Great Britain’s basketball team returned to the Olympics for the first time since 1948 on Sunday, but suffered a heavy 95-75 loss at the hands of Russia.
Russia’s Aleksey Shved (16 points, 6 rebounds, 13 assists and 3 steals) and Andrei Kirilenko (35 points on 14/17 shooting) showed their class as they picked apart GB, who struggled under pressure in the back court with a lack of point guard play.
Luol Deng led GB with 26 points, and Pops Mensah-Bonsu added 22 points and 9 rebounds before fouling out.
GB will now look to bounce back on Tuesday as they face Brazil.
Other Games
Game 1
Nigeria beat Tunisia 60-56
Alade Aminu led Nigeria with 15 points and 9 rebounds, Ike Diogu had a 13 point, 10 rebound double double and Al-Farouq Aminu added 10 points and 9 rebounds. Tunisia were led by 18 points from Amine Rzig, whilst Macram Ben Romdhane had 12 points and 12 rebounds.
Game 2
Brazil beat Australia 75-71
Leandrinho Barbosa had 16 points for Brazil, and Marcelinho Huertas had 15 points and 10 assists. Patty Mills had 20 points and Joe Ingles 15 for Australia.
Box score.
Game 3
USA beat France 98-71.
Kevin Durant had 22 points and 9 rebounds to lead USA, with Kevin Love adding 14, Kobe Bryant 10, and LeBron James 9 points, 5 rebounds and 8 assists. Ali Traore and Tony Parker led France with 12 and 10 points respectively.
Box score.
Game 4
Spain beat China 97-81.
Pau Gasol had 21 points, 11 rebounds and 4 assists on 11/15 shooting, and Serge Ibaka had 17 points. Jianlian Yi was impressive for China with a 30 point, 12 rebound double double on 13/19 shooting.
Box score.
Game 6
Argentina beat Lithuania 102-79
Luis Scola had 32 points on 63% shooting from the field (12/19), Manu Ginobili had 21 points, 10 rebounds and 6 assists, whilst Carlos Delfino added 20. Lina Kleiza had 20 points to lead Lithuania.
Box score.
Quote of the Day
Argentina’s Luis Scola after the game against Lithuania:
“In this game I am emotional because in the Olympic Games every game is big, not like in the NBA or the EuroLeague where if you lose nothing could change for a day, a week or even a month. In the Olympic Games, one game can change everything.”
Notes
- GB starters: Nate Reinking, Luol Deng, Drew Sullivan, Pops Mensah-Bonsu & Joel Freeland.
- Interestingly, Luol Deng was listed as the captain on the box score.
- I said it on the Twitter feed a few times – but it was shocking how many empty seats there were throughout the day during the different games.
- The Lithuania-Argentina game was by far the loudest game of the day, with fans chanting/clapping/booing/screaming throughout the game – it was crazy!
- Amazing how much busier the press tribune got during the USA game, I can’t imagine how it is going to be during the semis and finals.
- Highlight of the day goes to Pau Gasol and his baseline reverse dunk all over China. There were a number of other nice plays, including a LeBron James spectacular no look dish to Carmelo Anthony for the score.
- Food in the Olympic park (as you’d expect) is extremely expensive – no better time to make pack lunches!
- GB’s lack of a point guard really shows. 14 first half turnovers, and a number of them were a result of bigs trying to handle the ball.
- Russia’s Aleksey Shved was spectacular to watch. Him and Andrei Kirilenko will be one of the best 1-2 punches in the tournament.
Did you catch any of the games? Thoughts?
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{ 20 comments… read them below or add one }
Sam – its actually Day 2 of the basketball – the women’s game normally features in Hoopsfix (if only from a GB perspective) so why not set your day count accordingly??
Because it is Day 1 of the men’s tournament which is what this post is covering…
The players certainly gave all they could, especially L.D. and Pops.
Not sure Russia were playing their best and will have to play much better if they want to get a medal
Very disappointed with the coaching considering the squad have been together now for some considerable time and have played many games together. It was difficult to see what the various offences were as it was with special plays, out of bounds plays etc. It would seem that very little consideration has been given to designing and executing offences with the strengths/weaknesses of players in mind.
Similar comment of the team defence.
Noticeable the diffence in attitude of spectators for the GB game as opposed to those for the Spain/China, Lithuania/Argentinia .
Another point on why I believe the offence is struggling: Our balance at times is awful, playing with a SG, Deng and 3 PF/C’s means our spacing is terrible, allowing teams (as Russia did very well) to just pack the paint and easily defend and penetration/cuts/interior play. Teams at this level obviusly do their homework. And GB often have 1-2 guys on the floor that you just dont have to play ‘honest’, Sullivan being a prime example.
With regard to the defence, I completely agree. To give up 95 points in a game that means as much as the game did last night is extremly dissapointing. And it was mainly lay ups. Russia got a lot in transition which was a result again of our poor execution of offence, but they had countless back door lay ups in the half court, which at this level is unacceptable. Sullivan in particular got caught out when he was on court. Even Deng, who I thought was fantastic last night, despite his shooting percentages he played his socks off (diving on the floor for loose balls…I could write an essay on how much respect I have for what Deng is doing for GB) got caught out by Kirilenko a few times.
I really hope GB can manage some wins in the pool stages, but I’m not holding my breath. The other teams will have seen our obvious weaknesses last night and will be planning accordinfly. There is only so long you can papaer over the cracks (no point guard) and it lasted about 5 minutes last night!
