Earlier in the contest – y’know, back when Spain enjoyed a comfortable-ish lead – Mantas Kalnietis totally stuns the inattentive Rubio on a trick play from inbounds, totally ‘Tubing Ricky. That’ll learn ‘im!

Y. also pointed out that BiE’d be remiss without a video shout-out to Jonas Mačiulis, whose play during the 14 minutes in which Lithuania turned a 61-43 Spanish slugfest into a 71-71 tie with 1:46 remaining was awesome.

The big man produced 11 of the 13 points he scored in the game during this run, with the bench once again coming to the rescue for Lithuania: Mačiulis, Kalnietis, and Martynas Pocius scored all but five of Lithuania’s points for the rest of the game after the 18-point bottoming out (bencher Martynas Andriuskevicius was good for one while Linas Kleiza contributed four points, including two free throws made to close the game).

So this one goes out by request. As YouTube poster MetalFro44 put it, this was Mačiulis’ “Dunk that completely changed the game and signaled that there was no way Lithuania would be denied the win.”

Indeed.

It wasn’t quite a mirror-image of their infamous opening game against Serbia in Eurobasket 2009, as Espana came out slick enough in the first quarter. In quarter two, however, the favorites showed that tendency surely now well feared by fans: namely, no team goes cold like Team Spain goes cold. On 3-for-11 shooting, Llull was just about completely ineffective when confronted with Ian Mahinmi (who really was a monster for Les Bleus) and Spain resorted to too many ill-advised jumpers.

Looks like we got ourselves a tournament! BallinEurope’s official Fearless Predictions™ for games two of the 2010 FIBA World Championship follow.

Group D
In yesterday’s Fearless Predictions™, BiE threw in a prognostication on Lebanon’s Fadi El Khatib leading the day’s scorers; while El Khatib was his usual bad self in going for 37 points against Canada, BiE now admits the oversight of Kiwi scoring machine Kirk Penney was egregious indeed. Lithuania coach Kestutis Kemzura appeared content to let Penney get his, but Spain’s bringing much better individual D from its guards. Is Spain in for another tight one, as in the 2009 Britain game? Nah. Spain redeems itself with an easy win over New Zealand.

As for Lithuania, the Green-and-Yellows weren’t as dominant as anticipated, but today BiE expects another big game from Linas Kleiza and a big win for Lithuania against Team Canada.

Rounding out Group D action, who’s up for Lebanon vs. France? The underdog of the tournament takes on the tourney’s biggest upset provider in what looks like a fascinating game in the making. BiE’s not gonna get off the (dark) horse and stick with the Cedars: Lebanon by one point over Les Bleus.

Group A
Okay, BiE previously pegged today’s game as Germany’s chance to upset the balance in Group A a bit, with Serbia missing key pieces; does that still hold…?

Dirk Bauermann’s youngsters kept Argentina honest yesterday in a close one (as predicted) in which Germany led at halftime (as predicted), but when Jan Jagla and Tibor Pleiss were both forced to leave the third quarter for extensive minutes with foul trouble, the Europeans were left way too vulnerable in the paint and surrendered to a horrid 22-2 run.

Meanwhile, little can be discerned from Serbia’s Dream Team-like 50-point immolation of Angola except that a) Team Serbia looks great in layup drills and b) damn, they’re lucky FIBA suspended their guys for the early pool-play games.

But, what the hey, there’s got to be at least one upset today, right? BiE sticks with Germany over Serbia. After playing perhaps its best game of summer 2010 in a one-point loss to Australia, Jordan will beat Angola today while Argentina takes care of Australia.

Group B
Boy, Slovenia is sneaky … another international tournament, another controversy in training, another marquee name walks out – and they’ll still be around to the final eight. Of course, their opponent today is Team USA, who looked brilliant throughout the roster from Derrick Rose and Kevin Durant to Eric Gordon and Kevin Love. Though helped by some timid play from Croatia in a terrible second quarter, the Red-White-and-Blues in one game now appear to justify their status of overwhelming favorites in this tournament. BiE says that today USA wins over Slovenia in overtime.

Fortunate for Brazil that they’ve got another easier match today in Tunisia; these guys might yet be ready for the likes of the Americans and Slovenians. Brazil wins by 15 and Croatia bounces back against Iran.

Group C
Great games within this sextet today as Puerto Rico-Greece and Turkey-Russia go in back-to-back matches. Puerto Rico was sadly exposed against Russia in exactly the feared way: While P.J. Ramos had a good game in going for 15 points and nine rebounds, Team Russia was able to simply score at will from basically any play going through the low post. When Puerto Rico could open the floor, they ruled of course – as in the final four minutes of the second quarter – but such opportunities were few and far between.

Though with the suspensions they’re a bit smaller, Team Hellas brings enough full-court defense to stop Puerto Rico in a close one.

