Olympic Games 2012, Men’s Basketball Quarterfinals
Today is a day of second phase of Olympic Basketball tournament in London, as we will see four games in Quarterfinals phase.
After these four games, we will find out which four teams will play in semifinals and fight for Olympic medals.
Four great Match-ups and a lot of excitement today. Stay with us for more informations.
Russia 83-74 Lithuania
As the most of us expected, Russia became the first semifinalist today after they topped Lithuania in quite interesting game. Good game, physical, with a lot of good moves and good tactics. Since, Lithuania didn’t played well in the most of tournament it was expected that they cannot beat Russia.
Reigning Euroleague MVP Andrei Kirilenko led the winners with 19 points, 13 rebounds, 3 steals and 3 blocks. Timofey Mozgov added 17 points, ormer All-Euroleague forward Viktor Khryapa of CSKA had 12, 6 rebounds and 8 assists, Vitaly Fridzon got 11 points and his BC Khimki Moscow Region teammate Sergey Monya had 10 for Russia.
France 59-66 Spain
If you ask me this was expected to be the most interesting Match-up in today’s Quarterfinal games. Even I am sad that France lost this Quarterfinal March-up mostly because of speculations that Spain wanted to avoid United States in semifinals. Very interesting game, with tight score most of the game. Finally, Spain deserves this win and qualified to Semifinals.
Marc Gasol led the winners with 14 points. Two-time Euroleague champion Juan Carlos Navarro of FC Barcelona Regal added 12 while former All-Euroleague forward Pau Gasol had 10 for Spain. Tony Parker and Boris Diaw had 15 points for France while Eurocup champ Florent Pietrus had 10 for Les Bleus.
Brazil 77-82 Argentina
Best game in Quarterfinals as Argentina wins over Brazil with 82-77. Great game and I must say that if you ask me, both teams deserved to play semifinals. It will be interesting to see how far Argentina may go, especially since we expect that United States will easily cruise over Australia.
Former All-Euroleague forward Luis Scola led the winners with 17 points. Former Euroleague winner Manu Ginobili and Carlos Delfino each added 16, two-time All-Euroleague forward Andres Nocioni of Caja Laboral had 12 while Juanpi Gutierrez got 11 for Argentina.
United States – Australia
United States had no problems to beat Australia and qualify to Semifinals. As all we expected, pretty easy win for United States and continued dominance on Olympic Basketball tournament. I am sure that there were a lot of people who were hoping that Australia could break winning streak of United States, but it seems that will have an easy task to win Gold medal.
Kobe Bryant led 6 USA players in double digits with 20 points. James added 11, 14 rebounds and 11 assists for a triple double. Patty Mills had 26 points for Australia while Joe Ingles of FC Barcelona Regal added 19. Kevin