Yes, fortunate to be at both the morning and evening sessions. Thought the evening session was mostly fairly appreciative GB home fans until the game ended and people stripped off their jackets and pullovers to reveal that half of them were actually Lithuanian or Argentine. Quality game, hustle from the Lithuanians and finesse from Argentina, especially Ginobili. Agree with the comment about the empty seats – these were the best coutside seats along the line so a real shame they were so empty. GB defence not always of the right standard and you realise what a debt this team has to Deng and Pops, without whom we would never have qualified fornEurobasket and got here in the first place. Great day and can’t wait for more to come.
I found it a great experience to be at the GB game. Unfortunately it seems like the event was a bit much for most of the squad who played so passively in the first half, constantly looking for deng and stuggling to execute a press break, seriously sometimes they looked like an under 16 team where9 guys are just told to get the ball to the star guy.
Deng was working hard and you can’t fault his effort, but he was not the defensive force i was expecting, he was not pressuring Shved when he didn’t have the ball and he got caught ball watching on the weak side a number of times against kirilinko.
Hopefully the squad and coaching staff learn from the experience and give it their all against brazil
GB were made to look very poor with Shved and Kirilenko in sublime form. Can’t knock them for a lack of hustle but the organisation was horrible at times. We are weak at guard and Russia have showed everyone how to exploit it with snap presses, can’t help but think Van Oostrum could of done a better job getting the ball out to the halfcourt!
watching from home, I couldn’t help thinking exactly the same – if we’re going to get turned over by 20-30 points in a game, why not have taken a risk on DVO and given him a)the chance to prove himself and b)the experience of the Olympics in London – seems such a shame that such a talent isnt being given the chance to shine on a world stage… esp seeing as we know the potential he has!…
Please GB BBall – don’t be like the England football team! give the kids their chance to shine rather than waiting til all their spark and energy has faded!!…
Have to agree with the comments about poor coaching. Our offensive sets are appalling. Scratch that actually as they’re just non-existent! It’s like 5 guys who have never met, let alone played together. Terrible spacing, running round with no real clue, many times into the path of your own driving player but mostly just one pass and jack up a questionable shot. Truly, truly terrible. The team seems to have gotten worse since the European Championships.
gb’s guards need to learn how to handle the ball, and why the hell did clark keep carrying up the ball, the guards would pass to clark and he would loose it every time carrying it up, wouldnt they have thought of something by now to break a press, and where is our offence, there is no offence its all one on one stuff and players are scared to shoot, clark also playing soft, man up clark bloody man up!
The principal reason for the peformance of Team GB was down to poor coaching.
As has been mentioned, it was an almost impossibility to fathom out what offences were being used and I did not see one out of bounds play or any special situatiuon plays.
Luol and Deng could not have worked harder, but a game can not be won at this level of competition by just giving the ball to one of two players.
The strengths and weaknesses of the players are patently obvious, but the coaching seemed not to take any of these into account. (Unless see the previous paragraph)
On defence it was difficult to believe that this team had been together for so long. Where was the pressure, who boxed out, where was the help defence (in one case at least, a Russian layup was made by sailing past a GB player who was just looking at his man rather than the ball and who could quite easily have stepped in early enough to take a charge)? Where was the communication?
As to whether or not DVO should have been in the team, that question now is surely answered.
To deprive such a talented young man (who is “not quite yet NBA standard”, “plays with fearlesness”, “is used to playing at a high level” – quotes Coach Finch) the chance of not just a possible once in a lifetime opportunity, but an excellent opportunity to gain enormous experience for the future (who will come after this team has finished in the Olympics?) is very difficult to understand.
Let’s hope GB can improve in its next game – along with the coaching.
Apologies. Luol and Pops !!
Agree with a lot of the comments here, I couldnt see any offensive sets, but could see poor defense and point guard play. I would like to see Lawrence given licence to shoot the ball, which he clearly hasnt had and would also like to see Freeland get given the ball in the post more than twice in a game. Sorry to disagree but DVO wouldnt have made any difference (other than in the couldnt possibly be any worse scenario) there probably would have been alot more turnovers if he played. It looks like the problem is in the coaching not the choice of players (with a couple of exceptions)
I agree that Devon might not have made any difference, but that was not a reason for excluding him.
The experience he would have gained would have benefitted any future GB team.
Agreed coaching has been awful this year, Tim lewis has obviously not been scouting properlly
coachin can only be blamed to a certain extent….people have to get realistic…if they werent the host nation, gb wold never have qualified for the olympics (15th at eurobasket is not quite good enough) …if this wasnt a particularly weak version of the olympics i.e. teams like tunisia and china playing while serbia, greece, slovenia, italy, puerto rico, angola etc sit at home watching…gb would be out already…they are ranked 50th for a reason, they have no history or traditions in this sport, so they should show a bit of humility instead of thinking one great nba player is enough to medal in international fiba competition…i love deng and his skil set and attitude but he can’t do it alone…kirilenko held him to poor shooting last night…..
All very true. I realise we don’t have the talent to truly compete but its the lack of organisation that really hurts
Fair comment John
We shouldn’t be downhearted by losing to a Russia team that could well get a medal. But this team seems to have gone backwards over the past two years. From Eurobasket 2009 onwards the team obviously relied on Deng and Pops (and then Freeland emerged) rest of the team was limited but well-coached and we made the most of what we had. Even maintaining that level would have been great, but the team no longer plays as if it is well coached or cohesive. That is avoidable, and frustrating.
also, freeland has to step it up…with all respect to pops he is the second most talented player and has been maybe the best english player to play in the euroleague in the last decade…he needs the ball more down low…………….if russia had a good centre (kahn is a joke, mozgov not great) and a good back up point guard for svhed, i could see their IQ an anthleticism posing a problem for USA…theyy are much more athletic than spain, argentina and lithuania, maybe even brazil