Diaw with France

by SueB on Sep 10, 2007 11:14 AM MDT Comment 8 comments

Not sure if this is already being discussed anywhere, but Boris Diaw is currently playing with France in the European championships in Spain (aka "Eurobasket 2007").

So far, France is 3-1, having beaten Poland, Italy, and Germany so far (and lost to the surprise of the tournament so far, Slovenia). Today, France tips off against unbeaten Lithuania.

Anyway, even though this tournament seems quite a bit more competitive and interesting than the FIBA Americas tournament - and features almost as many NBA players - there is apparently zero TV coverage in the US.

From what I can tell, Diaw has been "okay". He's been starting alongside Parker, Turiaf and a couple of guys who play in Europe, and he's leading the team in rebounding (6.3 per game) but is only 5th in scoring (8 ppg). Parker has been the story for France, scoring 25 ppg, second only to Dirk's 28.3 ppg for Germany.

I'd like to see more scoring from Boris (anything which might give some hint of aggressiveness), but it's hard to know if it's just a result of the role he's been given on the French team.

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MediaZone

In case anyone didn't already know, EuroBasket07 is available online via MediaZone in locations where it's not available on TV (e.g., USA). The URL is here: http://www.mediazone.com/channel/basketball/eurobasketMen2007/index.jsp.

I can't vouch for the quality since I opted not to subscribe (didn't want to deal with anymore webcasts after two weeks of following FIBA Americas), but the price seems not too terrible (about $20 for the entire tournament, including access to replays).

by TexSUN on Sep 10, 2007 3:35 PM MDT reply actions 0 recs

Parker

He's playing his heart out. Man, that's a great PG. I really don't like him. But he's Top 5 in PGs.

Walk on, walk on With hope in your heart And you'll never walk alone You'll never walk alone

by Nobs on Sep 10, 2007 9:33 PM MDT reply actions 0 recs

France vs Lithuania

I agree about Parker. Don't like him because of where he plays, but I can't help but admire the WAY he plays. I'm sure his point total has been helped by the shorter 3-point line in international ball.

Anyway, Lithuania handled France pretty easily in the next-to-last group game on Monday. They must've found a way to bottle up Parker (or perhaps he just had a bad game, which he sometimes does) since he only had 11 pts. Boris got off to a quick start with 6 points in the first quarter, and I was hoping he might be a difference-maker. But that was ALL the scoring he got, along with 7 rebounds. Turiaf ran into early foul trouble which probably hurt the French as well. And Lithuania is apparently really good, having not lost a game yet.

France is locked into finishing 3rd in their group, regardless of whether they win or lose to Turkey today. So they will meet Russia in the quarterfinals. Russia has only lost one game, to Spain. The four QF winners are guaranteed at least a birth in next summer's World Olympic Qualifying tournament (just like the FIBA Americas tournament, the 2 finalists qualify directly for the Olympics). The QF losers will then play off with two of them also advancing to World Olympic qualifying next summer.

by SueB on Sep 12, 2007 7:56 AM MDT reply actions 0 recs

France vs Turkey

Okay, it was a meaningless game, but woo-hoo, Boris led the way for France today, scoring 18 points as they beat Turkey 85-64. He played the most minutes (28) of any of their starters and was 7/14 from the field, 4/4 from the line. Not a great FG%, maybe the French coach kept him in there and told him to keep shooting in an effort to boost his confidence (and scoring). Hope it works ....

by SueB on Sep 12, 2007 1:45 PM MDT reply actions 0 recs

Great!

Thanks for keeping us up to date on what's going on with France and Diaw at Eurobasket07. I thought about subscribing to MediaZone and doing something similar for France that I did with Brazil and Team USA but opted not to because I was sick of dealing with webcasts, and also figured it was time I got back to writing about the Suns. So I'm really glad somebody else stepped in to keep us up to date on Diaw's progress. Please keep it coming. :)

by TexSUN on Sep 12, 2007 2:07 PM MDT up reply actions 0 recs

i agree

thanks SueB

by jasonsuns1 on Sep 12, 2007 9:33 PM MDT up reply actions 0 recs

France vs Russia

Sadly for Boris, France got ko'd by Russia today 75-71 in a tight contest that went down to the wire. It seems a little unfair that they had to play their quarterfinal just one day after their final group game, but I guess that was their penalty for finishing 3rd in their group.

They will play again Saturday against the loser of Lithuania and Croatia for one more chance to qualify for the Olympics in the World Qualifying tournament next summer.

Anyway, the good news is, Boris had another good game, leading France in scoring again with 17 points. This despite sitting down a couple of minutes into the second quarter - for the rest of the first half - with two fouls. He shot 8/14 from the floor (and 3 of those shots were 3-pointers - he even made one!). He finished with 6 rebounds, 4 of them on the offensive glass.

On the bad side, Boris was 0-for-3 from the FT line, including disastrously missing two foul shots with 15 seconds left and France down by 2. France still had a chance when Tony Parker went to the line with 7 seconds left and a chance to tie it - but he only made one. Free throw practice, guys! Well, for Boris at least, I don't care if Tony gets in the habit of missing crucial shots.

As an aside ... Andrei Kirilenko fouled out of the game for Russia with 3 minutes left, finishing with 6 points (on 2/11 shooting from the floor) and 6 rebounds. To his credit, he did have 4 blocked shots and 7 (!) steals.

by SueB on Sep 13, 2007 1:05 PM MDT reply actions 0 recs

mj and nash....

Thats the thing about mj, nash, and a very few others. During the crunch time, they nail those free throws, while others fold. MISSED BOTH!! UGGGH (charlie brown getting a football pulled away)

thanks for updates

by jasonsuns1 on Sep 13, 2007 10:05 PM MDT up reply actions 0 recs