Day Two: Greece vs. Lithuania, 12:30

[CG]

I actually wanted to ask about that. Will team USA be tested for doping? I know every other team has to give random samples. If I'm not mistaken, during the Olympics, the USA had immunity from their players taking dopping tests.

good question.I never hear anything about dopping for the USA

[YYY]

Neither did I. Where did you get all that suspicions from?

[CG]

Neither did I. Where did you get all that suspicions from?

maybe because they have played 100+ games and they run as sprinters plus they have huge ammount of Stamina.....

[T.W.Is.M.]

in 1992 when the original dream team was decided 2 play 4 the first time the americans put the condition that their players would NOT go through a dopping test!the NBA olayers r the only athletes in the olympic games that r not tested 4 dopping and dopping isn't considered illegal in the NBA so don't expect players from team USA 2 b tested...

[Delk]

Ι think the same happened in the Olumpics games of Athens

[Wide]

turnovers of lithuania is a result of great defence of greece.

Actually more because of chaos in lithuanian PGs, not Greek defense. I bet even some much more weaker team would have lots of teams (not as many as had Greece, for sure)

smt else I think is is very hard to beat usa.First of all they have a college coach(he knows pretty well european basketball with its systems and etc)secondly is the first tournament that usa took not only great stars but also players who can do the "dirty"job in the court.And of course the main reason that noone can beat usa is dopping

USA is still beatable. And the only way to do it, is to play excellent offense. You simply can't defend them now, they can hit threes, etc. Only perfect offense can win against them , imo

[Levenspiel]

Lith friends, I have a question about Gustas:

I'm sure you remember he made two difficult and critical shots in the last quarter of the Greece game. Both baskets came like 1 sec left on the clock. That is, he had no choice but to shoot.

Maybe, he was sort of relaxed at these moments because no one would blame him for taking those shots while there were better shooters around. However, in the beginning seconds of the offense, he's nervous and under stress about his decisions. I could see his hesitation in some open 3-pointers, and he couldn't make them.

So, what do you think? Is his low performance due to a lack of confidence and a stress of being compared to Saras, or is it just a matter of capability?

thanks

[Wide]

Lith friends, I have a question about Gustas:

I'm sure you remember he made two difficult and critical shots in the last quarter of the Greece game. Both baskets came like 1 sec left on the clock. That is, he had no choice but to shoot.

Maybe, he was sort of relaxed at these moments because no one would blame him for taking those shots while there were better shooters around. However, in the beginning seconds of the offense, he's nervous and under stress about his decisions. I could see his hesitation in some open 3-pointers, and he couldn't make them.

So, what do you think? Is his low performance due to a lack of confidence and a stress of being compared to Saras, or is it just a matter of capability?

thanks

That may be stressful a bit, but I don't really think it is. He's a pro basketball player, appears 4th (if i'm not mistaken) time on NT.. And that's not stress of being compared to Saras, because nobody compares like that.

Althrough his career could have gone better. If to look at some history, at exciting 2003/04 Euroleague season, when Sabas played, so he was pretty quiet most of season and he went nuts in TOP 16, especially in first game against Ulker, he was making baskets one after another (especially he liked mid range jumpers after pick and roll). Also that season he was really decent three point shooter (now he's worse in this, imo), but in last game against Maccabi he missed two clutch free throws and Zalgiris lost - at least if one would be made - Zalgiris would have gone into Final4. And from that point it started, most of fans hating him, showing the hate (and i'm pretty sure he felt terrible by himself). He went to Russia and his career start to go down.

I told this little story to point that match and those FTs may had a huge psichological hit to him, that may be seen now too. Seems like he's afraid of some his decisions, he's scary at some moments. And his shooting touch gone worse since that season..

[pablonis]

dont get too overexited guys, even though you won the game (which i'm congratulating you with) you should still take into account that your EURO champ squad barely beated this Lithuanian 'half' team (except Macas, our entire backcourt is missing), talking about some wheel turn is a pure lunacy...

i just hope guys like Saras, Siskauskas, Kaukenas, Timinskas do have some time off from the hard work of selling sneakers, redecorating their homes and some finally arent tired, and are witnessing every minute as Lithuania's pride is beeing stomped by various teams (and their juvenile supporters...) that barely a year or two ago were far from even beeing ablle of producing a descent fighting attempt

BTW, i was not generalising about the supporters, thankfully there are still many non 'hot headed' people who do know what they are talking about and i'm sorry if i offended any of them anyhow


about the perfomance of my team.... pathetic ball handling, poor shooting... many times mentioned lack of pg's is... i mean, Gustas gives more assists to our rivals than to his teammates, now how 'nice' is that? i'm not questioning his spirit and will to fight, but he is simply incapable and because of this unimaginebly sad situation in our backcourt, our frontcourt cannot realise all of it's potential, which is mindblowing... the only good thing that i saw a few times is that we finally have something that can be called defence

i still hope something will change and we will go far enough, maybe not for winning medals (although i would like that too), but for guys like Kleiza, Jankunas, Kalnietis, Jasaitis (and Seibutis, Jomantas, Pocius, Maciulis, Janavicius, Gecevicius, Andriuskevicius, Skurdauskas, Cepukaitis or some other of our countless talents in coming championships) gaining the priceless experiance for that the hattrick of gold's of 2010-2012 in Turkey, Lithuania and London would be ours (your weak if your not aiming for the highiest spots )
________
CALIFORNIA MEDICAL MARIJUANA DISPENSARIES

[Akis]

Lithuanian team lucks of a pg. Not at level of Saras but there isnt even a decent pg and that makes whole team work bad. Also coach is really bad. Why did he keep in game Javtokas having 4 fouls so much time waiting him to commitee his last? I really didnt understand it. The miss of Javtokas was not so important as he didnt help but keeping him having 4 fouls in third period he was just not defending and Greek players got advantage.
Greek team was bad too. Of course Greek players are more defense oriented players and very few can be considered as good offensive players but is really amazing to see them loosing so many free throws (not just in this game) and plenty of open shots. I dont expect them to shoot like Macijauskas but to have 50% in wide open shots is normal and they shoot much worse. I also believe that Schorchianitis should get more time and be a key player of team simply cause he can make the difference with his body. The purpose of Yiannakis was to cause foul trouble to Javtokas from the beginning of game. So when he did it shouldnt Greece use the power in paint that Schorchianitis could give?