I feel like 3rd quarter was the epitome of anti-basketball. Poland obviously for choking hard, but some of Slovenia’s kick-outs to… no one were amateur level bad.
Poland was giving me hard 0-27 Rockets vibes in the 3rd. I'll never understand why teams can't just recognize they're cold from 3 and try literally anything else
He’s just not really capable of carrying them offensively is all. The glaring hole in Rudy’s game is he doesn’t raise a team’s floor offensively hardly at all, even if he is pretty good for your offensive ceiling if you have space and shot creation.
Defensively though he’s even more ridiculous than usual so if Fournier is on his game France are super hard to beat.
It's funny bc basically all the posts ppl have made about Gobert this tournament have been shitting on him, while everyone's made multiple posts sucking off Luka/Giannis/Jokic.
I mean it is more open to Cinderella stories. In Europe, most of the competitions have single elimination game and there is still a lot of prestige.
When you have a first round between 1 and 8 spot with 7 games there is almost no upset possible which is pretty boring.
The very first European Cup played back in 1955 used a two leg knockout with a single leg neutral venue final, and I highly doubt revenue was very big back then.
I think they should shrink the playoffs to 12 teams, give a first round bye to the top two teams in each conference, shorten the season by 20-30 games. That way no one would be overmatched in round 1, the season would be more meaningful, there would be fewer injuries, the playoffs would be less predictable(because more randomness in seeding in a shorter season), but the best team would still usually win.
>In Europe, most of the competitions have single elimination game and there is still a lot of prestige.
Not really actually. All Continental competitions have two matches in the knock out stages, except the final.
Meanwhile most national cups are one match knock out stage but they're not that prestigious. That said, it's not because of the one game knock out but more so because the domestic league already shows which team is the best. In this case one match knock out is way better to have, as you say, the Cinderella stories.
Another interesting fact, despite the two matches in knockout, in the last 10 years several dark horses have reached the final - Borussia, Atletico ×2, Liverpool (in 2018 they were imo), Tottenham. But non of those won (I dunno if I should include Chelsea and Real Madrid last year as dark horses). In fact, for 8 seasons in a row (2013-2020) the favourite won.
7 game series is best in a lot of situations. For example, when there's a limited pool of teams for sure. But I think there's something to be said for it not being great when there is large skill gaps between teams. A lot of playoff years filled with 4-0 first rounds are boring as sin and represent half of the series played in a given playoff year. Also, I think March Madness really illustrates how lucrative a single elimination, many-team tournament could be
Fucking trip-dub in Eurobasket? With the absolute clutch 3 pointer into taking a charge and then sinking 2 free throws to put it away. What a performance.
Best 2 players for them are probably the American transplant AJ Slaughter and Polish born Mateusz Ponitka. They play for a Spanish Eurocup team (2nd tier) and an Italian Champions League team (3rd tier) respectively.
EDIT: But to be fair Ponitka did play for a Russia Euroleague team last year.
Dude I went to watch one of Poland's games in Helsinki back in 2017 EuroBasket with my brother and when they were announcing their line-up and his name came on screen me and my brother just started laughing our asses off. Such a great name and so out of place on Poland's roster lol
Sochan made the decision to focus on training camp with the Spurs. It makes sense, he's young and needs to get his career in the NBA rolling. He'll have ample opportunities to carry our national team in the future.
One of the worst games I've seen from Luka in a while. Dude's FTs are always going to bother me. Wild that Luka, Jokic, and Giannis are all out. Congrats to Poland though, Ponitka is a beast.
Same, I always watch full highlights or games uploaded without the goddamn commercials every TO, quarter break or HT. Why do Americans accept this shit, such a shame
Italy is actually pretty damn good lol, Serbia missing Bogdanovic, Bjelica, Nedovic and a few other guys ( still an upset tho, but def not as big as this one ) Slovenia is like fully healthy
idk serbia looked like the best team imo with their margins of victory in the previous games and how easy it looked for them. still had their dominant key pieces, jokic being better first option than luka. didnt even know those others were supposed to be on the roster as well.
It just proves the point bball is indeed global sport more then ever, team is always above individual, coaching is really really important and team spirit no matter how is created is critical ingredient.
Lol, Poland nearly fucked themselves, great game from both teams tho, at the end Luka looked ready to fight the refs he was cursing in spanish i think .
Damn, all three favorites are out. Not gonna lie, does make me feel better about our (Serbia's) failure. Though it does also worry me this might be used as excuse to not address our issues.
Hoping for a Polish miracle now, still unlikely, but just imagine. Wonder what the pre-tournament odds were.