Meanwhile mercurial Turkey meets more mercurial Russia in a match leaving viewers wondering which combinations of teams will show up. In the victory over Puerto Rico yesterday, David Blatt’s boys showed they’ve shaken off the malaise of early training and are now on the same page in the defensive playbook. Turkey jogged through Cote d’Ivoire as expected but in friendlies in the home country have consistently dropped close games against high-level teams – all in all, this one’s a great measuring stick for both teams in a game that matters. The BiE coin flip says Turkey at the buzzer.

And China over Cote d’Ivoire.

For those outside of the U.S. and Canada, all games and extras may be seen on FIBA TV. North Americans can check out some games through ESPN 3 online, though BiE’s been told access may depend on your cable provider…

Incidentally, if you’re up for the live chat experience during the USA-Croatia match, BallinEurope will be participating in ESPN’s Daily Dime Live Chat starting at 6pm CET (noon EST). The virtual room will surely be cram-packed with prideful Americans, so come out to represent, fans of Croatia (not to mention Russia, Lithuania, France, Spain, Germany, Greece, Turkey and Serbia)!

And the official BallinEurope crystal ball says…

Group A
The marquee matchup in Kayseri today may be Germany vs. Argentina; with Andres Nocioni out for the Light Blue-and-Whites and Deutschland’s young guys riding high, Team Germany should keep things close but will succumb to Argentina after having a halftime lead to a still more talented team. Meanwhile, Australia figures to make short work of Jordan; as for Angola, well, they in trouble (even if Serbia’s not bringing Milos Teodosic and Nenad Krstic).

Group B
Historically-bound USA and Croatia meet for the first time ever in a FIBA World Championship, but neither country is bringing quite their best side; reckon Ante Tomic is the game’s high scorer as Croatia is able to exploit over some stretches that ever-present size issue of the Americans, but Team USA wins by double figures. The Iran-Brazil matchup might be one of the day’s most interesting with Asia’s unknown champions against a full Team Brazil that’s yet to play together in a game situation; BiE says Brazil wins in a low-scoring, bruising battle. And Slovenia will take care of Tunisia easily.

Group C
Which is the biggest potential blowout: The spanking an angry Greece will apply to China or hometown Turkey munching on Cote d’Ivoire? After these games one, figure the two vanquished teams along with Tunisia to enter “worst team in the tournament” discussions worldwide. The third Group C match features an amazing clash of styles in Russia vs. Puerto Rico. Can the relatively undersized islanders (Daniel Santiago and 7’3” Peter Ramos excepted) keep the big Russians at bay underneath? Can Russia’s thus far often lackluster defense containing the high-flying quick-running Puerto Rican attack? BiE’ll take Puerto Rico winning impressively on the way to Carlos Arroyo’s promised best-ever finish.

Group D
Ah, the fascinating group. Lebanon vs. Canada may well be the game of the day and should be a dandy to watch. BiE’s got Lebanon winning in overtime as Fadi El Khatib is the first day’s top individual scorer.

On the other hand, Lithuania and New Zealand won’t be close as the Kiwis get blown off the court while the group begins to fear the Lithuanians. In speaking with a journalist friend from the hoops-mad land, he theorized that Martynas Gecevičius had been playing possum a bit in hopes of bringing in the element of surprise – and BiE has no reason to disbelieve it. After all, Gecevičius can take over in international tournaments, as seen at the U18 and U20 levels the past three years, and he’s coming off one heck of a 2009-10 season in leading Lietuvos Rytas to its second consecutive LKL championship. Cat’ll be out of the bag after today.

Finally, there’s France-Spain. Somebody in the FIBA offices has a sick sense of humor for setting up Les Bleus with this match against the team that bounced them in the last international tournament. Look away, French fans: Spain wraps this one up by halftime.

It’s also a rematch of the 2008 Beijing Olympics gold match of sorts; while Team Spain returns the majority of their surely revenge-seeking squad, Team USA has famously rolled over its entire roster to create a smaller, quicker team contrary stylistically to recent American national teams.

Those of you in countries wherein the game won’t be broadcast (and here BallinEurope basically means nearly every nation in Europe, basically) can watch Spain vs. USA — and Wednesday’s Greece vs. USA game — online for free at FIBA TV. On his part, BiE will be watching for the following items first.

• Andre Iguodala vs. Felipe Reyes. Coach Krzyzewski is sending out his best track-and-field team against Spain today featuring three guards in Chauncey Billups, Kevin Durant, and Rajon Rondo, plus Iguodala, a guy who could play the two spot in the NBA. That means when Team USA’s not running and gunning, Reyes’ll be getting Iggy with it while Tyson Chandler’s hands are full with Marc Gasol. Here’s to thinking we’ll be seeing early…

• …the USA bench, especially Kevin Love. Whether Rajon Rondo, Danny Granger or Russell Westbrook, Team USA has often had its best performer coming off the bench. With mismatches in the frontcourt, BiE’s thinking Lamar Odom sees quality minutes today after leading the Red-White-and-Blues with seven boards against Lithuania. Meanwhile, Love may still be battling Stephen Curry for that 12th spot and number of minutes alone for the former may be the indication of whether he’s staying or not.

