Canada Basketball

[slaw]

These dumb fouls Canada keeps taking are going to bite them in the ass at some point. Powell and Brooks with 2 really stupid plays on 3 point shooters.

[The Great One]

Who do we play after Spain?

[Primer]

Phew. That was a close one but we pulled it out. Huge 3 from our boy RJ sort of sealed the deal.

Now we need France to beat Germany by 3 points or less and we get the 2 seed.

[LJ2]

Spain just looks like a team of old guys from the Y. They really tested the boys in this one.

[Primer]

Spain just looks like a team of old guys from the Y. They really tested the boys in this one.

Was interesting that it was the 2 runners up for our head coaching job that were coaching each team.

[planetmars]

Great win. First game where rebounding was a problem. Spain had so many second chance opportunities. I thought when Willy picked up his 4th it would be the end of them but they hung in there to make it a game. Shai was uncharacteristically bad from the line. I think he missed 4 free throws. But got the final two to go down.

Jordi used the bench a lot and that was an issue too. Nembhard had a great game though. Kelly was awful in his minutes.

Good to see RJ having another good game. Not as many possessions but he killed it when he had the opportunity. That corner 3 at the end sealed it for them.

[3inthekeon]

Rebounding may be our team's Achilles heel. Gave up way too many second chance points.

[planetmars]

Who do we play after Spain?

Too early to tell. All the games in the pool round have to finish before we can figure out who our next opponent will be.

[slaw]

Great win. First game where rebounding was a problem. Spain had so many second chance opportunities. I thought when Willy picked up his 4th it would be the end of them but they hung in there to make it a game. Shai was uncharacteristically bad from the line. I think he missed 4 free throws. But got the final two to go down.

Jordi used the bench a lot and that was an issue too. Nembhard had a great game though. Kelly was awful in his minutes.

Good to see RJ having another good game. Not as many possessions but he killed it when he had the opportunity. That corner 3 at the end sealed it for them.

Nembhard having a big game was great to see cause there has been zero punch off the bench. Murray is doing what he can but he's clearly not 100% and Olynyk has been awful - no idea what is going on with him. NAW has also been subpar. Lyles has been a non-factor.

Starters are going to need some help...

EDIT: Too bad how it all played out cause a guy like Mathurin would have been a nice add for the second units.

[planetmars]

Nembhard having a big game was great to see cause there has been zero punch off the bench. Murray is doing what he can but he's clearly not 100% and Olynyk has been awful - no idea what is going on with him. NAW has also been subpar. Lyles has been a non-factor.

Starters are going to need some help...

EDIT: Too bad how it all played out cause a guy like Mathurin would have been a nice add for the second units.

Now that we are in the lose and go home round, I would hope Jordi uses the starters way more, and only sit them when they are in foul trouble. I guess guys can get gassed, but it's only a 40 minute game.

Kelly should never see the floor again IMO. He's too much of a liability. Or if he's out there then he needs to play with another big.

[slaw]

Now that we are in the lose and go home round, I would hope Jordi uses the starters way more, and only sit them when they are in foul trouble. I guess guys can get gassed, but it's only a 40 minute game.

Kelly should never see the floor again IMO. He's too much of a liability. Or if he's out there then he needs to play with another big.

Well, guys are getting dumb fouls which is forcing his hand a bit (happened again with Powell and Brooks today). There's also giving the starters some rest, which is important and ego is at play, too. Can't have pro guys commit all this time and energy and not play. Quarters will be all out.

As for Olynyk, I'd rather see Birch out there. He's not going to be that productive but he's been solid in his minutes.

[chris]

as i said after game 1, our starters are dominant but we are hanging on for dear life whenever bench players are out there.

whether he's 100% or not, i did not expect murray to be the team's 7th best player through the group stage.

[planetmars]

Canada will apparently most likely play the loser of France/Germany in the next round. Nothing is set in stone, but that's the most likeliest outcome.

[LJ2]

Was interesting that it was the 2 runners up for our head coaching job that were coaching each team.

Spain's problem isn't the program I don't think, but their talent pool needs replenishing. The guys out there looked like they're in their 40's (kidding, but you know what I mean).

[DanH]

Canada will apparently most likely play the loser of France/Germany in the next round. Nothing is set in stone, but that's the most likeliest outcome.

If France loses, we probably play France in the quarters (as they are essentially tied with Serbia in point differential, so if Serbia beats South Sudan, and France loses, Serbia will overtake France for pot 2 and France ends up in pot 3 - and we can't play Australia since they are from our pool).

But if France beats Germany, Serbia would need to make a significant gain in point differential to catch Germany in pot 2, in which case we would play Germany. If Serbia doesn't catch up (currently +15 vs Germany's +33, so would be tough even if you get the right combo of winning teams), they'd be in pot 3 and we'd play them.

Then if South Sudan beats Serbia, they could potentially catch the loser of France/Germany for pot 2, but with their point differential being so low (-6 vs +16 and +33), they'd need some big scores to make that happen. So if they win but don't do so in blowout fashion, they also fall short and end up in pot 3 and are our first round opponent.

There are some even more remote possibilities based on big blowout losses by France or Germany where they slide all the way to pot 4, but best to keep it more realistic when discussing possibilities.

TLDR: there's a decent chance we play France if they lose, but also a decent chance we play Serbia, and a more distant chance we play Germany or South Sudan.