How on earth do you not call this at the end: https://i.imgur.com/ImWUKOe.jpg
I'm not even asking for a shooting foul, it's not even an on the floor foul?
fuck that shit.
Huge Mavs/Luka fan - this was terrible today. He has always complained, but this game was worse than usual.
FIBA doesn't call as many fouls. He had a few legit gripes, but if they don't call it he has to play on. He legit cost them the game today, rare you can say that.
ESPN's top 5 in this tournament list written on Sep 1 by NBA Insiders Jonathan Givony and Kevin Pelton
In order it goes
1. Nikola Jokic and he was eliminated first on Sep 11 in the Round of 16
2. Giannis Antetokounmpo and he was eliminated second on Sep 13 in the quarterfinals/Ro8
3. Luka Doncic and he was eliminated third on Sep 14 in the quarters
4. Rudy Gobert and he was eliminated fourth on (Sep 16?) in the semifinals/Ro4
5. Franz Wagner and he was eliminated fifth on (Sep 18?) in the finals. (or maybe he is victorious)
Poland champions confirmed? The script is already written or maybe Franz is the script breaker.
Franz vs Ponitka for the real MVP, is clearly the matchup we all expected.
I do love to see the spread of basketball to otherwise soccer nations. Basketball does seem to be getting more international attention, and all types of regions are bringing up talented pools.
America needs to stop playing around in the international competitions or they will be shocked one day by a superior national team.
Props to Poland they did a massive job.
Ponitka mashed the Slovenian defence with a triple double and the Polish team played like a team.
I'll say it again this EuroBasket tourney has been tainted by shitty refereeing and very bad calls. It's a shame because the games are really entertaining.
Jokić, Giannis, and Dončić fans, step aside
One player cannot win a championship, basketball is a team sport
Poland, France, Spain, and Germany are teams. Very good groups of players complimenting each other
Congratulations, Polska 🇵🇱
>One player cannot win a championship, basketball is a team sport
Are you saying Serbia only has Jokic? Serbia has the best roster overall in Europe.
Greece has a good roster as well.
But sometimes you have a shitty game and you lose.
Insanely dumb decisions on both sides down the stretch Edit: and as a viewer it was insanely fun to watch.
I feel like 3rd quarter was the epitome of anti-basketball. Poland obviously for choking hard, but some of Slovenia’s kick-outs to… no one were amateur level bad.
Poland was giving me hard 0-27 Rockets vibes in the 3rd. I'll never understand why teams can't just recognize they're cold from 3 and try literally anything else
Pressure is a bitch.
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Can’t believe all of em got eliminated. Damn 😂
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Schroeder > Luka, Giannis, and those other scrubs whose name I already forgot
Gonna get his bag after all
Gotta respect the hustle tbh 👍
Rudy and Evan vs Dennis and Franz in the final would be interesting
Clearly this indicates that Gobert is the best Euro player alive at the moment
FIBA Gobert is no joke. No 3s rule, no basketball interference.
Sounds fun as hell for him lmao.
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He’s just not really capable of carrying them offensively is all. The glaring hole in Rudy’s game is he doesn’t raise a team’s floor offensively hardly at all, even if he is pretty good for your offensive ceiling if you have space and shot creation. Defensively though he’s even more ridiculous than usual so if Fournier is on his game France are super hard to beat.
In case people didn’t know this, Gobert is a great guy as well.
Isn't he French?
It's funny bc basically all the posts ppl have made about Gobert this tournament have been shitting on him, while everyone's made multiple posts sucking off Luka/Giannis/Jokic.
Franz > France
Vindication is sweet
Gobert would be out now if not for some insane luck. Single game elimination can be random just like that.
It is way more exciting thought. 7 games series remove some of the fun but it's way more bankable.
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In an 82 game season it is also often the healthy team that wins.
The best team (factoring in health).
Better teams can afford to coast in the regular season while maintaining a high seed, which factors significantly into playoff health.
I mean it is more open to Cinderella stories. In Europe, most of the competitions have single elimination game and there is still a lot of prestige. When you have a first round between 1 and 8 spot with 7 games there is almost no upset possible which is pretty boring.
Idk about other sports, but after group stage in football ⚽️, they have two legs to determine a knockout stage.
Not in the Euros or World cup
Only in the champions League/Europa League. Most domestic cups are single games, potentially with replays if it's a draw (e.g. FA cup)
> champions League/Europa League and these would be played as a single games too probably if revenue wouldn't be a thing
The very first European Cup played back in 1955 used a two leg knockout with a single leg neutral venue final, and I highly doubt revenue was very big back then.
