Olympic Games: Spain - Greece (Live comments)

Today starts the Olympic Basketball tournament. After the big wins of Russia against Iran and Germany against Angola, the first real top game is going on at the moment facing of Spain and Greece.

Here are my comments as the game is going on. (10h10CET)

• Spain started the game without Pau Gasol who only came of the bench.
• The game is very open in the first quarter without any timeout.
• Big Sofo went 0/3 from the Free-throw line so far.
• The Chinese fans are the new masters of the “ahhhh” and “ohhh”s
• The Greek team seems to have more fan support from their homecountry than Spain from what I hear out of the stands.
• The Spanish defenders are still flopping as crazy to draw some offensive fouls.
• Spanoulis with the move of the day, sprinting 1-0 to go for the layup and slipping on the paint in the paint…
• Spain is playing some kind of press defense with Marc Gasol doubling the Greek PGs at midcourt.
• I love this microphones close to the boards. You hear Carlos Jimenez scream on every rebound fight
• And Ricky Rubio scores his first Olympic basket. A first in a long long story to be written in the next years.
• @migala, well the Greeks are of course also the masters in the Tragicomedy both in terms of visual expression and death simulation.
• TV Teams tried to film the Spanish Timeout but one of the players put his hand in the camera angle. Shouldn’t he watch the tactic board of Aito than caring about the Camera?
• We have HALFTIME: 35-29. Spain is up but they did not really play at their best level while Greek is doing ok with Spanoulis as their main weapon on his speedy drives. Let’s see how this goes on. All in all, a nice game to start with into the Olympic tournament.
• George W. Bush was at yesterday’s Team USA Women game against the Czech Republic. I don’t know about his agenda but I guess we will see him tonight in the opener of the USA men team against China.
• Second half just started and I got invited by some Lithuanians to join them in a bar here in Riga for the Lithuania - Argentina game. So no Live comments later of that game…
• And Spain is getting the first real break of the game going up by 16 after a triple by Jose “3 Fingers” Calderon and a drive by Jose “Hangtime and 1″ Calderon. Time OUT Greece.
• George W. Bush is watching Michael Phelps getting his first Gold Medal by the way. Anybody cares?
• I don’t remember when was the last time I saw Jorge Garbajosa posting up. Well he did it now, and immediately turned it over for a Papaloukas score and 1. Greece needs to step up in D now if they want to win this one.
• Greece now double-teams Ricky when he brings up the ball and he struggles. This is the way to come back into the game for the Blues. Time OUT Spain and we will probably see Calderon or Raul Lopez back.
• Carlos Jimenez with another of his typical hustle plays. I am so happy to have him on my Olympic Fantasy team…
• 62-46 for Spain after three quarters. This looks like said and done to me as no Greek player except Spanoulis is on the level of Spain at the moment. Rudy has 13 so far with some acrobatics and Calderon went for 11. Pau Gasol was quiet so far with only 9 points. And talking about Spain, the fans are also there and singing.
• Quite is the maybe not the right word for Pau, he just shot his 2nd airball of the game.
• Tsartsaris with an unsportmanlike foul or should I say Carlos Jimenez draws a unsportmanlike foul from Tsartsaris.
• Greece with a last minutes defensive run even provoking a 8sec violation. Back 9 with 36 seconds to go.
• However, Spain wins it and Ricky Rubio hits the last bucket of the game with a three pointer from 9 meters. FINAL SCORE: 81-66. I will head of to the Stella Pub now to watch Lithuania - Argentina with the Lithuanian Fans that support the U20 team in the European Championships Final tonight in Riga.