Anyway, we didn't deserve to win. The coaching was just horrible. How can you let Dennis Schröder play 30 minutes ( the most of all players ) while he is shooting 4/26 (3 of them layups). I mean you can miss shots, but not like this.
We were up 6 or 7 with 2:25 to go, and Schröder shoots a 3 with 14 seconds left on the shot clock. What kind of decision making is this please? And after the rebound and attack of Latvia Schröder gets a technical foul for flopping, 1 more point for Latvia.
As a coach you HAVE TO take him out. Bench him the whole 4th quarter. This was just terrible. With a similar performance on Friday we will lose by 40 against the USA.
I think it's such kind of situation when player is bigger than a team. Coach can't bench him even when he brings team down. I don't like such management, but I understand such kind of decision, considering that Schroder isn't easy personality.
When Germany had +10 in 4th quarter, I was almost that's over, but Latvia don't give up so easy. And that last Bertans buzzer-beater - it was very close. It was just debut World Cup for Latvia, but they achieved much more than most of us expected. Congrats with Germany win. Not sure about your chances against USA, but now you already got spot in 2024 Olympics.
Sorry, Luka Doncic fans. It hurts.
Just kidding.
Well, to summarize it, Canada used all their weapons to win this game. RJ Barrett was hot, SGA doing his normal thing, and Alexander-Walker stepped up his game. While on the Slovenian side, there's Luka and Prepelic only, actually, it's mostly in the hands of Doncic.
The first half was fun very close game on that part and they ended it with a tie. Slovenia was playing with lots of energy and then the second half happened. 3rd quarter was all Canada, Barrett precisely. Then, the referees became aggressive at calling lots of fouls. There was a time in the fourth quarter when I thought Slovenia could try to come back but SGA quickly stopped the bleeding by an and1 and IMO, that's also the dagger that ended the game.
There is a reason why I don't like Slovenia. When game doesn't goes as they planned, they start to argue with referees too much. And today they wasted too much energy on it, instead of trying to make a comeback. Doncic, c'mon, you're leader of team and you leave your team alone in 4th quarter getting 2 technical fouls. And IMO, referees worked well today. What is pleasant surprise, considering that there is no Eurloeague referees and there was lot of scandals about referees work in previous FIBA torunaments.
Gilgeous -Alexander, another perfect performance from him and now he looks like main contender to become tournamnet MVP.