• Ricky Rubio. Ah, but you don’t need BiE to remind you that the, perhaps the NBA’s most eagerly anticipated European player since Toni Kukoc, is going today. Anyone in the ‘States who doesn’t recall his performance against the ‘States in that 2008 gold-medal game (six points, six rebounds, three assists and three steals in under 29 minutes of play) will get a reminder while the Human YouTube Clip gets to test his skills against three of the best young PGs in the NBA (and thus the world). Do yourselves a favor proactively, Minnesota Timberwolves fans, and stock up on the Kleenex now.

• No-shows for Spain. Though Espana has won eight friendlies in a row, they’ve yet to pay with their full complement left. It appears as though the full roster will be there, but if not it will pay the U.S. to pay attention to what Team Spain *doesn’t* bring.

• Team USA’s chemistry. It’s a bit abstract to watch per se and, as an American, BiE must say that the complete lack of ego-related problems is utterly refreshing (who’d’ve thought Puerto Rico would be the squad producing walk-offs?), Coach K is convinced this is underdeveloped as yet and key to the US’ chances: “We have to keep improving in every area as a team, including getting to know one another. There’s not that continuity or chemistry – there’s the attitude, a great attitude to get to know each other, which is why games like [Saturday’s against Lithuania] are so important and the game [against Spain] is so important.”

Kobe can beat this guy

Kobe Bryant was hanging around in New York last week as part of the World Basketball Festival festivities and, upon praising Team Spain, was dutifully quoted by Spain-based sports media outlet Sport.es.

“When it comes to really tough opponents,” said Bryant, “no doubt, Spain is the team.”

Kobe has seemed somewhat positive about this year’s edition of Team USA and philosophized to reporters that, if they take care of fundamentals, they’ll be all right. “The formula for winning is always the same: defense and rebounding. No matter where you play, rebounding and defense gives you the win. It doesn’t matter if you’re playing against aliens from Mars.”

In terms of the actual games closing the World Basketball Festival, Team USA demonstrated a remarkable arsenal of weaponry in taking out France, 86-55. (This just ain’t France’s year in international sport, is it? An early bouncing for Les Bleus and 2010 will go down as Bizarro 1998.)

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Starter Chauncey Billups was named “Player of the Game” in the rout and went for 17. Rudy Gay had 19 off the bench and Kevin Durant contributed 14.

Team USA has again jettisoned JaVale McGee and, as has been recently suspected, will be going to the 2010 FIBA World Championship with just one true center in Tyson Chandler. Eric Gordon is expected to be the last cut from the 13-man roster, which currently includes Chauncey Billups (Denver Nuggets); Tyson Chandler (Dallas Mavericks); Stephen Curry (Golden State Warriors); Russell Westbrook, Kevin Durant (Oklahoma City Thunder); Rudy Gay (Memphis Grizzlies); Eric Gordon (Los Angeles Clippers); Danny Granger (Indiana Pacers); Andre Iguodala (Philadelphia 76ers); Kevin Love (Minnesota Timberwolves); Lamar Odom (Los Angeles Lakers); Rajon Rondo (Boston Celtics); and Derrick Rose (Chicago Bulls).

Team USA has three more warmups scheduled before the Turkey games tip off: against Lithuania on August 21, at Spain on August 22, and at Greece on August 25.

In yesterday’s late game, Carlos Arroyo again led Team Puerto Rico to victory, scoring 16 in a 92-76 win over China.

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Slovenia shocked by New Zealand…
No matter what Team New Zealand does in Turkey, Kirk Penney and the Kiwis have already played their match of the year, a 104-103 double-OT victory over Slovenia in Maribor on Friday night.

Penney was good for 42 points – more than Slovenia’s Bostjan Nachbar (29) and Uros Slokar (12) combined – on 23-of-40 (!) shooting as New Zealand also managed to overcome ugly defense that sent Slovenians to the free throw line an incredible 45 times.

Slovenia ran up a couple of good leads in the first half on incredible 71% shooting on twos, but saw New Zealand battle back both times. After going up 26-14 early, Penney then went for four consecutive three-pointers to tie it up. Coming out of the locker room, New Zealand immediately improved on its own 61% first-half shooting by going on a 9-0 run to efficiently erase Slovenia’s halftime lead.

The momentum shifted in the fourth to the Tall Blacks’ side and the New Zealanders actually took an 11-point lead in the final quarter of regulation before again fouling their way out of it. The Kiwis would also have a four-point with under a minute remaining of OT, but Jaka Lakovic (who ended the game with 16 points for Slovenia) managed to tie it up again with 26 seconds left. In the second OT, Phillip Jones led New Zealand to the victory.

Slovenia later defeated Russia, 81-73.

