2011 FIBA Americas Championship Discussion

[Built Ford Tough]

http://img94.imageshack.us/img94/452/fiba1.jpg

 

The tournament got underway earlier today with 4 games.

 

Dominican Republic 90, Cuba 60

 

Al Horford led Dominican Republic with 24 points and 9 rebounds.

 

Full Box Score: http://www.mardelplata2011.com/en/box.asp?g=A&n=1&r=8422

 

 

 

Brazil 92, Venezuela 83

 

Tiago Splitter led Brazil with 17 points, 11 rebounds and 6 assists

Grevis Vasquez had 26 points, 4 rebounds and 7 assists in the loss

 

Full Box Score: http://www.mardelplata2011.com/en/box.asp?g=A&n=2&r=8422

 

 

 

Argentina 84, Paraguay 52

 

Paolo Quinteros led Argentina with 19 points, Luis Scola had 14 and Manu Ginobili and Andres Nocioni both had 10

 

Full Box Score: http://www.mardelplata2011.com/en/box.asp?g=B&n=2&r=8422

 

 

Puerto Rico 96, Panama 66

 

Carlos Arroyo finished with 11 points and 7 assists

 

Full Box Score: http://www.mardelplata2011.com/en/box.asp?g=B&n=1&r=8422

 

 

 

If any of the Canadians on here are interested, the Canada vs. Brazil game tomorrow is being aired on TSN2 at 7:30 PM EST time.

[Sħãlïq™]

Saw highlights from the Brazil - Venezuela game. We really miss LB and Nenê. <_<

[Built Ford Tough]

The Canada-Brazil game has been pretty chippy. Neither team is playing very well offensively but both are playing well defensively. There have been a lot of physical play and about 3 technicals have been handed out already.

 

The score is currently 40-39 for Brazil with 4:26 left in the 3rd quarter.

[Built Ford Tough]

I'm very impressed with Canada's defense so far. With Andy Rautins, Denham Brown and Carl English playing like crap offensively I would expect this game to be a cake walk for Brazil but it is only a 1 point lead heading into the 4th for the Brazilians. Canada is doing a fantastic job of controlling the pace and not allowing Brazil to get out and run by not turning the ball over (only 6 turnovers for them so far).

 

I hope Corey Joseph looks for his own offense a bit more in this 4th quarter considering Rautins and Brown are both struggling to get theirs. Joseph is the only player on the team who can consistently create his own offense and he shoudl look to take advantage of his quickness advantage.

 

Anderson hits a 3 to put Canada up 50-47.

[Built Ford Tough]

Brazil with a 9-0 run after Anderson hit that three to put them up 56-50. Canada with the timeout to try and put an end to the Brazilian run.

 

I don't think Canada has the offense to close this game out, though. They are really labouring offensively and aren't getting any easy looks as everything is a contested jumper. I have no idea why Leo Rautins hasn't put Joseph back in the game as their offense has completely stalled since he went to the bench.

 

58-50 for Brazil.

 

EDIT: About time Rautins brings back CoJo. Hopefully having him and Andy Rautins on the floor together will give the Canadians the offense that they need to get back in this game, but unfortunately I think the 10 point lead that the Brazilians have at this point is going to be too much for Canada to overcome. They just don't have the offensive firepower to come back from a lead like this.

Edited September 1, 2011 by Built Ford Tough

[Built Ford Tough]

Joel Anthony is going to have to shut Horford down if the Raptors are to have any chances at beating the Domincan Rebpulic today.

 

Even if Anthony manages to slow Horford down, it wouldn't surprise me at all if Canada still loses by double digits considering this is a better team than Brazil and Canada looked completely out of their element in the 4th quarter against them.

 

Nice start for Canada so far, though. English with a nice drive and Anthony with a hook to give them an early 4-0 lead.

 

EDIT: Interesting, Rautins doesn't even had Anthony on Horford instead choosing to use Dornekamp on him instead. I can understand wanting Anthony as more of a help defender/shot blocker.

