The Hunt For The Final Four Begins

ISTANBUL (2010 FIBA World Championship) – If you’re still trying to digest the 40 minutes of dazzling, gritty, out-of-this-world basketball served up by Argentina and Brazil on Tuesday night in Turkey, we’ve got news for you.

Argentina’s 93-89 win over their South American rivals was merely an hors d'oeuvre.

It’s now time to begin the main course.

On Wednesday, it’s Spain v Serbia and then Turkey v Slovenia, both available live on FIBATV.com.

First up is a rematch of last year’s EuroBasket Final.

Spain, led by EuroBasket 2009 MVP Pau Gasol and Rudy Fernandez, destroyed the Serbians in Katowice 85-63 on September 20 but that was then, and this is now.

At the FIBA World Championship, Pau’s contributions are being made not in the paint but in the broadcast booth.

If an entire Serbian country is relishing the opportunity to get revenge, though, national team coach Dusan Ivkovic doesn’t want his players to look back.

"My players have to forget about last year's Final,” Ivkovic said.

“We all have one more year of experience and having watched the video of the Final, I have made my players understand that we can improve a lot on the game.

“If we want to face Spain in the right way, we cannot afford to make the mistakes we made against Croatia in the Eight-Finals.

“They are a great team that has won everything in the last few years, so we have nothing to lose."

Serbia won four of their five games in Group A, including a victory over Argentina to clinch first place, but only edged Croatia in their Eight-Finals clash, 73-72.

Turnovers, missed free-throws and a general lack of execution in the closing minutes allowed Josip Vrankovic’s side to come from behind and tie the game in the final minute before the savvy of Aleksandar Rasic saved Serbia.

Rasic scored off an inbounds play following a timeout with less than 10 seconds to go and then made two free-throws after drawing a foul on a fastbreak in the closing seconds.

As for Spain, well, there is no Pau. But there is his brother Marc Gasol as well as Fran Vazquez.

After a slow start, Vazquez has found a comfort zone with Spain in their last three games and was sensational in particular in their Eight-Final victory over Greece, an 80-72 triumph.

"Serbia is a great team where all of the players can shoot from long range,” Vazquez said.

“We must think about ourselves and not about our rivals. Serbia have taller and stronger players than Greece, but we must continue to work.

“We are looking forward to playing and reaching the Semi-Finals."

There are numerous aspects to this clash that are intriguing.

One of them is that Vazquez and Serbia center Kosta Perovic will be teammates at Barcelona next year. Spain’s Victor Claver was a teammate of Perovic’s the past two seasons at Power Electronics Valencia and will in 2010-11 play alongside Serbia’s Dusko Savanovic.

For some reason, Spain coach Sergio Scariolo has resisted giving Claver, one of the most athletic players in the squad, a chance to make an impact.

It may be something he ends up regretting.

There is also the battle of the backcourt.

While Spain seem to get an all-star performance out of Juan Carlos Navarro every time out, his Barcelona teammate Ricky Rubio has been inconsistent.

Might Rubio and Milos Teodosic of Serbia improve on their sub-par efforts in the Eight-Finals?

Will Felipe Reyes, who had a game-high 10 rebounds coming off the bench against Greece, be effective after aggravating a neck injury that forced him to fly home to Madrid on Sunday to have a specialist make sure he was okay?

Reyes returned to the team the following day with assurances that his neck was fine.

Which team’s reserves, in fact, will have a greater impact on the game? Spain’s bench is what carried them to victory over Greece.

Can Serbia’s Nenad Krstic be as dominant in the low post against Gasol as he was against Ante Tomic of Croatia?

Wednesday’s second game should be just as good, if not better, than the first.

Unfortunately for Slovenia, their fans haven’t been able to obtain as many tickets as they did for the Group B games at the Abdi Ipekci, at least they did not for their Eight-Final demolition of Australia.

Turkey’s supporters clearly had no trouble getting tickets on September 5 because a Sinan Erdem Dome that was half-empty for the opener between Slovenia and Australia was packed to the rafters for the game later that night between the tournament hosts and France.

Slovenia, therefore, who effectively had a home-court advantage in their pool games, have lost that important element of support.

It didn’t hurt them in their 87-58 drubbing of the Boomers but it will be more of a factor against the Turks.

If there has been a dominant theme to this FIBA World Championship, it’s been the zone defense employed by Bogdan Tanjevic’s Turkey which has so far strangled the life out of opponents.

Tanjevic, a genius, has been switching between a two-three zone and a two-one-two.

The zone killed France, who didn’t have a true point guard, but will it have the same effect on Slovenia and especially against Goran Dragic – a shifty, lightning-quick ball-handler who should have the ability to dribble past the Turkey guards and knife his way into the lane?

The zone is designed to cut off the penetration and the passing lanes.

Turkey’s players are so intent on disrupting the opponents’ offense that they often kick the ball.

Even the rivals that have managed to make a pass or get into the lane have still faced the prospect of overcoming Turkey’s giants Omer Asik, Hedo Turkoglu, Oguz Savas, Ersan Ilyasova and Semi Erden.

“The French game was easier than expected,” Asik said. “It was comfortable.

“But I don’t think the Slovenia game will be that comfortable.”

Slovenia won’t match up well with Turkey’s frontcourt.

Primoz Brezec, Gasper Vidmar and Uros Slokar are big bodies but haven’t dominated during the tournament the way Turkey’s tall men have.

What Slovenia do have, in addition to Dragic, is excellent guards and a 6ft 9in forward in Bostjan Nachbar who does everything well for the team on both ends of the floor.

Turkoglu says he and his teammates, and the fans, had better not be overconfident.

“[The France win] was important, but it should not be exaggerated. It was just one win,” Turkoglu said.

“Slovenia is a really good side with good players. It will not be like the one against France.

“I hope we win and get where we wanted.”

What will hurt Turkey is if their starting guard Kerem Tunceri is unable to shake off the ankle injury that forced him out of the game against France in the second half.

The zone defense goes down a level when he is not on the court, and the sight of Tunceri at the end of the Turkish bench with a bag of ice on his foot against Les Bleus means he is an uncertainty for the game.

Point guard Sinan Guler normally comes off the bench for Turkey and plays about 15 minutes but should get a lot more court time against Slovenia and deservedly so because he and Turkoglu were Turkey’s best players against France.

FIBA.org