Olympic Basketball Group Stage Recap & Awards

Olympic Basketball Group Stage Recap & Awards

Handing out awards for the Olympic group stages and making some quarterfinal predictions.

Handing out awards for the Olympic group stages and making some quarterfinal predictions.

The men’s basketball group stage at the 2016 Rio Olympic Games ended on Monday, setting up what is bound to be an exciting knockout round beginning with the quarterfinals on Wednesday. 

The United States sleepwalked its way to a first-place finish in group A, while feisty Australia placed just one point behind the USA for second place in the group. France, the expected top challenger to the USA, and Serbia each advanced as well, eliminating Greivis Vazquez-less Venezuela and the lifeless China squad. 

Group B was much more closely contested as Croatia, Spain, Lithuania, and Argentina all finished tied for first, separated only by a tiebreaker, leaving host Brazil and surprisingly-competitive Nigeria out of the knockout stage. 

Let’s give out some awards from the group stage action and make some predictions for the upcoming knockout rounds.

Best Game 

Unquestionably the double-overtime battle between Brazil and Argentina that featured the atmosphere of a soccer match and the physicality of a UFC fight. 

Rivals in just about every event involving their national teams, Argentina and Brazil each came into the matchup not only needing a win to fortify their advancement in the tournament, but with the added pressure to take out an arch-nemesis. 

Nene did the heavy lifting for Brazil, showing off a grown-man post game to the tune of 24 points and 11 rebounds. Leandro Barbosa was curiously glued to the bench until late in the game. Once he was finally on the court he carried the Brazilian offense for stretches toward the end of the game. 

For Argentina it wasn’t the usual heroes, Manu Ginobili and Luis Scola, that turned in the best performances. Andrew Nocioni turned back the clock to a time that may not have even existed previously. The former NBA player and Argentinian vet notched 37 points and 11 rebounds, and managed to send the game to overtime after draining a three off of a broken play in the waning seconds of regulation. 

Point guard Facundo Campazzo, currently of Real Madrid and only 25 years old, an infant compared to the rest of the starting lineup, managed to conjure up the ghost of Jason Kidd. Campus was all over the court and ended the game with 33 points, four rebounds, 11 assists, and four steals. 

It’s a shame these two teams can’t play an annual best-of-South America grudge match. 

Best Performance (Individual) 

This award should probably go to Nocioni for the Brazil game, but for the sake of spreading the love around, I’ll go with Bojan Bogdanovic’s 33-point outburst in Croatia’s 90-86 victory over Brazil. 

The Brooklyn Net shot a blistering 10-16 from the field and added six rebounds and three assists in the win. 

Best Performance (Team) 

Australia shocked everyone right out of the gate with an 87-66 thumping of the penciled-in silver medalists France during the opening game. The Boomers shot a blistering 58 percent from the field while holding France to a pedestrian 46 percent shooting night. 

Andrew Bogut led the way with a solid all-around showing, posting 18 points, four rebounds, five assists, and solid interior post defense. Matthew Dellavedova notched 10 assists, mostly on lobs to Bogut, and Olympic Patty Mills dropped 21 and shot 4-9 from behind the arc. 

The performance boosted Australia into a successful group stage campaign, including a closer-than-it-sounds 10 point loss to the USA.

Group Stage MVP 

This might be a controversial pick but, as Twitter has been quick to point out, Dario Saric has looked like a Croatian Ben Simmons during the group stage. 

The future 76er (and Simmons teammate) threw up averages of 12.8 points, 7.8 rebounds, and 3.6 assists during group play and was the only player to finish in the top 20 of each category, albeit in an obviously small sample size. 

Quick shoutout to Yi Jianlian and Ike Diogu for being the lone bright spots on their respective teams. 

Quarterfinal Predictions

Based on the way both teams have been playing, Australia should handle Lithuania relatively easily barring a top notch performance from Jonas Valanciunas. 

In a battle of the Bogdanovic’s, expect Croatia to come out on top of Serbia ending the run of my favorite player to watch in the tournament thus far: Milos Teodosic. 

Arguably the two most talented teams outside of the USA will square up with France taking on Spain in quarterfinal matchup three. Despite the shakiness in the group stage, it's hard to bet against Spain in an international competition. 

Argentina will not be scared of the USA. That much I am certain of. If this were Argentina from four years ago, it would be a lot more worrisome. As it stands, I feel fairly confident in picking a less-than-spectacular USA squad. One of LeBron/Steph/CP3/Russ would be great right about now. 

