Greece looking to improve
European champion Greece, still looking to hit top gear, meets world champion and host Spain in the first round of second-phase play at Eurobasket tonight. Both Greece and Spain go into the encounter eager to rebound from losses in the last round of first-phase play that cost them the top spots in their respective groups. In games played Wednesday, Greece lost 61-53 to Russia in Group A, while Spain’s 28-match unbeaten run was ended by the Croatia, Group B’s surprise winner, with an 85-84 score. Croatian shooting guard Marko Tomas sank a three-pointer with three seconds left, to finish with his side’s top score of 18 points. The top three sides from four groups move into two groups of six in the second phase, which starts in Madrid today, with the results from the first three days carrying over. Group E will consist of Russia, Croatia, Spain, Greece, Israel and Portugal. Group F comprises Lithuania, Slovenia, Germany, France, Italy and Turkey. Having already played against Group E’s Russia and Israel in the previous phase, Greece will now meet the group’s remainder, starting with Spain tonight, and followed by Croatia and Portugal. The top four teams from groups E and F will advance to the quarterfinals, when elimination play starts and takes Eurobasket to its end. Based on the results so far, Greece could probably secure its quarterfinal berth with just one win in its next three Group E games. Last time Greece met Spain, the Spaniards thrashed Greece 70-47 at last summer’s World Championship final. Overall, Spain has beaten Greece in eight of 12 encounters in the European championships. Greece has so far failed to achieve a fluid game at this tournament. An uneasy winner in two of its three games in the first phase, Greece has, as usual, performed solidly on defense, but the European champion has seemed indecisive in attack. Against Russia on Wednesday night, Greece ran into a brick wall called Andrei Kirilenko as they lost the battle for Group A’s top spot. The 2.09-meter Utah Jazz forward caught 17 rebounds and contributed 12 points to Russia’s win. «Our objective was to up the tempo. We did that in the first quarter but for the last two-and-a-half quarters, Greece set the pace. We had to make a great defensive effort to win the game,» Russia coach David Blatt said. Commenting on Spain’s unexpected defeat against Croatia, the host team’s coach Pepu Hernandez said the loss «wasn’t so important.» Spain’s Memphis Grizzlies center Pau Gasol likened the result to a wake-up call. In another surprise development, Serbia, an eight-time European champion between 1973 and 2001 when competing as part of the former Yugoslavia, was sent home early following an 87-83 loss against Israel. Serbia lost all three group games in the first phase. The side’s elimination, its earliest exit from the European Championship in 60 years, was described as a «disaster» by domestic media. Coach Zoran Slavnic offered his resignation. Latvia, the Czech Republic, and Poland were also eliminated. (Kathimerini, Reuters)