…but Serbia cools the Kiwis
An Adecco Cup victory would not be in the cards for Team New Zealand, however. Going on less than 24 hours rest, the Tall Blacks simply could not keep up with Serbia as the 2009 Eurobasket finalists crushed ‘em, 95-69.

With Penney no longer a well-kept secret, the New Zealanders’ prime weapon faced double-teams the likes of which he’s surely unused to and managed just 7-of-19 shooting while his Kiwis turned the ball over 20 times.

After struggling a bit with Russia in their 69-63 win on Friday (see directly below for video), Serbia was surely happy to put this one away early, and put it away they did. With an insane 24-1 run including 13 straight unanswered points from Novica Velickovic turned a 4-2 Tall Blacks lead into a 26-5 laugher.

Jones had 19 for New Zealand; Velickovic led Team Serbia scoring with 19, closely followed by Miroslav Raduljica’s 17 and Kosta Perovic’s 15.

Canada smokes France – twice
Canadian media was happy to report that their squad has remained undefeated in FIBA World Championship warmups, thanks to consecutive wins on Thursday and Friday over suddenly hapless France.

Who’d’ve thought Canada was bringing such a versatile, more-than-sum-of-parts lineup to this thing? Sure enough, the world might yet learn names like “Jermaine Bucknor” and “Denham Brown” and “Jevohn Shepherd” before the 2010 Worlds are over. And the Great White North may yet be considered a threat to advance out of a suddenly fearsome-looking bunch of lower-tier teams in Group D.

On Thursday, the Canadians beat France 69-58 in Toronto with tight defense and just enough shots falling; Bucknor led all scorers with 15. The night after, the story got worse for Les Blues, who fell 85-63 in Air Canada Centre.

In the second game, new New York Knick Andy Rautins went for 14 points in the first half as Team Canada overcame the speedbump of a 20-13 downing in the third to hold on for the 22-point win.

“The third quarter was a little frustrating,” said Team Canada head coach/Andy’s proud poppa Leo Rautins. “We kind of had the same thing against China [an 86-62 win for Canada in Vancouver on Tuesday], the third quarter we came out a little lax. But they found a way to get out of it – that’s the key.”

Canada will join Serbia, Slovenia and Greece in competing for the Acropolis Tournament running Tuesday through Thursday.

Brazil beats China, Barbosa goes for 25
Team China’s lack of speed is repeated getting exposed in FIBA Worlds warmups, with the loss to Brazil the middle in a sandwich of surprising mismatches that began against Canada and concluded in the ‘States.

Leandro Barbosa scored 25 points and Anderson Varejao had 13 in the New York-set 84-70 win.

Puerto Rico tops Brazil in Harlem, 77-55
As part of the World Basketball Festival festivities in New York this week, Puerto Rico and Brazil played a match in Harlem’s Rucker Park which, well, didn’t seem to go off too well. To quote one observer:

The Puerto Rico and Brazil national teams played a scrimmage during the middle of Friday’s action. It was obvious that neither team really cared about the scrimmage, and it showed because they didn’t put in a great effort during the hour they were on the court.

Well, the MCs were having none of that. Throughout the action, the MCs kept heckling the players for lazy play. They even dropped hints of disgust, saying that Rucker Park isn’t a place for 50 percent effort.

Puerto Rico won big behind Miami Heat guard Carlos Arroyo, without question the best player on the floor.

Brazil finalizes lineup
Team Brazil had coach Ruben Magnano announced his final roster for the 2010 FIBA World Championship after the Rucker Park game. The 12 men for Brazil include Anderson Varejao (Cleveland Cavaliers); Nene (Denver Nuggets); Murilo Becker (São José); Tiago Splitter (Baskonia cum San Antonio Spurs); Marcus “Marquinhos” Vieira (Pinheiros); Guilherme Giovannoni, Alex Garcia, Nezinho (UNICEUB); Marcelo Machado (Flamengo); Leandro Barbosa (Toronto Raptors); and Marcelo Huertas (Baskonia).

Greek injuries not too serious
To the great relief of Team Hellas supporters (and the frustration of much of the rest of the world), injuries reported to both Ioannis Bourousis and Nick Calathes are not at all serious and neither player will miss a game in Turkey.

Bourosis had told team doctors of discomfort in his wrist, but X-rays turned up nothing. Bourosis returned to practice on Saturday along with Calathes, who was treated for a toenail infection on Thursday.

Team USA runs China off floor
In its first public exhibition against another national team, head coach Mike Krzyzewski has revealed his slightly undersized squad’s strategy for this year’s Worlds: Run, run, run, and then run some more.

The biggest news from the oddly-formatted 98-51 blowout win over China was Team USA’s ridiculous 32-4 advantage in fast-break points. “We’re the fastest team, I think, in the world,” presciently stated Andre Iguodala, “so we’ve got to use that to our advantage.”

Speedster (and former University of New Mexico Lobo) Danny Granger bore this point out further by scored a wicked 22 points on 12-of-16 shooting off the bench for the Red-White-and-Blues. To top off his performance, Granger crafted a new marketing slogan for his bad self: “I score the ball, that’s what I do.”

