Olympic Games 2012, Men’s Basketball tournament Day 2

2012 london olympic games

Day 2 of Olympic Basketball Men’s tournament already brought some interesting games in Group B.

As all we expected, or at least as I expected this Olympic tournament already brought several very good games, and I am sure that we can expect more and more exciting games.

Check out today, France – Argentina at 21.00 CET, this should be excellent game, and Tunisia – United States at 23.15 CET as I believe that we may expect real showtime on the court.

Since Lithuania didn’t start well, it could be also interesting to see game against Nigeria at 15.30 CET.

Group A:

Lithuania 72-53 Nigeria

Quite easy with for Lithuania as they topped Nigeria with 72:53. Even I expected some interesting game it really wasn’t. Nigeria had big problems against aggressive defense of Lithuania and with individual actions couldn’t do much. Lithuanians deserves their first win on this Olympic tournament.

Darius Songaila led the winners with 12 points. Former All-Euroleague first team choice Linas Kleiza added 11, Rimantas Kaukenas had 10 while four-time Euroleague champion Sarunas Jasikevicius of FC Barcelona Regal dished 9 assists for Lithuania.

France 71-64 Argentina

Fantastic game, maybe the best one since start of Olympic Basketball tournament. France wins over Argentina in great physical game, and reached their first win. After this game, both teams have score of 1-1. Tony Parker and his teammates proved its quality and surprised Argentina today. I must say that I expected win for Argentina after they topped Lithuania two days ago.

Tony Parker led the winners with 17 points. Nicolas Batum added 15, Mickael Gelabale of BC Khimki had 13 while two-time Eurocup champion Nando De Colo got 11 for France.

Tunisia 63-110 United States

Easy win for United States as expected. Not well interested game as United States demolishes Tunisia. Beginning of the game was interesting as Tunisia played well and had pretty good shooting percentage. But, it was obvious that United Stets played with 50%. As soon as they started to play more seriously, it was end of hopes for Tunisia, if they even had it.

Carmelo Anthony and Kevin Love led 6 players in double digits with 16 points apiece. Makram Ben Romdhane led Tunisia with 19 points. Tunisia had a strong start, as three-pointers by Rzig and Ben Romhdane allowed the AfroBasket 2011 champions to get a 8-4 margin.

Group B:

China 54-73 Russia

Russia played another one game today as they topped China with 73:54. After this game, Russia have score of 2 wins, and China 2 losses. Russia played well during whole game and david Blatt may be satisfied with his players performance.

Andrei Kirilenko led the winners with 16 points, 9 rebounds and 4 assists. Alexey Shved had 14 and 6 assists, CSKA center Sasha Kaun added 13 and 4 blocks, Timofey Mozgov got 10 points.

Australia 70-82 Spain

In second game in Group B today, Spain wins over Australia with 82:70. Great gane for Spain as they easily managed another one win and improved to 2-0 score. Australia lost another one game after defeat from Brazil two days ago. Spain played very attractive in some moments of this game and won without problems.

Pau Gasol paced the winners with 20 points. Rudy Fernandez of Real Madrid added 17 while Marc Gasol got 12 for Spain.

Great Britain 62-67 Brazil

Another one fail for hosts, as Brazil expectedly topped Great Britain in quite interesting game. Honestly, I expected much easier win for Brazil, but many time proved that I am not good in predictions. Great Britain will wait for another chance to try to reach their first win on Olympic tournament.

21 points from former All-Euroleague center Tiago Splitter. FC Barcelona Regal star Marcelinho Huertas added 13 and 8 assists. Nate Reinking and Pops Mensah-Bonsu led Great Britain with 13 points apiece.