The first day of the FIBA EuroBasket to decide the top team in Europe tipped-off yesterday in Slovenia as Spain looks to win their third consecutive gold in the annual event. There were some upsets yesterday, and we’ve got the top five plays from the first day since NBA training camps are still more than four weeks away.
First, a caveat to these highlights. They’re not on par with the NBA’s athleticism, so hold the snark.
The German team missing star Dirk Nowitzki, beat a France team that had NBA star Tony Parker and Spurs teammate Boris Diaw. Parker had 18 in the loss. Finland upset a Turkey team many considered to be one of the best in the world with Omer Asik, Hedo Turkoglu and Ersan Ilyasova, but all three struggled from the field in the loss.
Great Britain beat Israel despite missing Bulls star Luol Deng; Georgia — featuring NBA big man Marcin Gortat — beat Poland substantially; Montenegro beat Macedonia by one in overtime despite American Bo McCalebb scoring 23 points in the loss; Spain beat up on Croatia despite limited minutes for Ricky Rubio and Marc Gasol.
Here are the rest of the scores from day 1:
Latvia 86 – Bosnia and Herzegovina 75
Italy 76 – Russia 69
Ukraine 58 – Belgium 57
Slovenia 62 – Czech Republic 60
Germany 80 – France 74
Greece 79 – Sweden 51
Serbia 63 – Lithuania 56
[h/t PBT]
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