Edited September 1, 2011 by Built Ford Tough

[Built Ford Tough]

Great start for Canada and they managed to hold off the DR towards the end of the quarter. They currently have a 19-16 lead and have held Horford to just 4 points.

 

Unfortunately, I don't see them beign able to sustain this play as basically all of their offense has come from the perimeter. Outside of their first 4 points (an English layup and an Anthony hook) everything has come from beyond the arc where they are shooting 5-10 for the game. They can't really get anything inside, at least so far, so they are going to need to continue their hot shooting from three if they want to keep this game close.

 

That flagrant called against Anthony was complete BS, though. Not only was it called about 4 seconds late, but it was hardly worth a flagrant foul anyways. That call really changed the momentum of the game as Canada was up 13-4 at that point and since then the DR has gone on a 12-6 run.

 

Charlie Villaneuva looks like shit so far as well. Two charges already, both of which were just a matter of him trying to run right through the defense.

[Built Ford Tough]

Great 2nd half for Canada as they have continued their hot shooting and now hold an 11 point lead with 4 minutes to go. They got great contribution from Kelly Olynyk (fun fact, his dad coached my dad's baseball team when my dad was around 15 years old) early on in the half and Andy Rautins has taken over the offensive load since then with 15 points on 5-8 shooting from three.

 

Anderson needs to take control of the team, though. Rautins decided to leave him in the game instead of putting Joseph back in due to Anderson having more experience, but right now Canada's offense is completely out of sync. Denham Brown is playing very out of control as well, so these two vets need to reel themselves in a bit and show the veteran leadership that is expected of him.

 

Anthony with two free throws to get the Canadian lead back to 10 with 3 minutes left in the 4th.

 

EDIT: Great read from Anderson and Anthony there. DR loaded up the strong side and Anthony rolled to the basket for the easy two.

Edited September 1, 2011 by Built Ford Tough

[Doc]

Does anyone have a link for the Canada game right now?

[Built Ford Tough]

Does anyone have a link for the Canada game right now?

 

If you have TSN2 it is on right now.

 

If not, try this.

 

http://www.soccertvlive.net/watch/81431/1/watch-dominican-republic-vs-canada-.html

 

 

 

The refs are doing whatever they can to get DR back in this game, though. Sosa gets away with a huge shove on CoJo that they ignore, and then they call a ticky tack foul on Rautins 3 seconds later.

 

Bad turnover from Anderson there.

 

Canada is falling apart a bit right now, but yet another bullshit call goes against Canada to give Sosa a three point play. Even the announces are starting to take notice of the weak calls.

 

6 point game with 50 seconds left.

Edited September 1, 2011 by Built Ford Tough

[Built Ford Tough]

Two huge free throws from Joel Anthony to make it a 3 possession game.

 

69-62 with 24 seconds with Jack Michael Martinez from the DR, a poor free throw shooter, at the free throw line.

 

EDIT: Guy is 2-7 for the game and now decides to hit both free throws. God dammit.

 

5 point game with Anderson heading to the stripe.

Edited September 1, 2011 by Built Ford Tough

[Built Ford Tough]

Joseph splits a pair of free throws and it is now a 5 point Canada lead with 10.4 seconds left.

 

Canada is really leaving the door open for Dominican Republic with all of these missed free throws down the stretch. That is 3 of the last 4 trips to the down that they have split their freebies.

 

Timeout DR.

 

EDIT: Garcia hits a 3 to cut the lead to 2 points off of a great play drawn up by Calipari. Excellent execution there. Doornekamp can ice the game with a pair of freebies here, though.

Edited September 1, 2011 by Built Ford Tough

[Built Ford Tough]

Doornekamp hits both to ice the game. Canada ends up winning 73-72 as Garcia hits a three at the buzzer.

 

Not exactly the way you want to see a game finish as Canada really struggled with their execution down the stretch allowing the Dominican back into the game, but at the end of the day a win is a win and, considering many people, myself included, expected this to be a blowout, I'll definitely take the win any way I can get it.

 

Huge win for Canada.

