I'm disappointed in Slovenia. I have a ton of respect for their roster, but they get so caught up in Luka's crybaby antics that it leads me to undervalue their talent and effort. They started playing so much more decisive and cohesive once Luka was ejected.
RJ Barret showed up for the Canadians tonight. He was assertive and physical, and it set a baseline for the Canadians tempo. SGA was incredible, but he's been the best player in the tournament so what else can be expected?
Buckle your seat belts for a USA v. Canada final...
Yeah tip of the hat to Barrett and Brooks
Somebody has to step up along SGA and I not gonna act like I expected much from either
There's not a metric for this, but Slovenia is unsurprisingly the team that bitches and moans to the officials the most. Even the Americans aren't this bad and they get called for a fair amount of questionable FIBA nonsense.
Well, they are led be the lead whiner of the universe and I’m pretty sure that’s accurate as far as metrics goes.
"Too little, too late, too unbothered."
- Phoenix Suns 2023-2024 season motto.
And yet for the other dude you never want to hear similar excuses. Oh and nice gratuitous insult thrown in there at the end.
Pointing out the truth is an insult? I surely wouldn't know how the USA was playing defense if I didn't watch every possession and only checked the box score.
When did I ever say that I didn't watch the games? You're just making assumptions.
Lol, I don’t think I’m the only one talking about his fouls.
The whole debate is about who's the better player. Obviously his fouls are a kind of a problem for this team, but it's kind of like complaining about Ayton not dunking the ball. Acknowledge the deficit and use it to evaluate the whole player.
His foul trouble has been a problem for awhile, and I'm saying that it should be less of an issue in the World Cup if, as you yourself claimed, there are fewer fouls called in FIBA. His defensive impact is nil from the bench. That's a lot different than whether or not a player dunks the ball as often as you would like.
I'm with KG: "Hell nah" to JJJ over DA.
"I'm a Deandre Ayton guy."--Al McCoy, September 21, 2022.
I’m was torn between Luka and Ayton when we were drafting. Luka has clearly been the better player so far but, I cannot stand watching his antics. I suppose if he was on my team I wouldn’t care as much. He is one of my most hated players in the nba.
I’m was torn between Luka and Ayton when we were drafting. Luka has clearly been the better player so far but, I cannot stand watching his antics. I suppose if he was on my team I wouldn’t care as much. He is one of my most hated players in the nba.
Agree. Can’t stand him. Sad we didn’t draft him just from a talent acquisition standpoint, not because I want him on the team
Semi-finals up tonight with Canada v. Serbia followed by USA v. Germany.
I think Canada is pretty vulnerable against the Serbs. Serbia has smoked every opponent they've faced besides the Italians and they shot way below their average from 3-point range in that game (22%). The Serbs are physical and balanced, so they will not be easily thrown off their game in the way Slovenia was with leaning on Doncic to do everything. The Canadians can absolutely still win this game, but I think they'll need more than SGA to show up offensively. Barrett, Brooks or Dort will likely have to contribute a decent scoring effort for them to win. It makes me nervous with how streaky those guys are scoring the ball.
USA v. Germany should be pretty interesting. The Germans are big and physical similar to Montenegro and Lithuania, and both of those teams gave the Americans trouble on the glass and clogging the paint. I also don't think the Americans will be very successful with the extended defensive pressure we saw them use against the Italians. Schroder and Lo are very competent ball handlers and their overall team IQ should be enough to overcome that kind of tactic. The key for the Americans will be to match the Germans energy and effort. Too many times in this tournament they were too casual or complacent with their focus. Typically it didn't matter because they'd eventually turn it on for 6 minutes and go on a run, but that's not going to work against Germany. This is going to be a really scrappy game.
My gut is telling me we'll see USA v. Serbia in the final on Sunday.
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"FF" with another quality post above
I'm interested to see how Canada responds in the 2nd half but they definitely started to lose their composure
Down 13 ain't half is far from ideal with Serbia outside shooting and physicality to still cause possible foul trouble
Canada v. Serbia went pretty much how I thought it would. SGA's second foul in the first quarter was a terrible call by the official, but that's FIBA. NAW picked up the slack quite well, but the Serbs are just way too experienced to get beat by this Canadian team without SGA being amazing. The other Canadians just couldn't maintain enough focused intensity to match the Serbs late in the 3rd into the 4th quarter, and that was really the game breaker.
Canadian fans should feel positive about playing for a bronze given the teams they had to go through to get to this point. They clearly need a real second offensive option like Jamal Murray or Andrew Wiggins to get over the hump. RJ Barrett just isn't good enough right now.
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