London 2012 Olympic Basketball – Day 2

Despite pushing Brazil to the end, Great Britain suffered a heartbreaking 67-62 loss at the Olympic games on Tuesday afternoon.

Back to back clutch threes from Luol Deng put GB in front by one, 57-56, with 4 minutes to play, but Brazil’s Marcelinho Huertas controlled the game down the stretch being involved with 8 of Brazil’s last 10 points (2 points and 3 assists in last 4 minutes), as GB failed to execute.

The game has now been added to the growing and increasingly frustrating list of ‘almost-wins’ for GB. After the game a dejected Freeland found it hard to find the positives:

“We were a lot more solid on defence in the half court but still there is mistakes in there that need to be corrected and we need to do that quickly. There is only 3 more games, we’ve waited 6 years to be in this position and we’ve got to pull these out.”

Nate Reinking and Pops Mensah-Bonsu led GB with 13 points each, with Mensah-Bonsu also adding 12 rebounds. Luol Deng added 12 points, 8 rebounds and 7 assists, meeting Chris Finch’s request for him to be more of a facilitor after GB’s opening loss to Russia. Tiago Splitter had 21 points on 9/11 shooting to lead Brazil.

Box score.

To be updated throughout the day – for real time updates follow @Hoopsfix on Twitter and on the Facebook page.

Game 1
Russia beat China 73-54
Andrei Kirilenko has 16 points, 9 rebounds and 4 steals, Aleksey Shved 14 and 6 assists for Russia. Jianlian Yi has 16 to lead China as the only player in double figures.
Box score.

Game 2
Spain beat Australia 82-70.
Pau Gasol had 20 to lead Spain, Ingles & Newley with 12 each for Australia.
Box score.

Game 3
Lithuania  beat Nigeria 72-53.
Box score

Game 5
France beat Argentina 71-64.
Box score.

Game 6
USA beat Tunisia 110-63
Box score.

Notes

• Belinda Snell made her case for play of the Olympics yesterday with a crazy half court buzzer beater to send the game vs France into overtime.
• Russia’s Aleksey Shved is one of the biggest highlight reel players here, despite not being one of the high flyers. Always looking to make the flashy play.
• Serge Ibaka had a nasty alley oop followed by a poster a couple of possessions later against Australia. Gutted not to be filming this tournament!
• Mike Lenzly left the game after tweaking the same calf injury that made him a question mark for the games. It remains unclear how severe it is, but it is increasingly looking like Finch’s gamble isn’t paying off.
• Freeland, Reinking and Finch were all visibly frustrated talking to press after the games. There are no moral victories!
• Finch didn’t want to get into talking about referees in the press conference, but it was pretty evident he is not happy with the refereeing so far in the tournament.
• Tunisia showed they weren’t intimidated by the USA in their match up as overwhelming underdogs. It was actually USA’s second unit that got them going – how nice it must be to have a bench stronger than everyone else’s starting 5!
• USA brought a number of huge highlights against the Tunisians, including a big Iguodala putback, a LeBron James cock-back on the break and Anthony Davis catching lobs on everyone!
• As the days go on, it is becoming increasingly evident that the women’s games have bigger crowds than the men’s.
• Talking of crowds, it is also becoming increasingly evident that the crowd is made up of a majority of people who have never been to a basketball game in their life. As much as it pains me to watch videos explaining the rules and what a ‘slam dunk’ is, perhaps it is necessary for a crowd who would otherwise have no clue what is going on?

Let us know your thoughts on the games in the comments!