SAITAMA, JAPAN, Aug. 30, 2006 -- With all of the surprises out of the way in the preliminary round, the 2006 FIBA World Championship is down to four teams -- all undefeated -- left in contention for a medal of any color.
On Tuesday, Argentina and Spain advanced to the semifinal round in convincing fashion, routing Turkey and Lithuania, respectively.
The U.S. and Greece, often considered the stronger teams in action tonight, took a little longer to prove that was the case.
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The U.S., including Dwyane Wade who was 1-for-11, had an off night from the field.
Garrett Ellwood/NBAE/Getty Images |
"We won, not having a good offensive night," U.S. head coach Mike Krzyzewski said, "and you have to give credit to Germany for that. Not just that we missed, but they put us in that position to miss shots and I thought we kept our composure and we didn’t lose sight of it on the defensive end."
"We knew it was going to be tough against Germany," added Carmelo Anthony, who scored eight of his game-high 19 points in the third quarter. "Winning always feels great. We have one more game before the big one, so we have to take care of business."
The team's first-half shooting woes were epidemic, as the squad went 5-for-20 from three and hit only 32 percent of its total shots from the field, trying to shoot over a 2-3 zone employed by the Germans.
"When we review the tapes," Coach K said, "we’re going to see in the first half that we didn’t finish. It wasn’t outside shooting. We had about eight to 10 shots within a foot of the basket, that we didn’t finish. When you don’t do that, it looks like you’re bad. What you are is –- you haven’t finished. In the second half, we had good looks and I’ll win or lose with guys taking those shots."
His guys, however, continued to struggle from dowtown in the second -- again going 5-for-20 -- but they finished at the rim more often, hitting 13-of-21 from inside the arc, while also tightening up their defense on the other end of the floor.
"I think we just needed to pick our energy up," USA guard Joe Johnson said. "We tend to wait until the second half to pick up our energy when we have to learn how to start the game off right."
The U.S. gets its next shot at a quick start Friday when it faces Greece, who, itself, got out of the gates strong, defensively, against France in the earlier contest. But noting that alone is like saying Angelina Jolie has big lips -- it's only part of the story, which is incomplete without providing more detail. At the end of 10 minutes, the Greek squad had managed just 12 points of its own, going scoreless for the first three and the final two minutes of the opening period.
Greece, however, kept up the pressure, holding France to 35 percent shooting and forcing 16 turnovers in the game.
"The way we played on offense was not all due to Greece's defense," said French and L.A. Lakers forward Ronny Turiaf. "It was our inability to execute that got us in trouble and falling behind."
The team's defense, however, did translate to a 10-point halftime lead.
"We played very good defense," said Greece's Dimitris Diamantidis, "and on offense we found some good shots. That's it. But the first key is defense. We play very good defense."
On the offensive end, the team balanced its scoring attack with five players registering double-digit points for Hellas.
Both teams now must prepare to face each other Friday, in the first of two games on the day, when the highest scoring offense in the tournament will provide the stingy Greek defense -- entering the night, Greece led all teams with 150 forced turnovers and 77 steals -- its stiffest test yet.
That challenge may turn out to be as great as that faced by both Argentina and Spain when the two teams tip off at 7:30 p.m. local time (6:30 a.m. EDT).
In defeating Turkey in the quarterfinals, Argentina shot 49 percent from the field and still hung on for a 25-point win, even though it scored only eight points of its own in the fourth period. A large margin of victory is nothing new for the team with five NBA players. Argentina has won its seven games by a tourney-best 23.9 points.
"We had a lot of patience and were always able to find easy shots," head coach Sergio Hernandez said of his team's win over Lithuania. "And you know Argentina players, if they get shots with no defense they can kill you. I think it was our best game in the FIBA World Championship. Turkey is a great team with a great mentality, but we played our best game and that's why the winning margin was 25 points."
Spain also played one of its best games of the tournament, as Juan Carlos Navarro hit two early triples to lead the Spaniards to an early 11-3 advantage. Spain would go on to win the ball game 89-67.
"The way we started the game," Pau Gasol said, "running and setting the tone from the beginning, that was the key. We just kept running and being aggressive. We have to be really happy right now."
Two days from now, that mood could sour if Spain is forced to play for a bronze medal instead of the gold. But, with all four teams currently sitting on unblemished records of seven wins and no losses, only two can reach the number eight. Only one will make it to nine.
Which, of these mighty powers, will it be?
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