Use this topic to talk about preparation games and camps.
Lithuania NT announced their preparation for Eurobasket 2007 schedule.
Training camp in Palanga July 9-19
Training camp in Klaipėda July 21-27
Friendly game vs Sweden in Šiauliai July 27
Friendly game vs Sweden in Kaunas July 28
Training camp in Riga (Latvia) July 30 - August 3
Friendly competition in Riga (Latvia). Teams: Latvia, Lithuania, New Zealand, Slovenia August 4-6
Training camp in Druskininkai August 7-11
Friendly game vs Russia in Vilnius August 12
Training camp in Valencia (Spain) August 15-19
Friendly game vs Spain in Valencia (Spain) August 17-18
Akropolis competition (Athens, Greece) Teams: Greece, Italy, Lithuania, Slovenia August 20-24
Training camp in Vilnius August 26-30
Friendly games in Vilnius. Possible rivals: Latvia and Ukraine or Chimki Moscow and Unics Kazan August 29
Arrival to Palma de Mallorca (Spain) September 1
Eurobasket 2007 September 3-16
A game vs Spain and Akropolis competition will be very interesting.
Greece NT:
International Tournament in Frace:
10/08/2007: Greece - Slovenia
11/08/2007: Greece - Serbia
12/08/2007: Greece - France
21st International Acropolis Tournament (Athens):
20/08/2007: Greece - Italy
21/08/2007: Greece - Slovenia
22/08/2007: Greece - Lithuania
Friendly match in Italy (Varese):
31/08/2007: Italy - Greece
And ofcourse the friendly match in Athens on 30/06/07:
Greece - European Stars
Young Italians Win Adriatic Tournament
From
http://www.fibaeurope.com
Italy bounced back from a poor start to win the Adriatic tournament with an 88-78 victory against Croatia.
The Azzurri were second best in the first half and trailed 46-38 at the interval.
However, a much improved display saw Italy eventually clinch a morale-boosting success with Premiata Montegranaro's Giuliano Maresca top scoring with 19 points.
Coach Carlo Recalcati was displeased with his young team early on but praised them for the way they turned the game around.
He said: "We started badly but we were able to find our best form at the crucial moments.
"Then in the last quarter we really played some excellent basketball with great enthusiasm and great character."
Recalcati was delighted with the progress made by the players over the course of the event, adding: "To be honest I didn't think we would get such a great squad as this with only 10 days' training.
"This is a very young group but has so many talented players."
Recalcati singled out Daniel Hackett of the University of Southern California Trojans for special praise.
He said: "Daniel Hackett was the player who impressed me most. He is a very talented player showing great maturity despite his young age.
"I never thought he was ready to play the way I wanted."
Italians Fall To Aussies On China Tour
From
http://www.fibaeurope.com
By Cindy Garcia-Bennett, PA Sport
Italy lost for the first time this summer when they slipped up against Australia in Jiangmen City on Sunday.
The Azzurri had won the Adriatic Tournament and prevailed in their first two games on their tour of China over the hosts and Croatia before crashing to a 75-54 defeat to the Boomers.
"Australia played with a superior intensity to us," said Italy coach Carlo Recalcati.
"I am not trying to find excuses by any means, but the truth is we did not have lucidity in attack, having struggled on defense.
"We have found good shots but we have made mistakes. Overall, we fought, ran and worked harder than usual."
Australia led by just one after the opening quarter but stretched that to 33-25 by half-time.
By the end of the third period, they were in total command with a 55-39 advantage.
Tomas Ress had 10 points and Giuseppe Poeta eight in defeat.
It has not been all bad news for the Italians however on their trip through China.
On Thursday Chinese big man Wang Zhi Zhi, who played against Italy at the FIBA World Championship last year in Sapporo, had 30 points but it wasn't enough to lead the Asian giants to victory.
"Honestly, I had feared a soft approach to the game by my team," said Recalcati. "We had only been in China for two days. Instead, it has been the opposite.
"I think the key to the game was that our defense was very aggressive in the first half where we successfully held their center Wang Zhi Zhi and we managed to do that at the end of the game.
"China have changed the intensity of the game in the second half and has made life difficult for us. Then we reacted and we killed the game off."
Tomas Ress led the Italians with 20 points in the victory.
On Saturday, Italy faced Croatia for a third time this season and won 70-68 with Giuseppe Poeta's 15 points leading the Italians.
Some results of Lithuania:
Lithuania 62:69 Sweden
Latvia 84:83 Lithuania
Lithuania 94:81 New Zealand
Lithuania 96:90 Belarus
Last minute from a game vs Latvia
So far there are many things to improve. Even though there are some excuses for the poor performance. Head coach Ramunas Butautas promised that the game will get better in every game. We let to shoot way too much open 3-pointers. The offence is too slow. Players need more understanding.
