Olympic Test Event

[John]

With the Olympic test tournament just around the corner, what are everyone's predictions for the event?

The six teams involved are:

Australia
Croatia
Serbia
GB
France
China

The field will surely present a tough test for GB as they (arguably) will be underdogs in the event.

Can you see GB picking up some big wins or struggling against proven European and World contenders?

[Sam]

Definitely will be a tough test for GB, but the kind of test necessary when you look at some of our other junior international teams' warm-up games.

What better preparation. Unfortunately I haven't seen any of the teams competing in recent times so really am a blank page as to who's going to be the stand out performers.

All I know is we're always the underdogs when it comes to anything basketball related lol.

[Matt]

I think we will be competitive but these are some tough opponents. All five teams are Olympic standard so winning just one game would be an achievement. China and Croatia are probably the most winnable games.

I'd say Serbia will be the strongest team, they have Milos Teodosic who is one of the best players outside the NBA, and a lot of depth. Fourth in the worlds and runners-up in Poland, so they certainly have the pedigree.

[John]

Agree Matt, Teodosic is siiiiiiiiiiick. They should have been in the final last year as well. Tunceri (I think?) stepped out-of-bounds as he drove for the winning layup in the semi!

[Matt]

Originally Posted by John

Agree Matt, Teodosic is siiiiiiiiiiick. They should have been in the final last year as well. Tunceri (I think?) stepped out-of-bounds as he drove for the winning layup in the semi!

Ah yeah, forgot about that. That game had one of the craziest finishes I've ever seen!

[Matt]

Some observations from yesterday:

The arena - it's great once you're sat down, but feels a bit strange going from outside to straight in the arena - there's no concourse level with snacks, bars etc like the O2. Only two food carts plus one selling alcohol and one selling coffee, all was predictably overpriced and had massive queues (I'm bringing my own food on Saturday now). Was a bit too cold in there and the sound from the PA was terrible, but hopefully they'll sort that out as the week goes on.

Other games - I missed China and Australia, but Croatia were very impressive in defeating Serbia. It wasn't a great game to watch though, lots of fouls called which gave it no flow at all.

France - very impressive indeed. They have so much talent, it's hard not to see them as a Eurobasket contender despite their form in past tournaments. Batum was everywhere, blocking shots, dunking, passing, hitting jumpers. France are definitely the most fun to watch of the four European teams, so make sure you check them out.

GB - the performance was better than the scoreline suggested. With Deng I think it would have been close.

Point guards - When the game started and Ogo was matched up with Tony Parker then the gulf in talent between the two teams fully dawned on me. Parker got Ogo into foul trouble early on and he struggled when France started to press late on. I'm hoping Lenzly can run the point once Deng comes back, he did it occasionally in this game and looked solid. Devon was maybe a little nervous, he made quite a few unforced turnovers off bad passes. I think I trust Lawrence more than him right now.

Joel - GB's best player. A monster on the boards and the catalyst for GB's late run with several great baskets - if he hadn't missed a layup which would've cut it to eight with four mins to go things could have been different. But definitely held his own against Noah and Turiaf, which was impressive.

Nate - Picked up where he left off last summer, hardly missing anything in the first half. France's defense limited his opportunities in the second, and there was one play towards the end where he should've taken a layup but instead gave up the ball to MBA (who missed) - that, along with Joel's missed layup, killed the momentum of the comeback.

Richards v MBA - I think this and Devon v Lawrence are the main undecideds in terms of who will make the squad. Before the game I had been leaning towards MBA, but I'd forgotten that Richards' main flaws (inexperience, decision-making) are also problems for MBA. Though he didn't score, Richards worked hard last night and played within himself, which was good to see. Right now I would take him over MBA as he's just more talented offensively, and his ball-handling skills make him useful for breaking the press.

Clark and Sullivan were both solid. Archibald didn't play much, and I can't remember much about Boateng's performance.

Johnson and Ekperigin sat this one out.

[Sam]

Pretty much agree with your thoughts.

Lawrence the find of the summer in my opinion. Solid again today, couple of forced shots but will benefit hugely from the experience. Held his own.

Arena was cold, audio on the PA thing was shit, and I'm told the food was poor. But all things I'm sure they are sorting for next year.

I think with Luol it would've been a lot closer (obviously). Take away Parker from France and it would've been a different story. Think we did well, and it's all a learning curve as Finch explained in the press conference after. The young guys need the experience. We can lose all these games as far as I'm concerned if we're going to learn from it and be a better team at Eurobasket as a result of it.

Australia-China game was terrible. Serbia Croatia I missed most of as I was making my BBC news debut haha

[bbcakes18]

hi all, anyone know where/how i can still get tickets for this weekend? thanks!

[Sam]

Originally Posted by bbcakes18

hi all, anyone know where/how i can still get tickets for this weekend? thanks!

I know someone selling a ticket for the game today, but that's it. There may still be some available for Sunday on ticketmaster.

[bbcakes18]

Originally Posted by Sam

I know someone selling a ticket for the game today, but that's it. There may still be some available for Sunday on ticketmaster.

Okay, do you know if they have 2? and how much?