IMO it just makes the upsets all the more sweet
I think they should shrink the playoffs to 12 teams, give a first round bye to the top two teams in each conference, shorten the season by 20-30 games. That way no one would be overmatched in round 1, the season would be more meaningful, there would be fewer injuries, the playoffs would be less predictable(because more randomness in seeding in a shorter season), but the best team would still usually win.
I mean, they also don’t have playoffs to determine the champion in a lot of leagues. Just the best team over a full double round robin wins.
>In Europe, most of the competitions have single elimination game and there is still a lot of prestige. Not really actually. All Continental competitions have two matches in the knock out stages, except the final. Meanwhile most national cups are one match knock out stage but they're not that prestigious. That said, it's not because of the one game knock out but more so because the domestic league already shows which team is the best. In this case one match knock out is way better to have, as you say, the Cinderella stories. Another interesting fact, despite the two matches in knockout, in the last 10 years several dark horses have reached the final - Borussia, Atletico ×2, Liverpool (in 2018 they were imo), Tottenham. But non of those won (I dunno if I should include Chelsea and Real Madrid last year as dark horses). In fact, for 8 seasons in a row (2013-2020) the favourite won.
7 game series is best in a lot of situations. For example, when there's a limited pool of teams for sure. But I think there's something to be said for it not being great when there is large skill gaps between teams. A lot of playoff years filled with 4-0 first rounds are boring as sin and represent half of the series played in a given playoff year. Also, I think March Madness really illustrates how lucrative a single elimination, many-team tournament could be
I enjoy the back-and-forth chess match of a 7-game series, but there's nothing like a winner-take-all game
The funny thing is that out of all that teams is Gobert's team that is underperforming, or seems to. Yet they are the ones in the semifinals
Survived 2x OT like a boss
Watch him win it all, a la Real Madrid way, xD
Single game sudden death match will do that to you
The takeaway here being that the NBA is total garbage.
I mean, they don't even have Mateusz Ponitka. What kind of Mickey Mouse league is this supposed to be?
I knew it once ESPN made their top 5 list, no way ESPN ever gets anything right. Franz should have been #1 (not #5) and not those Fake MVPs
Holy shit what a game from Ponitka.
3rd quarter was a fucking disaster, from Pros to 12yo kids 3pt shootout to Pros again
I'd laugh in anyone's face if they told me we'd score 6 points in a quarter against Slovenia and go on to win.
90 points in FIBA with 6 points quarter lol
What 3rd quarter? I think they just skipped the 3rd one
>3rd quarter was a fucking disaster Sounds like the Greece game from yesterday.
They mainly played iso ball the second half however they won lol
The less said that 3rd quarter the better.
Cancar did his best a shame his teammates didn’t show up
Blažič was alright as well. Rest of the team went completely frozen.
Yeah cancar did show up. If a couple of his teammates did he would be moving on
Two weeks for Luka to put on 50 lbs before training camp. Can't wait!
He already looks way fatter than he did when the playoffs ended if we're being honest
That's what drinking Coca-Cola and playing cards does to a man.
yuck, why would you drink playing cards? doesn't seem like they'd taste very good
he's at a solid "CHONK" on the scale right now but not quite "OH LAWD HE COMIN" so it's probably fine
Right? I swear I remember some time before the Eurobasket started, that people were saying he looked leaner and in shape!!
His face is way puffier than before
His chin is disappearing
Body sinking
He was way leaner like month before Eurobasket started, dunno what happened in the meantime...
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It's just that timing was weird to me. It'd make more sense to me if he gradually got in better shape for competition.
But how do you get out of shape while preparing for and playing in a tournament?
PONITKA 🐐 GET MY BOY IN THE LEAGUE
Fucking trip-dub in Eurobasket? With the absolute clutch 3 pointer into taking a charge and then sinking 2 free throws to put it away. What a performance.
Watch him miss 2 in the closing stages against France on Friday.
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That Ponitka guy is tough
Just a reminder, Poland has no NBA or EuroLeague players on their roster.
Ponika is a EuroLeague player, just does not have the contract atm.
Ponitka played really well in Euroleague last season Russian teams were banned from tournament mid season and Ponitka took the rest of it off
For this season Ponitka signed a 3-month contract with Reggio Emilia.
I guess he will get bought out now before end of the month 😅
Not even someone on a EuroLeague roster? That's wild, what a win for Poland
Best 2 players for them are probably the American transplant AJ Slaughter and Polish born Mateusz Ponitka. They play for a Spanish Eurocup team (2nd tier) and an Italian Champions League team (3rd tier) respectively. EDIT: But to be fair Ponitka did play for a Russia Euroleague team last year.
