IN THE GAME

GAME OF THE DAY: This wasn’t a particularly eventful Eurobasket gameday. Hardly something to write about. With Croatia and Russia fighting an ugly low-scoring contest and FYROM capitulating at the hands of France, this leaves us with the Germany versus Greece game. Which isn’t a bad choice for game of the day, one must admit.

The story of this game is easily told: Greece was lethargic but still showed pure class whenever they needed it. Each time they went down by four or five, they immedeately came up with a couple of baskets in no time, before the Germans had to work themselves back in. Not an arrogant performance – they played serious basketball and showed respect for the German side all along – but a quite impressive performance, knowing what was just enough in order to win the game, and doing it without wasting a sweat.

The game was highlighted by three outstanding individual performances: First Robin Benzing. If the 1989 born German youngster is ever going to be a great basketball player, fans will remember this game as his coming out party, his first step on the big stage of international basketball. Benzing played 2nd German league last season, and before preparation began, nobody knew how he was going to do against grown men. After this performance however, even the last scout will know Benzing, who slashed his way to 16 points on 5 for 8 from the field.

The second outstanding performance came from German point guard Heiko Schaffartzik, a wild shotmaker who had been 8 for 29 in this tournament prior to this game. Schaffartzik went completely nuts against Greece, making one jumpshot off the dribble after another and finishing 8 for 8 [23 points] from the field, including 5 for 5 from downtown.

PLAYER OF THE DAY: However, player of the day has to go to the third big performer of this day, Vassilis Spanoulis. Spanoulis showed an absolut world class performance. Whenever Greece needed something, he effortlessly provided it. 20 points on 6 of 9, 4 rebounds, 7 assists don’t even tell the whole story here.

DAILY LEADERS:

BLOWOUT OF THE DAY: Poor FYROM didn’t know what was happening to them. They conceded three alley oops in the first quarter alone, were losing 18-49 at the half, and had France – in their first positive performance in this tournament – played serious basketball until the end, it would have been a blowout of major proportions. Thankfully, Parker and crew considerably slowed it down in the 2nd half.

SURPRISE OF THE DAY: Russia had a huge surprise win over Croatia, which turned this group upside down. Now suddenly Croatia needs two wins over FYROM and France, otherwise it could be over already. Russian center Timofey Mozgov not only sent Mario Kasun to hospital [get well soon, Mario] but also beasted his way inside for 18 points and 8 boards.

DAY 3 BOXSCORES:

LIKEABLE LOSER: The aforementioned German team 1) for their gutsy performance, and 2) since the other losing performances weren’t quite so likeable.

STATISTIC OF THE DAY: 13 – the number of fouls the German team had committed after the first quarter versus Greece. Then coach Bauermann had an intense conversation with referee Artega, and the whistle only blew three times against the German team in the second.

FLOP OF THE DAY: Nikola, what happened? Vujcic was 1 for 10, but it was an awful 1 for 10, more than a handful of great looks close to the basket on pick and roll play. And open jumpshots. Vujcic edged out the almost equally awful performance of another star, Zoran Planinic, in the process. Had they been out in Bydgoszcz the night before?

CLUTCH PERFORMANCE: No real clutch performance today, since none of the games was really close. Spanoulis has to be mentioned again for always doing something when it was needed.

PLAY OF THE DAY: Play of the day is a one day replacement for our masters of taking the charge, since there weren’t any scenes deserving attention regarding that matter. Play of the day has to go to Sofoklis Schortsanitis backboard-threatening dunk. The nickname “Baby Shaq”, in this case, looks justified. Tibor Pleiß is still having nightmares.

RANDOM REMARKS:

• Greece became the first team to shoot more than 60 percent from the charity stripe against Germany. They finished with 62.1 percent, 18/29. Masterful.
• Greek forward Stratos Perperoglou committed his first turnover of this tournament – in 97 minutes that he has been on the court. One had the impression he was fed up with it: He threw the ball out of bounds, just like that.