies, that's 38.1%. That's not going to get it done. Aside from Utah Jazz summer league dude Mejri, they had a strong outing by Makrem Ben Romdhane -- who finished with 22 points, 12 rebounds, 2 assists, and 2 steals. Congrats to him, he had a great game vs. the best team in the tournament. He's also proof that the '92 team would destroy this '12 team in the paint. If MBR is getting a 20 and 10 game on you, what's Malone / Barkley / Ewing / D-Rob going to do? Team USA had as many blocks as Tunisia did. Hot shooting from outside aside, USA will need to do better at dominating inside when they actually face teams that have good bigmen.