An extensive writeup of the USA-China game is available at Team USA’s official website.

Lebanon in FIBA Asia Stankovic Cup finals…
BiE has a sneaky suspicion the world’s about to find out more than they want to about Fadi El Khatib: The aged veteran who was a last-minute addition to Cinderella’s favorite FIBA Worlds contender is simply playing himself into shape with perfect results for Team Lebanon thus far.

El Khatib, who is 31 years old, “suggested he is well on course” to getting into basketball shape by turning in his “best game of the summer yet” with 18 points against Qatar on Thursday. All he did on Saturday was top that performance with 25 points while controlling Lebanon’s ball movement throughout. Lebanon has yet to lose a game in the 10-team tournament and will face Japan in the final game.

…Iran, Jordan not
Asia’s other FIBA World Championship contenders both turned in disappointing results in the Stankovic Cup and will face off to determine the fifth-place finisher in the tournament.

Team Iran reminds us that far worse than posterization is historicization, as in “Iraq [got] their first win in 23 years in a FIBA Asia official event” by defeating Iran. Charitably described at the FIBA Asia website as “oscillating,” the back-to-back continental champions stumbled their way through this tournament, having difficulty with teams they’d manhandled just last year.

Jordan, too, had a terrible time of the Stankovic due mostly to injuries. With three players in street clothes for yesterday’s game, head coach Mario Palma was forced to play just nine against Taiwan yesterday. No matter: Jordan overcame, 85-70 to get into the fifth-place game.

Today’s games
The Stankovic Cup final between Japan and Lebanon tips off at 6pm GMT (8pm CET); you can watch live on FIBA TV.

In Slovenia, New Zealand takes on Russia tonight, while the long-awaited three-nation faceoff in Logroño starts tonight with Spain vs. Argentina at 7pm CET. Finally, Madison Square Garden hosts an international doubleheader with Team USA taking on France at 1pm EST (7pm CET) and China vs. Puerto Rico scheduled for 3.30pm EST (9.30pm CET).

What the Dream Team gave to the international game, aside from the showcasing of quite simply the best side ever assembled by a long shot,* was a new measuring stick for talent, a definition of what national basketball pictures should aspire to produce. In Croatia and Lithuania, however, the national teams in some senses had already won before the Olympic torch was lit.

Both teams represented a regeneration of national programs, as both had contributed mightily to the greatest communist era teams ever: USSR and Yugoslavian national squads in 1988 – ultimately probably the peak year for “Iron Curtain” basketball – were populated with names like Marciulionis, Kurtinaitis and Sabonis, Petrovic, Radja and Kukoc.

But 1992 changed all that.

Yugoslavia as an entity had effectively dissolved with the crumbling communist power structures and by 1991, Croatia was at war with Serbia – a war which would divide the team both figuratively and literally.

As film director Michael Tolajian told Serbian media earlier this year, the Team Yugoslavia players, who had been very close, “stopped talking [...] and the nationalistic rhetorics in both countries must have influenced them, just like many other friends and colleagues at the time, even family members”: A reality that affects Vlade Divac to this day. Though Divac has “managed to set things straight with former teammates [like] Croatians Toni Kukoc and Dino Radja, he was too late to make peace with Drazen [Petrovic].”

(Tolajian’s documentary on the Team Yugoslavia breakup is entitled “Jednom braća” or “Once Brothers.” Though confirmed as part of ESPN’s “30 for 30” documentary film series, the air date for “Jednom braća” maddeningly remains unscheduled thus far.

All nationalism and rhetoric aside, the formation of Team Croatia was a way for the “new” country (the European Union and United Nations chose to recognize Croatia as an independent nation on January 15, just six-and-a-half months before the commencement of the Olympics) to use basketball to carve out its very place on world maps.

And carve they did. With a roster of Dražen Petrović, Toni Kukoč, Dino Radja, Žan Tabak, Velimir Perasović, Stojan Vranković, Arijan Komazec, Danko Cvjetičanin, Franjo Arapović, Aramis Naglić, Vladan Alanović, and Alan Gregov, Croatia – along with Lithuania and the “Unified Team” of loosely affiliated former Soviet republics – proved itself to be the class of the second class at these Olympics. BiE would dare say that the 1992 team remains Croatia’s finest to date, in fact.

Those old guys like BiE who were around Back In The Day will easily recall the storylines of the two Croatia-USA meetings. Game one was Team USA’s second in the tournament after the feasting on of Angola for openers. This one of course was all about Michael Jordan and Scottie Pippen’s dissecting Kukoc, a Chicago Bulls draft pick who was rumored to be contending for impending free-agent Pippen’s job on the wing. The result was a 103-70 steamrolling by the Dreams as Toni went for four points and seven turnovers against stifling D.

