They are starting tonight the knockout games for the Olympic basketball tournament and let's see the first three of them (leaving the US game which is a special case) along with what each of 8 has done so far by putting in each match the odds set by the Bet365 which especially for these matches has lowered the rake by offering the attractive 1.95 in every two equidistant results.
4: 00m Russia - Lithuania (+ 7.0) 154.5 Points 1.29 - 3.70
The Lithuanians, as most of them expected, managed to qualify as 4 in the group, presenting huge ups and downs in their play performance. They broke against the Argentines by eating 102 points in the Premier League after having received almost half with the Nigerians reaching a relatively comfortable victory (in the "rematch" of the Premier League only then the match was like friendly), for 3 the fight fought against France losing after a battle, and then to make the Surprise of the Games struggling equally to equal Americans (they have created something like a tradition to go well against them) being the only team that has managed to be ahead of score after their half-time, but after personal actions of Lambert James to be finally defeated with 99-94. That's where everyone was expecting to break out in the last game with the weakest team in the league Tunisia found itself losing the longest time of the match, endangering even its qualifying in the next phase but in the last season it became serious and won the win-qualification. The Lithuanians, if they are in their day, can counter any opponent as they have proven, but this is not often the case. They have a big problem in the defense and close to the basket but also in the periphery while aggressively waiting for everything from Kleisa which is very unfortunate in the trio with just 3 / 15 so far. Pleasant surprise is Songla, being the 2 scorer of the team, while Valtzicunas is disappointed with an average of 4 points.
The Russians, on the other hand, finished at the top of the group after their dramatic victory with Fritzon's three-pointer in extinction in the match against Brazil and their dominance in the fight that he was showing he would judge the group's top with opponents of the Spaniards. The other games of the group were expected to be easy against the British and Chinese with whom they faced 2 early races, while yesterday in a totally indifferent game they were defeated by Australia with a basket on the expiration of Pat Mills. For the "bears" as we are accustomed to calling them the two "wolves" of the group (as they recently signed a contract and will fight with time in Minnesota) Kirilenko and Sved. The former teammates in CSKA are the A and Z while Kirilenko is the biggest threat to the rival baskets being at the same time 1 rebounder 1 thief and 1 blocker for his team while Sved excellent organizes the game by scoring it also when he finds corridors, or when he is free from the 3 line, and he is also the first in the assists to share more than 5 in each game. Flizzon (who almost won Spain himself) is near enough, while under the basket Mosgow and Kauen dominate. The only black point of the Russians is their failure in the shooting and Monia's performance, which is from moderate to bad.
The two teams were confronted with friendly coaching skills before the Olympics, in which the Russians were relatively comfortable. The same is expected to happen today as there is a big difference near the basket with the Lithuanians not having the "heavy bodies" standing against Kirilenko, Mogov and Kauun, and they are expected to face problems in defense and attack. Also, the Lithuanians are expected to make a lot of mistakes towards the Russians who are stolen (especially something "magical" passages of Yaskevitsius are doubtful if they end up where Saras will want), their rates will hardly be at a high level against the tough defense of the Russians and their only hope is to put enough triplets themselves, to pick up many aggressive rebounds and miss the Russians many shots. The "ace" on its own is of no particular value, the handicap at 8 points is somewhat "odd" and the 155 points are judged by many, and the criticality of the match is expected to keep the score relatively low compared to the match.
6: 15m France (+ 6.0) - Spain 151.5 Points 3.25 - 1.36
After the defeat of the US against the US, the French managed to win all the other matches of the group, demonstrating that they were rightly counted as the third favorite of the tournament (together with Argentina) by the bookmakers. Especially in the match against Argentina the odds were against them but despite the failure of Tony Parker they won the victory by plumping the attack by having 5 players with a two-digit number of points. In the next match, winning with a break in the 3 season, the Lithuanians having the duo Parker Batum on a great day basically cleaned 2's position to maintain forces in the last 2 match against Nigeria and Tunisia. Despite the absence of Law, the tricolor appears strong enough in the racket with Turiaff and Seraphen, Dio makes a very quiet job on the parquet both in the rebounds and the assists while scoring is the case of Parker and Batum. The one who has not achieved the expected is De Colo who, besides mischievous, easily falls into several mistakes. The weakness of the French is also their proportions in the shots, although these are essentially only generated by Turiaff who has 5 / 16 efforts.
