Team GB vs. Slovenia

[johnharris85]

GB really threw this one away to be honest. I thought they looked good, they had the right idea pounding the ball inside. The coaching staff obviously had the team execute their plan and it was working well. GB showed they could come back from a big deficit, they showed they could stick with Slovenia.

In the first half their pick and roll defense was awful (Pops was at fault numerous times with late rotations into the key) and Slovenia's guards were getting into the paint with no pressure at all. In the second half the pick and roll defense really picked up (especially Pops, someone must have chewed him out at halftime) but Slovenia started nailing their threes.

Towards the end GB were just making basic ballhandling mistakes and loads of sloppy passes (especially into the post). Archibald was having to crane all over the place just to get a hand on some of the passes being lobbed to him.

GB's post work was solid which is a bonus going into the Spain game as everyone knows Pau Gasol is made of pipe cleaners. However Archibald and Betts have to stay out of foul trouble on the defensive end to have an effect on offense. Freeland and Clark criminally underused after excellent performances in the pre-tournament friendlies.

Guard-wise Lenzly was smart on a couple of plays and Reinking regained his shooting touch. Boyd played pretty well and exerted some good pressure defense in the 3/4 court (while being continuously confused with Reinking by the commentators).

Pops was excellent on offense and really drove the team forward. Didn't seem to run out of steam like the rest of the team did (as a result of NBA conditioning I guess) and was efficient at getting to the rim. On defense, ick. Thought it was fine to sit on the weakside and then leap across the key for comical block attempts (which resulted in fouls) for the first half. Much improved his D in the second half and was excellent defending the pick and roll with rapid rotation to the middle. Gambled a bit on passes and blocks a bit too much for me but half an inch the other way and he might have picked up some real morale-boosting plays on the break.

I live-blogged the game on my site (Live Blog: Team GB vs. Slovenia | Coach Harris Basketball) and will be doing the same for the Spain and Serbia games.

[Sam Neter]

Thanks for the write up John. Pissed I missed the game as ended up working late, but am gonnna try and watch it online somewhere.

Seems though GB suffered from same problems they always have-a lack of strong guard play, leading to sloppy basketball with too many turnovers

[johnharris85]

Here's a link to the download:

BBALLVIDEOS - Coverage Of The 2009 Eurobasket: Eurobasket 2009: Great Britain - Slovenia

Slovenia look a good team now I've watched a couple more their games. Lithuania just got demolished by them as Slovenia hit 50% from outside!

[Iceman778]

it seem so...............