[Sħãlïq™]

Doornekamp hits both to ice the game. Canada ends up winning 73-72 as Garcia hits a three at the buzzer.

 

Not exactly the way you want to see a game finish as Canada really struggled with their execution down the stretch allowing the Dominican back into the game, but at the end of the day a win is a win and, considering many people, myself included, expected this to be a blowout, I'll definitely take the win any way I can get it.

 

Huge win for Canada.

Indeed. Was rooting for Canada against Brazil too, BTW.

[Built Ford Tough]

Canada 84, Cuba 62 (Boxscore)

 

Canada went back to shooting poorly (4-for-15) from 3-point range, but that didn’t matter, because Cuba was much worse (1-for-14). After the teams each scored a bucket in the first two minutes, Canada went on a 15-0 run and never looked back, earning their second straight win.

 

After hitting some big threes against the Dominican Republic just 17 hours earlier, Andy Rautins was 0-for-5 from beyond the arc, but he got to the line eight times in 21 minutes.

 

If Canada beats Venezuela on Saturday, they’d finish in a three-way tie for first with Brazil and the Dominican Republic. But thanks to the tie-breaker (see below), the best they can do is finish third in Group A (unless Cuba pulls off a miracle upset of Brazil).

 

Uruguay 77, Panama 61 (Boxscore)

 

Uruguay established itself as the third best team in Group B with a comfortable victory. The game was close until early in the third quarter, when Uruguay took control with a 19-6 run. Esteban Batista was the star of the game, finishing with 24 points (on 9-for-13 shooting) and 10 rebounds.

 

Dominican Republic 79, Brazil 74 (Boxscore)

 

After the way the Dominican Republic played against Canada just 24 hours earlier, this was maybe the most surprising result of the tournament. Brazil led by seven late in the third quarter, but a pair of Francisco Garcia threes highlighted an 11-2 Dominican run that gave them the lead heading into the fourth.

 

The fourth quarter was tight throughout, but the Dominican defense was at its best and never gave up the lead. Garcia sealed the game when he stripped Tiago Splitter in the post in the final minute.

 

•This was easily Garcia’s best game of the tournament. He hit four of his five attempts from beyond the arc and finished with 14 points.

 

•This was easily Marcelo Huertas‘ worst game of the tournament. He shot 7-for-11 from the field, but was sloppy with his passing, committing 10 turnovers.

 

•One of those turnovers was a clean strip by Dominican big man Jack Michael Martinez, who switched out on Huertas on the perimeter at the end of the second quarter. Martinez stole the ball and found Al Horford under the basket on the other end to give D.R. a four-point lead going into the half.

 

•Brazil was an efficient 25-for-41 from inside the arc, but made just five of their 22 shots from 3-point range and just nine of their 16 free throws.

 

•Despite the loss, Brazil is still in position to win Group A. If both Canada (2-1) and Brazil (2-1) win on Saturday and there’s a three-way tie with the Dominican Republic (3-1), the tiebreaker is determined by the ratio of points to opponents’ point in the head-to-head games between the three teams. Brazil’s ratio was 143/136 (1.05), the Dominican’s was 151/147 (1.03), and Canada’s was 130/141 (0.92).

 

Argentina 81, Puerto Rico 74

 

This was the game to determine first place in Group B, and it lived up to the billing. It was tight until early in the third quarter when Argentina was finally able to corral Carlos Arroyo and used a blistering 16-0 run to turn a five-point deficit into an 11-point lead.

 

Arroyo didn’t get nearly enough help from his teammates. Meanwhile, Argentina played like a cohesive unit, getting big contributions from Manu Ginobili (23 points), Luis Scola (16 points, seven boards and two blocks) and Carlos Delfino (14 points and three steals).

 

•Arroyo had a pretty amazing minute of basketball late in the first half, when he was wholly responsible for a 7-0 run that gave Puerto Rico a 33-27 lead. It started with a pretty pick-and-roll feed to Daniel Santiago. Then, after Ginobili missed a shot, Arroyo hit Alex Galindo with a nifty touch pass on the break. And on the possession after that, he stepped into a three on another high pick-and-roll. Less than two minutes later, he hit Santiago with another pretty dish for a three-point play.