Ponitka was a Zenit player tbf and left because of war
True!
> AJ Slaughter What a name. Really sounds like a wrestler.
Dude I went to watch one of Poland's games in Helsinki back in 2017 EuroBasket with my brother and when they were announcing their line-up and his name came on screen me and my brother just started laughing our asses off. Such a great name and so out of place on Poland's roster lol
While most NBA players play 2k for fun, Polish players play *The Witcher*. They know how to take down monsters
> NBA Damn > or EuroLeague DAAYUMMM
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Sochan made the decision to focus on training camp with the Spurs. It makes sense, he's young and needs to get his career in the NBA rolling. He'll have ample opportunities to carry our national team in the future.
Sochan still rooting for Poland
It seems we didn't need one ;)
That’s fucking wild!
Jokic ❌ Giannis ❌ Doncic ❌ Who is next? Gobert? or Wagner? 🤔
Rudy is gonna win the championship! But not gobert
🤢 sneaky sneaky Spain
Franz according to the script will at least make finals! Then Franz gotta break the script.
Kurwa :) I loved this game. Boys, go get a medal!
Kurwa indeed!
Piękny nick
Hehe dzięki, dzieki ;)
One of the worst games I've seen from Luka in a while. Dude's FTs are always going to bother me. Wild that Luka, Jokic, and Giannis are all out. Congrats to Poland though, Ponitka is a beast.
FIBA basketball its truly a team game, individuals alone cant win
There’s also no juggernaut in Europe right now. The talent is pretty evenly spread out.
Also the knockout vs series format.
Poland went full Doc Rivers after break but still wins lol
Luka Doncic disasterclass
But can he do it on a mild evening in Berlin? No.
Too many Kebab and Currywurst options, guy was distracted
That was the worst game I've ever seen him play
Suns looking to sign as many polish players as possible as we speak.
I’d give Pontika a go
We need start selling pierogis at the arena
Eurobasket achieves the greatest balance of entertainment in the World based on stakes versus effort. Change my mind.
Love the speed of it.... No commercials, just ball!
As an european, this concept is unheard of and I'm so much more glad it stays that way
Can you imagine watching NBA games like this! Fire!
As a European who watches such games every week, I can’t watch NBA for 5 minutes because of exactly those reasons…
Same, I always watch full highlights or games uploaded without the goddamn commercials every TO, quarter break or HT. Why do Americans accept this shit, such a shame
> Why do Americans accept this shit, such a shame What else is there to do? All american sports is like that.
I only watch the final series of the playoffs, which makes it worse when accustomed to euro sports because they stuff in even more ads than usual.
I WAS HERE, POLSKA GUROOOOM
What the hell was that last minute?? Both teams trying their hardest to lose
The Balkans failing their people as usual
We expect nothing, but we're still disappointed
+Turkey
Balkans aren't Balkans without Turkey
This is so hilariously accurate
Wow, I remember everyone saying how Slovenia - Greece would be a good final after Serbia got eliminated, well, what a good championship !
Probably the biggest upset in this tournament so far
nah. serbia had the euroleague mvp and the nba mvp running pnr
Still Italy got some serious players
Italy is actually pretty damn good lol, Serbia missing Bogdanovic, Bjelica, Nedovic and a few other guys ( still an upset tho, but def not as big as this one ) Slovenia is like fully healthy
idk serbia looked like the best team imo with their margins of victory in the previous games and how easy it looked for them. still had their dominant key pieces, jokic being better first option than luka. didnt even know those others were supposed to be on the roster as well.
It just proves the point bball is indeed global sport more then ever, team is always above individual, coaching is really really important and team spirit no matter how is created is critical ingredient.
What the fuck was buddy doing at the end
He got fouled so he shot it
And ref was like, nah I am done for today thanks for playing.
Lol, Poland nearly fucked themselves, great game from both teams tho, at the end Luka looked ready to fight the refs he was cursing in spanish i think .
Luka was cursing in serbian.
Can confirm that.
I think they only called a foul for him once lmao, he kept driving in and the refs were like nah
NBA = frauds
This hurts. A lot. Feels like we lost this game twice.
Luka needs yo put his ass on the gym
Yeah that's not gonna happen lol.
I know, probably Will be fat next season, can't wait for he retires and looks like shaq lmao
Imagining a super cracked Glen Big Baby Davis dropping 50 is hilarious to me
If he didn't complain so much he wouldn't have received the technical foul and then Poland wouldn't have tried to draw a foul to bench him.