Though we didn’t realize it at the time, the gold-medal game would also be the last time Petrovic would play in a championship game. This clip – one of BiE’s all-time favorite YouTubes – is definitely worth a rerun. History has forgotten what words were exchanged between His Airness and Drazen during the memorable one-on-one contests on the court, but BiE likes to imagine that, rather than trash-talking, some discussion on the game’s finer points is going down.

The most brilliant part in that gold medal game, however, starts at about 7:40 in the YouTube below. For a nanosecond or two, if you squinted, you could imagine Croatia pulling off the inconceivable upset…

Meanwhile, finishing third that season was Team Lithuania, playing as such in its first Olympics since 1936. Even before this team became fully assembled – we knew Sarunas Marciulionis and Arvydas Sabonis would be there, for sure – through an amazing fusion of pop cultural zeitgeist, Marciulionis managed to drum up financial support for the would-be Olympic Team by means of the Grateful Dead and two generations of San Francisco hippies.

Today, we can look back on the campaign as genius in marketing and representative of NBA basketball’s brand new internationalism in the post-communist 1990s. Back then, it made for some bitchin’ tie dye shirts, clearly one of the dopest wardrobe items of ’92. The relationship between the ‘Dead and Team Lithuania would continue into the 1996 Games, even taking up countercultural Bay Area hoopsters Bill Walton and Chris Mullin along the way.

But in 1992, the main thing was just for this basketball-mad culture to see their boys playing under their own colors, rather than those of an unwanted oppressor which would never properly acknowledge the contribution by the “republic” to Soviet sport.

If the USA’s ’92 squad was a fantasy team, Lithuania’s first modern roster was a dream-come-true team, as will hopefully be captured in fittingly-named documentary “The Other Dream Team.” This film is scheduled for 2011 release, surely in parallel with the Eurobasket tournament hosted by Lithuania for a truly prescient reminder of how far this national program has come.

The 1992 edition of Team Lithuania included Arvydas Sabonis, Šarunas Marčiulionis, Valdemaras Chomičius, Rimas Kurtinaitis, Sergėjus Jovaiša, Artūras Karnišovas, Gintaras Einikis, Arūnas Visockas, Darius Dimavičius, Romanas Brazdauskis, Gintaras Krapikas, and Alvydas Pazdrazdis.

In conclusion, may BallinEurope again wish 1992 Team USA congratulations on their reception of this great honor. And though Dream Team Croatia and Dream Team Lithuania might never receive official accolades in Springfield, they can rest assured that they will always hold a special place in the hearts and minds of those who were lucky enough to have seen them play in the time of The Greatest Team Ever.

* The only two teams in BiE’s opinion who can even enter the discussion, i.e. who *might* possibly give the Dream Team a series: Dream Team III, with much of Dream Team I plus Hakeem Olajuwon and Shaquille O’Neal, who probably should have been on the roster in lieu of the more politically-correctly chosen Christian Laettner in ’92; and the Redeem Team of 2008, Generation Y’s own Dream Team.

Krstic krushed for Serbia

A few exhibition games between national teams were played this weekend as the Istanbul Cup and the Love Cyprus Basketball Tournament wrapped with some interesting clashes, indeed.

In Turkey, Team Serbia emphatically demonstrated that they should be discussed among the 2010 FIBA World Championship elite by decisively beating the home team in an 83-70 win. Kerem Tuncer, Omer Onan, Hedo Turkoglu, Semih Erden and Cevher Özer started for Turkey, while Serbia went with Dragan Milosavljevic, Dusko Savanovic, Kosta Perovic, Milos Teodosic, and Marco Keselj.

Though Serbia was cold early, succumbing to an early barrage from Turkoglu and Onan to go down 10-3, they soon got contributions from Perovic and Teodosic to take the lead at 19-17 and finish the first quarter up 27-22.

The second quarter became something of a battle down low as Oguz and Ersan İlyasova looked to neutralize tournament MVP Nenad Krstic, but despite drawing a couple fouls quickly from the big man, Team Turkey saw the Serbian lead widened thanks to some sharpshooting by Novica Velickovic. Krstic reentered the game and got back to his scoring ways, to send Turkey to the locker room down 49-36.

Kerem Gönlüm came out hot in the third quarter with two quick scores, Teodosic was harassed into a couple turnovers, Tuncer woke up to drain three more and Turkey drew to within one at 58-57. Unfortunately for them, Team Serbia broke the game open by starting the final quarter on an 11-0 run, enough to silence the Turks for good and give the tournament win to Serbia.

The game’s high scorer was Krstic at 19 points to go with his seven rebounds and five assists; Teodosic added 16. Turkoglu led all Team Turkey scorers with 14; İlyasova and Gönlüm each contributed 12 points and six rebounds, while Omer Asik was good for seven boards as well.

•••••

Kirk captained New Zealand

In the Istanbul Cup third-place game, New Zealand once again relied on shooter Kirk Penney to outlast Iran, 69-68. Though “Penney had been the villain when, with 25 seconds remaining and his team still a point down, he committed his fifth turnover of the game,” he was able to hit the buzzer-beater to complete the All Blacks’ comeback from the opening 9-0 hole.