 

•Arroyo is about 10 times more entertaining (and aggressive) when he plays for Puerto Rico than when he plays in the NBA.

 

•J.J. Barea is far less so. For the second straight game, Barea struggled from the field, shooting 3-for-10 after a 1-for-8 game against Uruguay on Thursday. And when Argentina double-teamed Arroyo in the second half, Barea wasn’t able to pick up the slack.

 

•Delfino was just 1-for-4 from 3-point range, but had two incredible and-ones under the basket in the third quarter.

 

•After scoring 10 points in the first quarter in each of Argentina’s first two games, Scola had just 10 through the first three quarters on Friday. But he hit three straight shots midway through the fourth to help put the game away.

 

•After sitting out the first two games, Fabricio Oberto got his first action of the tournament. He scored two points in 12 minutes.

 

http://hangtime.blogs.nba.com/2011/09/02/argentina-wins-battle-of-unbeatens/

 

The Canada game was at 7:30 AM so I didn't watch it, but it was good to see them get a 20+ point win over Cuba.

 

Them blowing that late lead against the Dominican Republic and falling apart in the 4th quarter against Brazil may really come back to haunt them. If they managed to at least keep the game against Brazil to the 5-7 points that it was for the majority of the game and then hold onto their 10 point lead against the DR, they could possibly be looking at a first place finish in the group. Instead, it is looking like they are going to finish 3rd unless they manage to put together a fantastic game against Venezuela tomorrow.

 

For anybody that is interested, the Canada/Venezuela game tomorrow is at 7:30 AM Pacific Time. If I manage to wake up in time, I'll post a link in this thread for the game, assuming I can find one.

[Built Ford Tough]

A crucial win for Canada today against Uruaguay as they won 80-78 to keep their slim hopes of finishing in the top 5 alive. After losing that overtime game against Venezuela earlier their chances to finish in the top 5 and make the Olympic qualifiers next summer were basically crushed, but the win today did keep them mathematically alive.

 

Now all they need to do is beat Panama tomorrow (which should be fairly easy) and hope that Uruaguay can pull out the win against Venezuela otherwise Canada will finish 6th and miss out on next summer's Olympic qualifiers. Unfortunately for Canada, they eliminated the Uruguay team today by beating them so they don't have anything to play for tomorrow other than pride. Hopefully they will still go out and give it their all, but who knows how motivated they will be to play knowing that the game is completely meaningless for them.

[Built Ford Tough]

Well, that was a very disappointing loss for Canada today as they officially got eliminated from the Olympics after losing by 2 points to Panama today. There is no excuse for allowing Gary Forbes to drop 39 points and 16 straight at one point. There were no coaching adjustments as they continued to use Anderson or Shepard on him and they hardly ever sent a 2nd defender at him. If you insist on guarding him straight up, at least put Cory Joseph on him considering CoJo is easily the best perimeter defender on the team and is a much better defender than any one of Anderson, Shepard or Rautins are.

 

It wouldn't have made a difference if they won or not since Venezuela defeated Uruguay by 12 anyways, but it was still a very disappointing loss considering Canada is clearly a better team than Panama is, and, to be perfectly honest, Canada is probably a better team than Venezuela is too. There isn't really an excuse for them to not at least finish top 5 in this tournament and make next summer's Olympic qualifiers.

 

 

Anyways, the Semi-Final matchups are now set.

 

Brazil will face the Dominican Republic tomorrow at, I believe, 4PM PST.

Argentina will face Puerto Rico after that game.

[Built Ford Tough]

For anybody who cares (which there seems to be very few), Argentina beat Brazil by 5 (80-75) in the finals. Luis Scola scored 33 points in the win and was also named Tournament MVP as his 21.4 ppg led the tournament.

 

The Dominican Republic beat Puerto Rico 103-89 in the 3rd place game behind 23 points, 12 rebounds and 7 assists from Al Horford.