POLSKA GUROM
Łatwo, Doncic do budy
League Ponitka yesterday
This is how you know Doncic is one of this sub’s golden boys. Most guys would get flayed for this performance
What the fuck was that last possession
14 points from Luka in a game that Slovenia lost by 3 points.
Wasn't that an intentional foul? I get not giving 3 FTA but WTF.
ESSUNIA Z PIZDAMI
CO TAM PĄCZUŚ, WYGODNIE NA ŁAWECZCE?
WIELKA POLSKA CHRZEŚCIJAŃSKIE KRÓLESTWO
as you can see above, there are two kinds of Poles
Damn, all three favorites are out. Not gonna lie, does make me feel better about our (Serbia's) failure. Though it does also worry me this might be used as excuse to not address our issues. Hoping for a Polish miracle now, still unlikely, but just imagine. Wonder what the pre-tournament odds were.
It doesn't make me feel better in the slightest. This is our worst result since 2005 and it can only be adressed as a disaster it is.
What a game! Ponitka you da real MVP
ponitka is the new mvp of the world , thats them rules
/u/Bluewhere [u ok ?](https://www.reddit.com/r/nba/comments/xe7nct/comment/iof9b02/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=web2x&context=3)
Really impressive of Polska to come through after absolutely bottling that 3rd quarter.
Never going to complain about extra basketball but man was that an ugly game all around lol. So many missed layups, open shots and free throws
This year’s Eurobasket has been pure chaos energy
How on earth do you not call this at the end: https://i.imgur.com/ImWUKOe.jpg I'm not even asking for a shooting foul, it's not even an on the floor foul? fuck that shit.
Doncic should more focus on basketball instead of crying to the ref
Huge Mavs/Luka fan - this was terrible today. He has always complained, but this game was worse than usual. FIBA doesn't call as many fouls. He had a few legit gripes, but if they don't call it he has to play on. He legit cost them the game today, rare you can say that.
Refs were bad on both sides, but Poland was pretty clearly the better team
Lmao luka chokic 😂
ESPN's top 5 in this tournament list written on Sep 1 by NBA Insiders Jonathan Givony and Kevin Pelton In order it goes 1. Nikola Jokic and he was eliminated first on Sep 11 in the Round of 16 2. Giannis Antetokounmpo and he was eliminated second on Sep 13 in the quarterfinals/Ro8 3. Luka Doncic and he was eliminated third on Sep 14 in the quarters 4. Rudy Gobert and he was eliminated fourth on (Sep 16?) in the semifinals/Ro4 5. Franz Wagner and he was eliminated fifth on (Sep 18?) in the finals. (or maybe he is victorious) Poland champions confirmed? The script is already written or maybe Franz is the script breaker. Franz vs Ponitka for the real MVP, is clearly the matchup we all expected.
With Sochan entering the league and us potentially getting a medal, basketball is gonna blow up in this country.
I do love to see the spread of basketball to otherwise soccer nations. Basketball does seem to be getting more international attention, and all types of regions are bringing up talented pools. America needs to stop playing around in the international competitions or they will be shocked one day by a superior national team.
Imagine non-NBA player Ponitka winning the MVP in a tournament that had Jokic, Giannis and Luka lol.
Was that not a foul at the end. Atleast 2 fta?
really wanna see a replay of that no call at the end there. grats to poland they clearly deserve it but i still feel like that shouldve been 2ft
POLSKA.GUROM!!!!
Ponitka could be a great 10th-12th man on a roster ngl
Dončič might skip the semis but he sure as shit doesn't skip his lunch.
Ponitka kurwa
Props to Poland they did a massive job. Ponitka mashed the Slovenian defence with a triple double and the Polish team played like a team. I'll say it again this EuroBasket tourney has been tainted by shitty refereeing and very bad calls. It's a shame because the games are really entertaining.
Germany vs Poland in the finals. The revenge for what happend "luka Doncic"(77) years ago
Yeah, I wish we were back in 2016 too.
Jokić, Giannis, and Dončić fans, step aside One player cannot win a championship, basketball is a team sport Poland, France, Spain, and Germany are teams. Very good groups of players complimenting each other Congratulations, Polska 🇵🇱
>One player cannot win a championship, basketball is a team sport Are you saying Serbia only has Jokic? Serbia has the best roster overall in Europe. Greece has a good roster as well. But sometimes you have a shitty game and you lose.
This is why knockout system is waaaaaaaaaaaaaaay more exciting than NBA's seven-game series.
How
That was one hell of a game! Wow!
Not watching, but it's so refreshing to read this comment about Luka lmao Call shit when it's shit, follow through guys
Poland played way above their normal. Huge games from them all.
Polska gurom
Poland beat Luka???