Day one is in the books and the first two games weren’t that surprising at all, right? New Zealand, most famous for its pre-game dance, won their game against Cape Verde by 27 points. Why does this matter? Because on day 2, Cape Verde will play Germany.
Why does Germany matter? You’re right, just because of Dirk Nowitzki and the Germanized Chris Kaman, who will play his first game for head coach Dirk Bauermann. It looks like Chris is pretty excited to play for Germany and even thinks the German eagle on his chest is “cool.” Basically Chris is trading in this eagle for that one.
Should be an easy first game for Chris unless Cape Verde is that mad because of losing to New Zealand by 27 points – It won’t happen; these guys are pretty chilled.
[singlepic=169,320,240,,right]Less “chilled” should be Samuel Dalembert, who plays for the Philadelphia 76ers, in the first game for Team Canada, playing against Slovenia. Slovenia and Rasho Nesterovic won their first game against Korea by 12 points, thanks to Nesterovic’s 26 points and 9 rebounds. Slovenia still managed to score 88 points although two stars – Sani Becirovic and Jaka Lakovic – had bad shooting nights.The third matchup features Cameroon and Puerto Rico. Cameroon just lost their opener against Croatia by 14 points, and I am sure Puerto Rico won’t give them an easy chance to win their first game of the tournament. With players such as Daniel Santiago, Juan Jose Barea (Dallas Mavericks) and Carlos Arroyo (Orlando Magic), Puerto Rico has one goal in mind: to qualify for the Olympics. I am pretty sure that Cameroon won’t be the team to stop their mission.
The last matchup for Tuesday night is Lebanon vs. Brazil. Even without a Leandro Barbosa, Brazil is good enough to easily beat Lebanon. Players such as Tiago Splitter and Alex Garica are enough to beat a team on which the tallest player is “only” 6’9″ (205cm).
Game to watch: Germany v. Cape Verde.
