An ouzo in the morning

At least, I'm thinking that's what's going on on the Danforth today: Greece 101, U.S. 95, and there was no doubt about it, actually.

They were calling this a "huge upset" on the TV, then started slowly retreating from that hyperbolic plateau with excuses. But let's be plain. When you haven't won this world championship since 1994 (in Toronto, it was, comeback-minded Shawn Kemp in full crotch-grabbing mode) and finished a deserved third at the last Olympic tournament, it's not really much of a surprise, is it?

ANDREES LATIF/REUTERS

Lebron's look says it all.

Throw in a defence (and coaches on the bench, watching goggle-eyed) that looked like it had never seen a pick-and-roll -- the Greeks blew it wide-open with a third quarter in which they shot a hellacious 14 of 18 and scored 30 points, and never did they go away from that simple NBA meat 'n potatoes fare -- and it was more like a dissection, with Houston-bound Vassilis Spanoulis playing your ninth-grade biology teacher, Sofoklis Schortsianitis the 315-pound scalpel and the U.S. as the ex-frog smelling of formaldehyde.

The Americans were actually up by 12 in the second quarter, and looked to be on their way, then the Raptors' Chris Bosh was at the centre of the collapse, having a nightmare within this American nightmare after coming on with 2:46 remaining before halftime. Bosh made a jam off a Joe Johnson feed to put the U.S. up by three before it all came apart for them. Matched against the 21-year-old Schortsianitis, whom the Clippers were apparently courting without success this summer, it was a bulldozer against a reed. Two dunks off the screen/roll. A lay-up, after bulling his way under the basket for position against Bosh. And on the fourth possession, now matched against someone else as the American defence appeared scattered, Bosh was left on the floor looking for a foul that didn't come after his man barged over him off the dribble and got to the rim. An 8-0 Greece run just before halftime that turned the game, it was, and Bosh never saw the floor again.

Krzyzewski never looked to his bigs at all in the fourth quarter, Brand and Howard, the latter in beastly form earlier, joining Bosh on the bench. All Greece did was keep playing solid, intelligent basketball at their preferred tempo, and there was something of a clinical feeling to it.

So it's the bronze-medal game Saturday for the U.S. and the Greeks on to Sunday morning's final. Just don't go calling this an upset. The way it unfolded, there was almost no surprise at all.

RELATED: The Basketball Jones live-blogged it.

Comments

[Dan]

haha...

[Farhan Lalji (not the dude from TSN)]

What exactly does this say about NBA basketball when a team with a couple of "courted" players take out a team with an NBA champion, a bunch of All-stars and last years Rookie of the Year?

Coach K and the team basically made the same mistake the last couple of US national teams have made, relying on individuals, not working on the fundamentals (pick and what?) and having a "we must destroy every team" mentality so when faced with adversity the team didn't really respond.

Great result for basketball as a sport, terrible for the US team which had some people convinced they had learnt from their previous failures.

[cy]

Well said Farhan. Coach K looked lost. He wasn't the only one. Everyone stood around while the game got away from them. And The Game is getting away from them. There was some excuse making on the broadcast about not having enough time to prepare, but basically also the realization that this team, supposedly built as a team, was beat by a better team. Keep this same US group and they should be better in two years, but so too will teams like Spain, who are just as young and just bursting with talent.

[Julian]

It's reminiscent of the upsets in the NCAA tournament. A team like Utah a couple of years ago that plays disciplined basketball within their own system and can shoot from outside will always have a great chance to win. They are a true team playing againsta group of players that are built around isolation offences, the dunk, and crashing the boards.

It's a different year but the same story: Americans can't play the fundamentals and a good team can exploit that weakness

[Farhan Lalji (not the dude from TSN)]

Like the point about Spain. I saw Rudy Fernandes play in Kiev in the European championships earlier this year, the kid can flat out play. You give him, Calderon, Gasol, Garbajosa and the rest of the Spain team two years and what are they going to be like? Not to mention the fact that the Greek team was filled with youngsters who love to play d-fense. Not going to get easier at all.

[Tommy]

Once again Chris Bosh gets abused in the post. A theme at the world championships, and a theme during the NBA regular season. The guy's probably better off playing SF in an Al Harrington-type role. The only reason we stuck him in the post was because we had the likes of Loren Woods, Mamadou N'Diaye, Pape Sow, Rafael Araujo, etc. etc. as our other bigs...

[Mike]

Many will say how Coach K didn't do a very good job in this game, but I think this game proves that Greece's MVP in the tournament thus far has not been Spanoulis, Fotsis or Diamantidis, but Coach Giannakis. I'm sure he could teach a couple of NBA coaches on how to coach a winning team.

[voislav]

It is also interesting that Greece is pretty much the first team US faced with a deep bench, where there is not much dropoff, if any, from the starting five. I've felt throughout this tournament that more than anything US is wearing its opponents down, forcing the starters to play long minutes until either they get tired or are substituted for a lesser player who is than easily exploited. This is going to be less possible in the future because more and more international teams are getting deeper and I don't really expect US to get any more succesful in the international play.
Isn't it ironic that this "Dream Team" with all the hype and everything might just equal the bronze won by the 1998 Team, featuring Trajan Langdon, Mateen Cleaves, Jimmy King, one of my all-time favourites Wendell Alexis and one Brad Miller. I wonder how Brad feels about that.

[Gus Pergantis]

It never ceases to amaze me that people are quick to call the defeat of the US to Greece as a major upset. These so called basketball experts (insert US Media here) were talking Spain and Argentina all tournament long as a Finals match against the US, totally ignoring a team such as Greece. If people had done their homework (insert US coaching staff here) the US might have had a better showing against Greece.
Some facts that probably were overlooked by all: 1) Greece a final four participant in 3 of the last 4 World Championships (outside of US no other country can claim this!) 2) Greece are reigning Eoro champs beating both Spain and Germany in the process 3) Greece was in toughest group where three of the final eight teams came from in this tournament - and they were undefeated in Group!! 4) Greece destroyed Germany and Dirk 84-47 to win a tournament prior to the WC's and 5) Greece destroyed Italy and France to win another tournament two weeks before WC's. The scary part of this is that a catalyst player named Zisis was hurt in the Brazil game and hasn't played since and I would hazard a guess that if he played the US might not have reached the 95 points they got today. It was only an upset to those who feel that Spain and Argentina are better teams than Greece but to the people that understand the games played know better!