Here at BallinEurope, we like to refer to (prospective Minnesota Timberwolf) Spanish phenom Ricky Rubio as “The Human YouTube Clip.” Well, in the interests of equal time and my Lithuanian friend Y. shaming me into it after Lithuania’s incredible 18-point comeback for the win against Team Spain last night.
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.
