TalkBasket.net will be covering events in Panevezys, Vilnius and then Kaunas. But, we haven’t forgotten about the other groups.
So, we present the Eurobasket hangover. Just in case you missed a score, or forgot what happened the night before – the Eurobasket hangover can help you out… until the group stage ends anyway.
Led by NBA Finals MVP, Dirk Nowitzki and Chris Kaman, Germany were the big winners of day one, with a 91-64 rout of Israel.
After a tight first quarter, the Germans pulled away in the latter stages of the second thanks to a 15-3 run. Israel never found their way back into the contest.
Nowitzki led all scorers with 25 points in his first game for the national side since 2007. Guy Pnini led the Israelis with 20 personal.
Serbia opened Group B with a comfortable 80-68 win over Italy, in a game that, again, was won in the second period.
Italy led after one, 18-10 – and looked settled in their return on the big stage – but they had no answer to the second quarter Serbian fight back, which poured in 25 points to Italy’s 11. Serbia maintained their lead throughout, and never looked in real danger.
Milos Teodosic led the 2009 silver medallists with 15, while Andrea Bargnani led all scorers with 22 in vain for Italy.
Latvia very nearly pulled off an upset against France, but in the end couldn’t finish the game out as the French came out 89-78 winners.
It was very much Tony Parker of France against Janis Blums of Latvia, and despite the latter winning the battle, Parker won the war. As Blums led all scorers with 32, Parker hit 31.
In a game where Latvia for the majority of the first quarter, France stormed back to lead, and look comfortable in the process. Latvia though, thanks to Blums pulled it to 72-70 until Nicholas Batum and Mickael Gelabale hit consecutive threes for the win.
