FIBA Tournament Play

[Q12543 [enjin:6621299]]

Terrible loss for Canada against Venezuala. I only saw a portion of the third quarter and then all the 4th quarter, but it was pretty clear which team wanted it more. Wiggins and AB with poor games. AB didn't even see the floor in the 4th quarter (well, I guess he's kind of used to that!).

The one excuse I'll give Canada is that they are a very young team. Corey Joseph and Kelly Olynyck are the elder statesmen among the starting lineup at 24 years old each. AB is 22, Stauskas is 21, and Wiggins is 20. Clearly, they got outplayed by a team that was hungrier.

The good news is that overall Wiggins and AB played well in this tournament, and even more importantly, neither got hurt!

[Q12543 [enjin:6621299]]

Canada won the Bronze medal game last night in Mexico City. AB and Stauskas didn't play (not clear as to why - I think they may have been ill). Wiggins was pretty shaky in this one at first but made a couple of big plays down the stretch, including a 4-point play. However, he almost cost Canada the game late when the guy he was guarding blew past him for a layup to give Mexico a one-point lead with seconds remaining. Luckily, Corey Joseph saved the day and made a last second shot to secure the win.

Bjelica and Serbia up today.....

[longstrangetrip [enjin:6600564]]

Canada won the Bronze medal game last night in Mexico City. AB and Stauskas didn't play (not clear as to why - I think they may have been ill). Wiggins was pretty shaky in this one at first but made a couple of big plays down the stretch, including a 4-point play. However, he almost cost Canada the game late when the guy he was guarding blew past him for a layup to give Mexico a one-point lead with seconds remaining. Luckily, Corey Joseph saved the day and made a last second shot to secure the win.

Bjelica and Serbia up today.....

AB's fine...he and Stauskas were given the night off to ensure they are both healthy for the start of training camp.

Finland is giving Serbia all they can handle today...up 1 after the first quarter. I hope it stays close, because Bjelica seems to really show up in the close games. He had a productive first quarter...8 points on only 4 shots, I think. He is beating his man off the dribble and consistently getting to the basket with his strong right hand. It continues to trouble me that he seems disinterested in rebounding again tonight. He hasn't boxed out yet, and sometimes turns up court before the defensive rebound is even secured. Mitchell is going to have to work on this with him, and let him know he expects his PF to work the glass.

[longstrangetrip [enjin:6600564]]

Serbia by 5 at the half. Finland looks like they could hang in there until the end, so Bjelica should get a lot of minutes in the second half too. He had a very nice 10 and 5 in the first half, on only 6 shots.

A couple observations:

1) FIBA Europe basketball is not very physical...not even close to the NBA, and not even as physical as FIBA Americas. Case in point: Ruduljica, who was awful for the Wolves last year, is a dominant force in this tournament. He is just too strong for this level of play...looks like he is going to go off for 20 points
+ again.

2) With Teodosic running the show, Bjelica just doesn't touch the ball enough. He should have more than 6 shots in a half, and he shouldn't have to create all of his own shots. He's very good at putting the ball on the floor and getting to the basket.

3) I know I'm harping on Nemanja's rebounding and I also know that 5 in the first half sounds just fine. But four of the rebounds were long rebounds where the ball bounced beyond the Finns (and Serbs) who had battled for position. He did have one "traditional" box-out rebound with a minute left in the half, so it's not that he can't do it...he just doesn't seem very interested in rebounding.

4) Bjelica plays more like a wing than a PF. His standard position on offense is beyond the 3-point line, and he handles the ball very well...both passing and dribbling. He's a good basketball player. I'll also add that despite his shortcomings in rebounding, he is a passionate player who really seems focused on winning.

I'm looking forward to seeing what he can do in the second half.

[longstrangetrip [enjin:6600564]]

Serbia up 7 after 3. While the story of the game is the big man Rudljica (27 points through 3 and unstoppable on the P&R), I was really impressed with Bjelica's 3rd quarter. He finally got interested on the defensive boards, and consistently blocked out and secured some tough rebounds...as I said before, he can do it if he wants. He also drove the lane nicely with his left hand (unusual for him) and kicked the ball to a teammate for an open three. His only shot of the quarter was a corner three, and he nailed it.

[longstrangetrip [enjin:6600564]]

Serbia blows out Finland in the 4th quarter, and Bjelica finishes with 19 on only 11 shots. He was shooting 62% from the field for the tournament, and that is going higher with this game. More significantly, he had 14 rebounds...really nice game. Now they have a couple days off before playing the Czech Republic (with no NBA players) in the quarter-finals Tuesday.

One player we haven't talked about in this tournament is the much-heralded Mario Hezonja. The 5th pick in the draft has been terrible, averaging only 6.7 PPG on 41% shooting (27% on threes).

[Lipoli390]

Thanks for the report, Long. Can't help but be excited about Bjelica.

[BizarroJerry [enjin:6592520]]

Thanks for the updates. Bjelica seems like he'll be a consistent shooter for us. Hoping that doesn't change once he has to face some.real defense.

[Monster]

I just watched the Serbia vs Italy

http://youtu.be/5hnssAoWq1U

Bjelica was good but the most impressive was his defense especially on Gallo. I not sure if he even scored with Bjelica on him if he did it was once. He also drew and offensive fouls on Bargs boosting him up well. He looked very good on the boards in this game especially in the first half. LST I must always watch the games that he does well in that area. Lol

Tedo looked like the player he is hyped to be in this game it seems like they are firing on all cylinders right now. Italy had nobody remotely physical enough to deal with poor man's Pek, Rado. I suspect that was the case with him against Finland. When he plays against guys with legit length and some decent girth it's a different story because he doesn't have that great of tough around the rim from what I have seen.

[MikkeMan]

Serbia by 5 at the half. Finland looks like they could hang in there until the end, so Bjelica should get a lot of minutes in the second half too. He had a very nice 10 and 5 in the first half, on only 6 shots.

A couple observations:

1) FIBA Europe basketball is not very physical...not even close to the NBA, and not even as physical as FIBA Americas. Case in point: Ruduljica, who was awful for the Wolves last year, is a dominant force in this tournament. He is just too strong for this level of play...looks like he is going to go off for 20 points
+ again.

Finland's national team is not very good example of typical FIBA Europe basketball in terms of physicality. Our team just doesn't have any real big men. There are couple of reasons for that. First when nation population is just 5 million, there doesn't exist many athletically gifted big men. Second our team uses a lot of hard hedging in pick and roll defense and that type of defense is pretty hard for less mobile big men. Raduljica weights at least 25 pounds more than any of Finn's big men, so he really looked as unstopable force when he rolled to basket. Kudos to Teodosic for beating our defense badly with his passing.

I watched Spain - Serbia game and Pau Gasol made Raduljica to look every bit as bad as he looked in Wolves jersey.