I will go to a friendly game vs Russia on Sunday and I hope to see much better performance from Lithuania.
France 93:87 Serbia (after overtime)
France: Yakhouba Diawara 18, Ronny Turiaf 16, Florent Pietrusas 14, Aymeric Jeanneau 13, Cedric Ferchaud 10.
Serbia: Milanas Gurovi? 23, Nemanja Aleksandrov 14, Darko Mili?i? 13, Zoran Erceg 11.
Greece 54:65 Slovenia
Greece: Vassilis Spanoulis 15, Dimitris Diamantidis 8, Lazaros Papadopoulos 7.
Slovenia: Matjaz Smodis 11, Erazem Lorbek 10, Domen Lorbek 10, UroÃ
¡ Slokar 9.
France 55:74 Greece
Turkey 85:63 Australia
Slovenia 79:66 Serbia
Germany 70:64 Slovakia
Latvia 87:80 Russia
Lithuania 76:66 (16:11, 20:17, 23:14, 18:26) Russia
Lithuania: Jasikevičius 17, Songaila 17, Kaukėnas 15, Javtokas 7, Šiškauskas 7, Jasaitis 6, D.Lavrinovič 4, Kleiza 3.
Russia: Khryapa 28, Kirilenko 14, Monya 9, Morgunov 4, Pradius 4, Fridzon 4, Pashutin 2, Flis 1.
A great atmosphere. We were in control from the start. A shame we couldn't 20 points advantage and relaxed. Viktor Khryapa was on fire hitting 3-pointers like crazy. Lithuania looked much better compared to previous games. There is obviously much better team understanding. Attack were not stall and the ball was moving around the floor. The shooting was good. It's good that Rimantas Kaukėnas is back. He's kind of a player that we needed. He makes the offense even more dangerous. There still a room for improvement but it's good to see progress.
Spain 82 Portugal 65
(Rudy Fernández 16 pts, Felipe Reyes 13 pts + 8 rebs, JC Navarro 10 pts, Marc Gasol 9 pts + 9 rebs, Sergio RodrÃÂguez 8 pts, Pau Gasol 8 pts + 7 rebs | Filipe da Silva 17 pts + 5 assists + 4 rebs, João Santos 15 pts + 4 rebs, Ãâ°lvis Ãâ°vora 10 pts + 5 rebs, Francisco Jordão 10 pts, Carlos Andrade 6 pts)
Not bad of a game for Portugal, it still handled Spain for much of the game, but the last period was crucial.
Spain 95 Lithuania 75
(P. Gasol 19 pts + 7 rebs, Calderon 18 pts, Reyes 14 pts + 6 rebs, Navarro 11 pts, Fernandez 9 pts + 3 steals
| Jasikevičius 12 pts + 7 assists, Kaukėnas 12 pts, Songaila 11 pts, K. Lavrinovič 8 pts, Javtokas 7 pts + 6 rebs)
Jasikevičius
A trully disappointing ending. The first quarter was even. We had a good run in the 2nd quarter and had 10 points lead but then our game collapsed. The players looked lost. In the final quarter the players looked like they had no motivation and just let Spaniards to crush them
There are still many things that need to be improved. A result that doesn't reflect the game.
That shot by Šaras was really fantastic
Acropolis Competition
Slovenia 84:80 Italy
Greece 78:71 Lithuania
Yet another disappointing game for Lithuania. This time it was in Acropolis competition against Euro champs Greece. We made 22 turnovers! That's totally unacceptable. It reminded World Championships in Japan. Still we could have won but then the referees started their show. Lithuania were given 3 technical fouls in a friendly game! And I am not talking about other mistakes from the refs. I still don't understand is it Butautas' tactic to play slow or he just can't do anything about it. We can't play that kind of game. It fits other teams but no Lithuania. Greece play very tight defence and their offence is not that fast. If we start playing like that the players can't play to their potential. Then the turnovers start. All players are stall and not moving so it makes much easier to make steals for the opposite team. There were some good episodes (unfortunately only episodes) when we managed to play our own game. And immediately we got the lead and Greek players couldn't defend against us. The same happened in other games. That is our strength. As I said I can't understand why we don't play like that all the time like we did with Sireika. Kleiza is still far from his real ability. Kaukėnas was silent for almost all the game. Javtokas usually get some great passes from Jasikevičius. All he needs to do is dunk but no he waits till opposition players react and then tries to make a lay-up and of course he misses it. Šaras was working hard trying to make the team play faster but he can't do that alone. There were many his trademark passes but when other 4 players are standing still that passes give nothing since the ball stops in the hands of that player who receives it. An Gustas is a joke! Why is he still being called up for the NT?! He can't organise offence at all. It is hilarious when he tries to copy Jasikevičius' passes and obviously end up with a turnover. The team would benefit much more if we had some young point guard like Kalnietis, Prekevičius or Alijevas. I can't find any logical explanation for the inclusion of Gustas in the NT. To conclude I am getting more and more pessimistic about our chances in Eurobasket
Lithuania 87:72 Slovenia (24:14, 27:17, 24:22, 12:19)
A win finally. Though it wasn't very impressive performance from us neither from Slovenia. Still we played much better than yesterday. Despite that we couldn't avoid 19 turnovers. The good thing was that Lithuania were in control for all the time and didn't give Slovenia a chance to come too close. I hope that this will be a breaking point from which we'll start playing better and better. Kleiza still can't find his game. We will see if the same performance can be repeated against Italy tomorrow.