Concisely summarized the national team’s website: “[the game] shows how far the Kiwis must improve if they hope to qualify out of their pool at Izmir. They squandered several opportunities to seize control of this encounter and had to claw their way back from six points adrift in the final quarter…

“As they had against Turkey the previous night, the Kiwis really set themselves behind the eight ball with eight turnovers in the opening quarter that gifted their opponents nine straight points.”
Memphis Grizzly Hamed Haddadi had a monster game for Team Iran, going for 21 points and 14 rebounds against the Kiwis.

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Dirk digs what he sees

In Cyprus, Team Germany registered a surprising 76-73 win to send the suddenly complacent-looking Russian team home on a continued down note. Germany had entered the game with two consecutive losses in the Love Cyprus Basketball Tournament, but as coach Dirk Bauermann would later say, “We are continuing our positive trend and today again learned a lot.”

Seeking to give Lucca Staiger and Tim Ohlbrecht some rest, Bauermann started with a mostly Who-Dat lineup of Heiko Schaffartzik, Demond Greene, Konrad Wysocki, Elias Harris and Tibor Pleiss. No matter: Germany applied the proverbial tenacious D early, while Harris and Chris McNaughton off the bench extended a 22-10 lead into 31-20.

Though Russia would get as close as four at 37-33, the young Team Germany was able to hold the lead for the remainder of the game, even surviving a game-closing 11-1 run by the Russians to hold on for what is surely a confidence-boosting win.

Said Bauermann: “It is extremely important for our young players to learn what happens at the international level. Jan-Hendrik Jagla was aggressive and Robin Benzing was very strong today, we moved the ball well and made good decisions. In short, we are on the right track.”

Meanwhile, how do you say, “WTF” in Russian?

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Last but by no means least, Team Greece completed its demolition of the field in the Love Cyprus tourney by polishing off Croatia, 90-81, behind a huge game from Nick Calathes.

Calathes poured in 22 points and dished out nine assists, feeding quite a few to Antonis Fotsis and his 17. Greece went deep into the bench and rotated the lineup often to rest up some starters, as Team Hellas was able to totally control this game after going up 6-5. After Calathes and Fotsis, going for double figures for the ever more frightening Greeks were Ioannis Bourousis with 13, Kostas Tsartsaris with 12, and Dimitris Diamantidis with 10.

Croatia got nice contributions from starters Roko Ukic, Davor Kus and Bojan Bogdanovic at 19, 14 and 13 points, respectively, but hey: This game was 99% about Greece, right? BiE reckons that folks’d better stop talking about the 2010 FIBA World Championship as Spain-and-USA’s tournament to win or lose and give a little more conversational love to Greece and Serbia in this thing…

Hedo headed up Turkey's big win

Team Spain showed why it’s such a threat to take the 2010 FIBA World Championships yesterday by dispatching Lithuania with ease, 97-76. Lithuania enjoyed its biggest lead of the game at 8-4 in the third minute of play, but Spain’s subsequent 26-8 run capped by five points from Ricky Rubio put the defending champs up 30-16 after one quarter and there was no looking back.

(Incidentally, if you think that mention of Señor Rubio is serving mostly as an excuse to include the Human YouTube Clip’s highlight video for the game, well, you know BiE too well. But seriously, check out the damage done on both ends of the floor by the Spanish sensation.)

Particularly problematic for Lithuania were turnovers, who as a team committed some 25, including 14 from the starting five: guards Arvydas Eituatvičius and Mindaugas Lukauskis combined for eight while Linas Kleiza “contributed” four and Robertas Javtokas threw away another two. Lithuania also could not compete inside, sending Spaniards to the free throw line 29 times against their mere 15 trips.

Top scorer for Lithuania was Kleiza with 15 on 5-of-10 shooting, while Tomas Delininkaitis saw lots of time off the bench to add 14 on 5-of-8 from the floor. Four Team Spain starters finished in double figures, with Juan Carlos Navarro putting in 17, Marc Gasol 14, Felipe Reyes 11 and Jose Calderon 10.

Meanwhile, Turkey took advantage of home support and an overwhelmed New Zealand side to “clinically dispatch” the Tall Blacks, 87-65. Team New Zealand had reportedly entered the game “quietly satisfied with a narrow 76-71 loss [on Friday] to European runners-up Serbia,” but it would appear to be back to the drawing board for the antipodean team.

Like Lithuania, New Zealand last saw the lead at 8-7 in the first quarter. However, this rapidly became a 19-point halftime deficit which would expand to 25 in the third quarter as Team Turkey went on cruise control.

Hedo Turkoglu directed traffic for the Turks and closed the game with 12 points, mostly scored in the first half. Ersan Ilysova put in 14 points and Kerem Tunceri added 12. Top scorers for New Zealand were sharpshooter Kirk Penney and Phillip Jones, each with 13.