Make sure to watch the quarterfinal games starting at 11 am Brazilian time on Wednesday and check back for more Olympic basketball coverage. 

The men’s basketball group stage at the 2016 Rio Olympic Games ended on Monday, setting up what is bound to be an exciting knockout round beginning with the quarterfinals on Wednesday. 

The United States sleepwalked its way to a first-place finish in group A, while feisty Australia placed just one point behind the USA for second place in the group. France, the expected top challenger to the USA, and Serbia each advanced as well, eliminating Greivis Vazquez-less Venezuela and the lifeless China squad. 

Group B was much more closely contested as Croatia, Spain, Lithuania, and Argentina all finished tied for first, separated only by a tiebreaker, leaving host Brazil and surprisingly-competitive Nigeria out of the knockout stage. 

Let’s give out some awards from the group stage action and make some predictions for the upcoming knockout rounds.

Best Game 

Unquestionably the double-overtime battle between Brazil and Argentina that featured the atmosphere of a soccer match and the physicality of a UFC fight. 

Rivals in just about every event involving their national teams, Argentina and Brazil each came into the matchup not only needing a win to fortify their advancement in the tournament, but with the added pressure to take out an arch-nemesis. 

Nene did the heavy lifting for Brazil, showing off a grown-man post game to the tune of 24 points and 11 rebounds. Leandro Barbosa was curiously glued to the bench until late in the game. Once he was finally on the court he carried the Brazilian offense for stretches toward the end of the game. 

For Argentina it wasn’t the usual heroes, Manu Ginobili and Luis Scola, that turned in the best performances. Andrew Nocioni turned back the clock to a time that may not have even existed previously. The former NBA player and Argentinian vet notched 37 points and 11 rebounds, and managed to send the game to overtime after draining a three off of a broken play in the waning seconds of regulation. 

Point guard Facundo Campazzo, currently of Real Madrid and only 25 years old, an infant compared to the rest of the starting lineup, managed to conjure up the ghost of Jason Kidd. Campus was all over the court and ended the game with 33 points, four rebounds, 11 assists, and four steals. 

It’s a shame these two teams can’t play an annual best-of-South America grudge match. 

Best Performance (Individual) 

This award should probably go to Nocioni for the Brazil game, but for the sake of spreading the love around, I’ll go with Bojan Bogdanovic’s 33-point outburst in Croatia’s 90-86 victory over Brazil. 

The Brooklyn Net shot a blistering 10-16 from the field and added six rebounds and three assists in the win. 

Best Performance (Team) 

Australia shocked everyone right out of the gate with an 87-66 thumping of the penciled-in silver medalists France during the opening game. The Boomers shot a blistering 58 percent from the field while holding France to a pedestrian 46 percent shooting night. 

Andrew Bogut led the way with a solid all-around showing, posting 18 points, four rebounds, five assists, and solid interior post defense. Matthew Dellavedova notched 10 assists, mostly on lobs to Bogut, and Olympic Patty Mills dropped 21 and shot 4-9 from behind the arc. 

The performance boosted Australia into a successful group stage campaign, including a closer-than-it-sounds 10 point loss to the USA.

Group Stage MVP 

This might be a controversial pick but, as Twitter has been quick to point out, Dario Saric has looked like a Croatian Ben Simmons during the group stage. 

The future 76er (and Simmons teammate) threw up averages of 12.8 points, 7.8 rebounds, and 3.6 assists during group play and was the only player to finish in the top 20 of each category, albeit in an obviously small sample size. 

Quick shoutout to Yi Jianlian and Ike Diogu for being the lone bright spots on their respective teams. 

Quarterfinal Predictions

Based on the way both teams have been playing, Australia should handle Lithuania relatively easily barring a top notch performance from Jonas Valanciunas. 

In a battle of the Bogdanovic’s, expect Croatia to come out on top of Serbia ending the run of my favorite player to watch in the tournament thus far: Milos Teodosic. 

Arguably the two most talented teams outside of the USA will square up with France taking on Spain in quarterfinal matchup three. Despite the shakiness in the group stage, it's hard to bet against Spain in an international competition. 

Argentina will not be scared of the USA. That much I am certain of. If this were Argentina from four years ago, it would be a lot more worrisome. As it stands, I feel fairly confident in picking a less-than-spectacular USA squad. One of LeBron/Steph/CP3/Russ would be great right about now. 

Make sure to watch the quarterfinal games starting at 11 am Brazilian time on Wednesday and check back for more Olympic basketball coverage. 

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