Lietuva: Robertas Javtokas 14, Rimantas Kaukėnas 14, Dariaus Songaila 12, Darjušas Lavrinovičius 10.
Slovenia: Matjaz Smodis 16, Erazem Lorbek 15, Goran Dragič 11.
Hey what's the matter with Javtokas? :p
(Aug 21, 2007, 10:58 pm)rikhardur Wrote: [ -> ]Hey what's the matter with Javtokas? :p
He had an exceptionally good game
If only he could do that more frequently.
Greece 72:62 Italy
Greece: Nikos Hatzivretas 16, Vasillis Spanoulis 16, Lazaros Papadopoulos 9, Ioannis Bourousis 7.
Italy: Angelo Gigli 11, Marco Belinelli 10, Matteo Soragna 10, Daniel Hackett 8, Giacomo Galanda 8.
Spain 77 Germany 61
(Navarro 18 pts, P. Gasol 13 pts + 7 rebs, Reyes 12 pts + 9 rebs | Nowitzki 14 pts + 6 rebs, Herber 8 pts, Femerling 5 pts + 8 rebs)
Spain win their 24th game in a row.
Spain are playing all their games at home and boosting their confidence before Eurobasket. At least it looks like that. So far they look very strong but we will see what happens when the real competition starts. I just hope we won't see any help from refs. I want it to be a fair game and the best team to win.
Greece 80:65 Slovenia
Lithuania 86:70 Italy
A good game again. Lithuania play fast like they did against Slovenia and the game is completely different compared to a match against Greece. It is the right direction that the team is moving at the moment. Kleiza finally scored some 3-pointers and I think it is a positive sign. He should control his emotions because some referees might accept his reaction to some of their decisions. There's only one friendly left for Lithuania. It will be against Lietuvos Rytas on the August 29th.
Lithuania: D.Songaila 17, R. Šiškauskas 16, L.Kleiza 15, R.Kaukėnas 12, K.Lavrinovičius 9, Š.Jasikevičius 7, J.Mačiulis 4, S.Jasaitis 4, R.Javtokas 2.
Italy: M.Bulleri 20, A.Gigli 15, A.Crosariol 9.
As the championships get ever-nearer, I get ever-more nervous.
But at least they're nerves of the positive kind. Anticipatory nerves. Instead of "failure is imminent" nerves.
Ah. Good to see the preparation is going well.
Efes Pilsen World Cup
Serbia 100:68 Poland
Serbia: Zoran Erceg 18, MiloÃ
¡ Teodosi? 15, Darko Mili?i? 15, Vut Radivojevi? 10, Milan Gurovi? 10.
Poland: Szymon Szewczyk 11, Lukasz Koszarek 9, Filip Dylewicz 8.
Croatia 102:80 Latvia
Croatia: Mario Kasun 19, Marko Popovi? 13, Zoran Planini? 12, Damir Markota 11.
Latvia: Sandis Valters 15, Armands Ã
 k?le 15, Kristaps Jani?enoks 12.
Bamberg Tournament
Germany 69:51 Portugal
Germany: Dirk Nowitzki 18, Ademola Okulaja 14, Damon Greene 11.
Portugal: Elvis Evora 12, Joao Santos 10, Paulo Cunha 6, Joao Gomes 6.
Italy 59:77 Russia
Italy: Stefano Mancinelli 10, Massimo Bulleri 10, Matteo Soragna 8, Angelo Gigli 8.
Russia: Andrey Kirilenko 12, Viktor Khryapa 12, Sergey Monya 11, John Robert Holden 10.
last games was so cracking 5th world team should play different 