Eurobasket Quarter-Finals Day 2 Review
Andrei Kirilenko came up with a performance that the old AK47 would have been proud of
The tournament’s other quarter-final matches threw up about as many top individual performances as the first set. The games were closely fought and this was evident in Russia being the top scorers of the day with just 77 points. With those excuses made, here is a rundown of the day’s biggest news…
Andrei Kirilenko – Slow and steady is a phrase to describe the Russian forward’s play in the tournament; but yesterday was different. Kirilenko led his squad to victory with some fantastic numbers that included a double-double of 14 points and 11 rebounds, as well as 6 assists, 4 steals and 2 blocks. This is much more like the Kirilenko of old, something I alluded to in an earlier article. To highlight his defensive prowess in the tournament, he leads all players with an average of 2.9 steals-per-game.
Tony Parker – As ever the French point-guard came up with both the performance and statline that his team needed to lead them into the semi-finals. Parker finished with 18 points, 5 rebounds, 3 assists and 2 steals in the 64-56 victory over Greece. To evidence just how well the San Antonio Spurs player has done this tournament, he is in the top ten for the following categories:
- Points-per-game
- Assists
- Free-throws made
- Field-goals made
His averages are 21.6ppg, 4.5apg, 3.4rpg and 1.4spg. Find a better MVP candidate if you can.
Greece’s outside shooting – One of the key factors in Greece’s defeat was their apparent emotional attachment to shooting threes. For the contest the Greek players scored just 3-of-21 attempts – a woeful 14%. Had they seen this problem early in the game and decided to look inside more often, perhaps they’d be on their way to the semis.
Milos Teodosic – It’s self-indulgent to put Tedo in here after he finished with 9 turnovers against the Russians, but the truth is he had to force things to try and keep his side in the game. On a positive note he finished up with 20 points, 4 rebounds and 3 assists and was the only Serbian player to come out of the defeat with any real credibility. He finishes this Eurobasket campaign in second place for assists-per-game with an average of 6, as well as averages of 12.8ppg and 4.6rpg. If I’m an NBA GM, I’m doing all I can to look closely at whether he could be recruited for whatever semblance of a league there is this year.
