ImageGAME OF THE DAY: Spain versus Slovenia was a blast, but considering that I have not been talking about them a whole lot so far, I’ll go with the Turkish and Polish.


Poland has been playing extremely well so far, following an easy opening win over Bulgaria with the upset of Lithuania, based on the outstanding play of the big man duo Maciej Lampe/Marcin Gortat. Here comes Turkey, who have been rolling through the first round, relying on brilliant team play and the shot-making abilities of Hedo Turkoglu and Ersan Ilyasova.

After yesterday’s game, I’m willing to call the Turkish team a serious contender. They play a fluent, beautiful pick and roll offense, finally looking like a harmonic group, their big men can play the intelligent extra pass [which they did excessively yesterday], and, as mentioned, they have two star players that can carry them in tough situations but do not ask for the game too much throughout the course of a game. I was questioning their toughness before last evening’s game, but winning in front of an enthuastic home crowd against a dangerous Polish team proved that they are able to play under difficult circumstances.

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