Canada Basketball

[planetmars]

And that's a final there too. US and Canada for the Bronze. That will be fun.

[guyroch]

Tough loss. Serbia was tough to handle inside and out on the perimeter. Great ball movement. And they were really good in transition. The refs called everything and half the starting line up was in foul trouble early. It was just tough to get into a groove.
In the 4th we just had a hard time stopping them on defense, even if we made a bucket the other end.. going toe for toe was just never going to work and you can see the levy breaking any moment.

If Serbia goes into the finals with the same type of game plan I think they can win gold. Bogdonovic was really good. I think he stole the tournament MVP from Shai from this game.

Tough loss but it is hard to be disappointed .. It is a good lesson that more work has to be done and
this loss will help us next summer ..

For all those Americans laughing that we lost .. They are presently losing to Germany late in the 4th ..
If Americans do win they are going to be surprised by what Serbia have in store for them

[planetmars]

Tough loss. Serbia was tough to handle inside and out on the perimeter. Great ball movement. And they were really good in transition. The refs called everything and half the starting line up was in foul trouble early. It was just tough to get into a groove.
In the 4th we just had a hard time stopping them on defense, even if we made a bucket the other end.. going toe for toe was just never going to work and you can see the levy breaking any moment.

If Serbia goes into the finals with the same type of game plan I think they can win gold. Bogdonovic was really good. I think he stole the tournament MVP from Shai from this game.

[MixxAOR]

Hopefully they can get Bronze at least. Smh

[guyroch]

Joey .. Perfectly said . Murray on biggest stages ( playoffs ) has had 50 point games and has a Championship .. This team would be in the same spot if he was on this roster and SGA wasn't ..

[Joey]

I don't know why we need to talk about Murray like he would have hurt our chances or something. Dude is a Champion for a reason.

[planetmars]

Murray is way better than Bogdanovich and he's led Serbia to the semis with an inferior supporting cast. I don't see why Murray couldn't have done the same.

Is Bogdanovich getting his points by just nailing 3's or is he doing everything like Shai has? Shai has put his team on his back in all these games. He's been incredible.

I have not watched Serbia play yet but on paper it seems as if they had a pretty easy path to the semi's compared to Canada. Their group included teams like Puerto Rico, South Sudan and China (who I think was the worst team in the tourney). And then in the next round Dominican Republic and Italy (who they lost to). They beat a tough Lithuanian team in the quarters but only after they had likely came off a high from beating the US.

Canada has not won through insane 3pt shooting. They won by playing elite defense and by having Shai play like a super star. They have had contributions from guys like Brooks and Dort but mostly it's been Shai and their defense. Serbia is likely moving the ball around to their shooters. And have a lot of size in the paint to win the rebound battle.

Murray would look good as a Serbian I guess. But when his best center is Dwight Powell and he's got a lot of guys that traditionally throw bricks for a living, he would have to perform like Shai has for his team to succeed. Or hope he had an easier draw like Serbia had to get there.

[golden]

I don't quite remember Nash's run. I think Canada had to qualify the hard way back in 2000. And that team was garbage. Shai has legit NBA players at every position to play with. But you can argue the competition is better now than back then too. It's tough to compare the two because of that.
.
Shai is likely the WC MVP. That's big.. I don't think Murray would be as good as Shai has been. Shai is playing like Kawhi in a Raptor uniform. Murray is a really good #2 (like a Pascal Siakam). I doubt Murray would have helped get us here. I think we would have lost to Spain and have been eliminated before even making the quarters. But who knows really. Hope we get both for the Olympics.

Murray is way better than Bogdanovich and he's led Serbia to the semis with an inferior supporting cast. I don't see why Murray couldn't have done the same.

[planetmars]

The big debate .. Is this Canada's SGA better then Canada's Nash ? Steve Nash took a bunch of mediocre players and beat teams like Australia and Yugoslavia and lost a close game to France ( Silver ) .. Steve Nash had the ability to make everyone around him better then they are ... SGA is just a great talent .. My question if Murray played for Canada and SGA sat home would this team be in the Final Four ??

I don't quite remember Nash's run. I think Canada had to qualify the hard way back in 2000. And that team was garbage. Shai has legit NBA players at every position to play with. But you can argue the competition is better now than back then too. It's tough to compare the two because of that.
.
Shai is likely the WC MVP. That's big.. I don't think Murray would be as good as Shai has been. Shai is playing like Kawhi in a Raptor uniform. Murray is a really good #2 (like a Pascal Siakam). I doubt Murray would have helped get us here. I think we would have lost to Spain and have been eliminated before even making the quarters. But who knows really. Hope we get both for the Olympics.

[chris]

kinda worried about this semi-final matchup because serbia is pretty well-suited to grinding things to a halt a la the brazil game. they've held their 6 opponents to an average of 74.7 ppg... not exactly a murderer's row but also featured some quality opponents (lithuania, domincan, italy)

watched the lithuania game the other day and they executed well in the halfcourt, picked them apart with back-cuts and scored a ton of points at the rim.

we can play a half-court style too defensively, though i'll worry about foul trouble when the game trends that way, and our offense can look ugly when things slow down.

we have the talent obviously and are rightfully favored, but yeah i feel like this one is gonna be another 40-minute heart-attack. hope we can knock down some shots

somebody post nervous kermit

[guyroch]

The big debate .. Is this Canada's SGA better then Canada's Nash ? Steve Nash took a bunch of mediocre players and beat teams like Australia and Yugoslavia and lost a close game to France ( Silver ) .. Steve Nash had the ability to make everyone around him better then they are ... SGA is just a great talent .. My question if Murray played for Canada and SGA sat home would this team be in the Final Four ??

[guyroch]

Is anyone heard if they are going to fix the issues with this site ?

[golden]

So I guess this game means Dennis can replace Fred without us skipping a beat.

[chris]

It was definitely a horrible game. Dennis is calling himself out too on social. He was pretty amazing prior to this game though so I'm sure he will bounce back.

yeah i know he's been great and my post above was not intended to dog on him. just truly stunned at the line, i almost fell out of my chair. i did record the game and may watch it later this evening

[planetmars]

Ugh.. I am trying to create paragraphs but all my carriage returns get removed when I post. So frustrating.