# Spain vs Greece



## Chef (Nov 24, 2002)

Tomorrow Spain will play against Greece in Leon (Spain). Greece won the previous match in Atenas by 13 points, if Spain wins this one by more than 13 points, they will classify first on their group
(Greece is already classified to the European championship)

I hope we watch an interesting game. Greece has a lot of young talent: Fotsis, Tsartsaris, Papadopoulos, Diamantidis, Diamantopoulos, Schortsianitis... and so does Spain : Navarro, F. Reyes, Sonseca, Grimau...

Greece will miss Diamantopoulos ( I wanted to see him against Navarro) and Papadopoulos, and Spain Garbajosa.

Look out for this duel: Schortsianitis vs F. Reyes. Both PF are strong and talented (I would say they are the strongest young PFs from Europe) and will fight in the paint 

My prediction: Spain wins by 7, 87-80


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## suspect (Sep 10, 2002)

Papadopoulos won't play because he is injured. (nothing serious but since we are already in Eurobasket they decided it wasn't necesarry to take the risk). Schortsianitis will most likely be in the squad. I hope our player with play with heart and not relax.(from the interviews they had they said they will fight). Hope to see a good game, the score will be like this:
134-135 2nd overtime 
113-113 1st overtime
91-91 end of 4th quarter


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## Chef (Nov 24, 2002)

134-135 2nd overtime 

I would love to see that score, even though Spain hadn't win


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## qwertyu (Dec 29, 2002)

Schortsianitis probably won't get many minutes if he plays at all that is. He's coming off an injury and Ioannidis has only used him in garbage time in other games. Ioannidis likes to use a big rotation (9 or 10 players) and our team looks like this

Diamantidis
Sigalas
Alvertis
Fotsis
Dikoudis

second unit:
Papaloukas
Hatzivretas
Kakiouzis
Tsartsaris
Schortsianitis

The only player on that team taller than 2.10m (6' 11") is Fotsis but we have a quick team and good rebounders.
This will look like a Eurobasket game even though Spain will play without Gasol (from what I hear he won't play at the Eurobasket this summer, is that true?).


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## Chef (Nov 24, 2002)

Final score

Spain 94
Greece 91


Spain won a very intense match against Greece, that was leading on the score until the final minutes. Anyway, Greece classified first in the Group, cause Spain needed more than 13 points of difference on the score to classify first

We could not see Schortsianitis upset: ) but we saw brilliant performances from

-Navarro 30 points
-Fotsis 22 points (5 of 7 3pt)
-F. Reyes 18 points 15 rebounds
-Ntikoudis 20 points 9 rebounds

I think Greece and Spain will be top contenders at the Eurobasket (along with Yugoslavia of course). Greece NT plays very physical but they still have an amazing shooting touch, and they have Fotsis, a player who does it all (He's a NBA player, Nowitzky tipe in my opinion).


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## suspect (Sep 10, 2002)

Yeah congratulations for the victory!!
Hopefully with the addition of a scorer, Diamantopoulos (sigalas should be in the NT but not start) and some centers Tsakalidis,Rentzias or Papadopoulos we will play better at Eurobasket.
La bomba killed us.....we should have put a better effort stopping him.
CU guys at Eurobasket (i'll be there since I live in Sweden


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## Chef (Nov 24, 2002)

> CU guys at Eurobasket (i'll be there since I live in Sweden)


You are very lucky , congrats. Will you give us detailed reports of the games you attend?    

Some pics with a digital camera would be appreciated also


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## qwertyu (Dec 29, 2002)

Greece was leading the score until we lost Fotsis because of fouls.
We still had Dikoudis but I think Ioannidis made a mistake by not using Diamantidis more on Navarro.
I don't think that Diamantopoulos is proven enough to replace Sigalas in the starting five. If someone should replace Sigalas it should be Hatzivretas, but I think it's better if Sigalas starts and Hatzivretas comes off the bench.
If one of the centers comes and plays next summer I think Fotsis will move to the 3 (his natural position) and Dikoudis at the 4. But I think we will still play with Fotsis and Dikoudis inside and either Alvertis or Kakiouzis will be playing at the 3, even if Rentzias starts.
I don't really like Rentzias but the truth is that he usually plays well for the NT.
Papaloukas should also start instead of Diamantidis, but Ioannidis likes Diamantidis' defense so I don't think that will change. Papaloukas has such a huge size advantage over most PG's and he has become the teams natural leader in my opinion along with Dikoudis, but sometimes when he faces very short point guards he has some problems.
Any other greek guys here that would like to discuss about our team and our chances at the Eurobasket in Sweden?

p.s. sorry to all the other posters if I turned this into a discussion only for Greek people, but you're all welcome to discuss 
It's just that here in Greece we have real high expectations from this team, after all the failures of our NT in the recent years and with the Olympics taking place in Athens next year.

Well anyway I think the 12 players (barring injuries) that will be on the team next summer will be
Diamantidis/Papaloukas/Harisis (third PG, we still need a short PG to guard guys like Navarro)
Sigalas/Hatzivretas
Fotsis(willl move to the 3 with Rentzias in the line-up)/Alvertis/Kakiouzis
Dikoudis/Tsartsaris
Rentzias/Papadopoulos

Papanikolaou, Schortsianitis, Diamantopoulos, Liadelis most likely won't make the team and Tsakalidis probably won't come to play either (I don't want him anyway).


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