Nobody was cheering harder for Canada in today’s Olympic matchup than the Greek basketball team. After defeating Australia this morning, Greece needed a Canadian victory over Spain to have an opportunity to advance out of pool play. Canada improved to 3-0 with an 88-85 win, leaving three teams tied at 1-2 in Group A. Under the Olympic tie-breakers, Australia finishes second, with Greece third and Spain eliminated at fourth.
Greece’s fate still hasn’t been decided, explains Eric Nemh of The Athletic. There are several scenarios that could still work in their favor, but the easiest is for Serbia to defeat South Sudan by at least three points on Saturday in the final game of pool competition.
Giannis Antetokounmpo led the way for Greece again today with 20 points, seven rebounds and six assists. Although Antetokounmpo has been brilliant throughout the tournament, teammate Thomas Walkup told BasketNews that Greece shouldn’t be viewed as a one-man team.
“He [Giannis] would say the same thing — it doesn’t really matter,” Walkup said. “We win as a team, we lose as a team. You know, this Australia versus Giannis isn’t how it is for us.”
There’s more from the Olympics:
- Spain’s loss ends the long international career of Rudy Fernandez, who was playing in his fifth Olympics. The 39-year-old has three Olympic medals and is a two-time FIBA World Cup champion. “Being so competitive, being so committed to this team. It was no matter his health or how his personal situation was. He was always there,” Spain coach Sergio Scariolo said in a separate BasketNews story. “That’s a great example for his teammates here in this team, for the ones who are coming after him and, for sure, for players from all over the world because not everybody can have the jumping ability, the skills, the talent, or the size, but everybody should try. I would say not everybody can have a talent, for sure, but at least they should try to look at this example and see that there is a kind of room for compensating different liabilities or flows with a superior mental and emotional effort.”
- Spanish teammate Lorenzo Brown doesn’t consider his Olympic career to be over, even though he’ll be close to 38 by the 2028 Games, per Donatas Urbonas of BasketNews (Twitter link). “No way, no way, man,” said Brown, who played five NBA seasons before continuing his career internationally. “I want to get back to the Olympics and give it another shot at it.”
- Lakers forward Rui Hachimura wasn’t available for Japan’s final game on Friday due to an injured left calf, writes Kyle Hightower of The Associated Press. Hachimura left the team after an MRI confirmed an injury to his gastrocnemius muscle.
RJ is playing great in the Olympics. Did the Knicks give up on him, too soon? Any regrets with the trade for OG? What are Knicks fans opinions?
Not a Knicks fan, although I follow the team closely enough to have an opinion. The thing with RJ is he still wouldn’t have been a great fit with this Knicks roster, whereas he’s a good fit for the style of play of the rebuilding Raptors employ. Meanwhile, OG is as good as fit as you could have possibly asked for and elevated the team a notch. I don’t think there are any regrets there.
To me, the bigger loss was Quickley, although I get why the Knicks chose to move him when they did given the extension he was going to need. Good defender, can play on or off the ball, has become a reliable shooter, and his on/off splits were fantastic. You just knew he was going to blossom elsewhere.
He doesnt fit the Knicks playstyle
I wish they still had the setup with two six-team groups where they played 5 games. Feels so much shorter now and doesn’t allow some teams to heat up. Understand why they do it but gives us more interesting match ups with the old system.
Agreed. Three games are not enough, and points differential is just stupid, even more so between teams in different groups against different opponents (Greece waiting on how many points South Sudan loses by, etc). Or Spain either winning their group or finishing fourth decided by a couple of points in the last minute.
Two groups, play five, more interesting matchups (right now Team USA likely making the semis by playing Serbia, South Sudan, Puerto Rico and Brazil, so can get a gold by only facing two between Canada, Germany, France, Australia, Greece – and not even that if they play Serbia again), top four in each go ahead. It is becoming as poor as football: look at the recent Euros or the next World Cup. Hopefully they will never replace overtime with a free throws contest.