Will Barton of Baltimore faces an all-too-familiar problem of young American basketballers, but thanks to Latavious Williams and Brandon Jennings, he seemingly has more options than ever to continue his promising hoops career.

Barton was one of the prizes of the 2010 NCAA recruiting class and University of Memphis backers were well pleased when the 6’6” guard declared his intent to attend their school – albeit most likely only for the minimum single season, as he was getting penciled in as an NBA Draft first-rounder out of high school.

A new problem came to light yesterday which threw Barton’s immediate future into doubt, as he was informed before a practice yesterday that the NCAA was reviewing his academic eligibility – the “hardest thing” referenced in his tweet.

Summarized Dan Wolken at the local Commercial-Appeal: “The issue with Barton [...] is believed to be about whether he completed high school within the NCAA-mandated eight semesters, graduating from Lake Clifton High in Baltimore last August instead of June.”

Most observers reckon that the authority will make Barton ineligible, thus unable to play for the Tigers in 2010-11, therefore probably forever, as Wolken writes, “If he is not cleared to play this season, it is unlikely he will ever see the court for Memphis.”

Naturally, with skills like Barton’s, most media large and small were ready to offer Barton a little of the “vision” he requested. Rob Mahoney of Pro Basketball Talk argues that “There are definitely European leagues out there better than the D-League in terms of competition and talent, but if Barton wants a place where he can really showcase his skills (Jennings was hardly allowed such a luxury) while working to get better under the watchful eyes of NBA decision-makers, the [D-League] is an obvious choice.”

Scott Schroeder of the always excellent Ridiculous Upside sort-of counters with, “If Barton were to forego playing domestically this season and instead spend a year abroad, a la Brandon Jennings, he’d probably be able to make roughly the same $1.2 million that Jennings did while playing in Rome as both were high-profile players ranked at the top of their position in their class.”

Though Schroeder too is also skeptical about a European tour for Barton, BallinEurope believes that echoing Jennings’ year – say, landing with a middling Euroleague team and being about the eighth man off the bench, just without the firing-coach-at-mid-season thing – would be on paper the best for Barton’s game.

An excerpt from the glowing bit of Barton’s entry on the Bible-like Draft Express reads like so:

Barton is a scorer through and through, showing great instincts in this area, a real hunger to put the ball in the basket, and the type of swagger and competitiveness that most great players do. He has solid court vision, making some very intelligent passes in drive and dish situations in both the half-court and in transition, as well as a jump-shot that he should be able to develop into a terrific weapon down the road. …

Defensively, Barton has both the tools (size, length, lateral quickness) and the willingness to make his presence felt on this end of the court. He gets down in a stance and will play tough, intense, in-your-face pressure defense looking to shut-down his matchup…

Great. Sounds marvelous. NBA all the way, eh? But then comes the bad news.

Barton has a ways to go before he can be considered the type of teammate others would like to play with, and has a few noticeable holes in his game which could very well become more of an issue against higher level competition.

His ball-handling skills first and foremost need plenty of work, as he shows very little ability to operate with his left hand and struggles in general to create his own shot in the half-court and get all the way to the basket. His decision making and shot-selection were very questionable throughout the course of the [2009 National Prep Showcase held in November], particularly when his team started falling behind and they needed him to make good decisions. …

[Barton] seems far more concerned with getting his own shots than he is helping his team win games. He would visibly pout and even proceed (on multiple occasions) to chase after his teammates following plays and yell at them for not passing him the ball, even on possessions that his team scored regardless…

Now if you were personally interested in this player’s development, would you rather Barton spend a year in the bombs-away NBA D League which might reinforce said bad habits or would you want to break this maverick “a la Brandon Jennings”?

Perhaps a little sink-or-swim is exactly what Barton needs: playing with men far more experienced than he won’t allow the complaining, etc. And on an established European squad with a patient coach, Barton would certainly have the pressure of the go-to guy – recall that poor decision-making in the clutch – removed, rightfully so. In the D League, however, a guy like Barton would certainly be the alpha dog, almost certainly to his detriment.

BiE has been a proponent of the Jennings Masterplan since about the young Buck’s second month in the NBA: We all know this. So what about the other role model, Latavious Williams? Comparisons can’t be exactly directly made, as Williams was a small forward while Barton is clearly to be a two guard at the next level, and Barton’s stock is well higher than Williams’, but we can definitely deem the Williams Experiment a success as well.

Williams ended up going for a neat 7.7 points and 7.7 rebounds in 20.5 minutes per game in 47 games mostly off the bench; Williams also garnered high praise for his impressive performance in the playoffs. Most importantly, though, Williams was indeed drafted into the big league to land with Oklahoma City.

Of course, the overwhelming majority reckons Barton will be a first-rounder in 2011 no matter where he plays in 2010-11 and so his climb isn’t as uphill as Williams’ was. BiE just can’t help thinking, though, that Europe is Barton’s direct path to learning the team play that any NBA franchise will be expecting.