The team that caused the biggest comments in the tournament is the Spanish theoretically the second favorite. Once again they are not impressed during the first phase. In the premiere, the Chinese won harder than 97-80, while 82-70 won the next match and the victory against Australia. On the third game they beat the Brit in the mouth for just one point (thanks to the inability of their opponents to foul in the last seconds), showing that 1's occupation of the position was not so easy. This was confirmed in the match against the Russians who despite their amazing start with 20-2 and keeping Sved unpinned and Kirilenko at 8 points were eventually defeated with 74-77. Then the match with Brazil will determine who will finish at 2, but also leads to a semi-final against the USA afterwards. The rumors that they would not "beat" the game were confirmed, although they had the lead in 3 first bouts in the last made mistakes and misplaced shots in a way that did not show that they "give" the game (it was foreclosed by 4 badminton for deliberately reduced performance) so that 3s end up and hope they will meet the Americans in the final. In general, they have not shown a good image despite their dominance under the baskets (3's first top scorers are the 3 of the center, Gassol brothers and Ibaka!) And the many attacks they win with aggressive rebounds. Disappointing so far, the San Emeterio despite sizable playing time while the Scariolo few uses Klaver who will struggle time in the NBA.
France is poorly presented as such a big outsider based on the image shown by the two teams. Of course the last 365 calendar days has 5 defeats in respective games against today's opponents. An unbeatable factor that can make a difference is Navarro's performance, which slowly gets involved in his efforts. He was also the top player in the final that gave the title of European champion to Spaniards against the French last year with 27 points. 152 points set as a limit again seem high for such a crucial game that defense will play a very big role.
10: 00m Brazil (+ 3.5) - Argentina 159 Points 2.50 - 1.58
Brazil would probably not even expect it would end up in 2's position in the group, although it has good units and it does not work as well as a whole. At the premiere, he played a tough victory against the Australians, and it was difficult to prevail against Great Britain. After a comfortable victory against the Chinese team, he was defeated by the Russians with the three-pointer at Fritzon's exhilaration to follow the "strange" match with the Spaniards that we mentioned above. Its great weapon is the "triple" towers of Nene, Varechau and Splith with both of them playing parallel to the parquet and complementing each other beneath the basket. In the region dominates the first goal scorer of the Barbossa team and Houtier who organizes and scores at the same time. Generally, the Brazilians have only one defeat and they do not convincingly have chemistry as a team in an adventurous way. In addition to the five above mentioned, the other players who make up the roster seem helpless to actually help while there is a big gap in the "3" position with Giovanni being the only classic squadron and Maniano to try mostly 3 system short but the weak link is the bad guy in the Alex Garcia tournament. He has not offered the guys according to his class and Nene is also injured because of injuries because he did not fight in the "friendly" game with the Spaniards even though he can not play tonight.
On the other side Argentina, although 3 in the group impressed with its special appearances against the USA and Lithuania, and proved to be rightly considered one of the favorites to win a medal. It started impressively by dismantling the Lithuanians with Scola, Delfin and Ginobili to do what they wanted on the field but then landed abruptly after her defeat by the French who managed and held the score low as only Ginobili found ways to score. The other matches of the group were the defeat of the aggressive basketball team with the Olympic gold medalists in Athens, 2004 (when 3s in the group had finished) to score 92,93 and 97 points against Tunisia, Nigeria and the US respectively. In the last two games, Nocioni's performance has begun to rise so close and far from the basket, while 5 Argentine (with the future since he signed the Nick's summer) has been unknown to the NBA Prizioni. help being injured. The team's roster beyond the top five is also poor so if he wants to hope to win a medal, he must have a good day on three of his four stars at least hoping to help one of Gutierrez's bench. One only knows what to do is to shoot anchored off 6.25 line (with a strange style) while the other tries to help under the basket (John Tortoro's "save" paradoxically did a good game against the US ) usually without great success. The possible absence of Prizioni may not be particularly costly, since the one who organizes their game is in fact Ginobili who, with his speed and insight, finds easily empty corridors either for himself or for his teammates making the difference.
The big derby of Latin America is expected to be the most spectacular game of the quarter-finals. The Argentines are fairly favorites as they have a better team as a team, with Scola, Ginobili, Notsioni and Delfin staying in the stadium. Of course tonight, Scola will find Varechos opposite, while in the defense he will have to stop Splitser and Nene and his possible damage to foul can cost him. Also coach in Brazil is Argentine Manian who won the gold medal with his country 2004 and is well aware that he has to stop them individually but how to convince the Brazilians to play defense? Especially its peripherals that should stop Ginobili and the very good Delfino shooter with the latter being unstoppable if they get the first shot to try. 159 points may appear to be many at first glance, however, the aggressive nature of both teams promises great scoring, especially if they achieve a lot of three-pointers. The Brazilians are expected to win the battle under the baskets, especially in the field of rebounds (although they have fewer than average against their opponents) but are expected to pay for their defeat in both 2 and shots. The winner of this pair will only be hoping for the bronze medal, as he will face the semi-finals beyond the shockingly unpredictable with the US.
