The Greece that impressed in their debut against Montenegro (85-60) was countered with a great Brazilian defense in which center Anderson Varejao (22 points and 9 rebounds) and power forward Bruno Caboclo (8 points and 10 rebounds) shone. , with great moments from point guard Rafa Luz (4 points and 6 assists) and spectacular moments from Leandrinho Barbosa (13 points) and Marquinhos Sousa (15).
A triumph of carats for a Brazilian team that, however, could fall due to two final errors by Luz and forward Didi Louzada in two innocent fouls, but won a Greece with a gray Giannis Antetokounmpo despite his 13 points and 4 rebounds ; and in which flashes of Georgios Printezis (20 points), Nick Calathes (16 points and 7 rebounds) and Kostas Sloukas (9 and 11 assists) were not enough.
Anyone who thought that today’s match was going to be another Greek festival when they saw Antetokounmpo forcing a foul and scoring a two-handed mate in the first two minutes was very wrong, because Brazil had jumped onto the floor with the knife between their teeth in defense and with a magnificent Varejao under the ring, with whom he recovered and even went ahead on the scoreboard (11-9, min. 6).
In an intense duel, Greece achieved a slight advantage at the end of the first quarter thanks to Printezis’ outside success (15-19), who continued to strike in the second quarter by chaining a 3 + 1 play and a new success from the 6th, 75 to take the lead to seven goals (19-26, min. 13).
Greece had found in the outside game the way to circumvent the iron Brazilian defense, and the Printezis festival was joined by Nick Calathes with two successes in a row and a tray to put the highest income so far, of 15 points (23-38, min . 16), who were 17 with an ‘alley-oop’ from Printezis to pass from point guard Kostas Sloukas, against a Brazil that was absolutely beaten.
The terrible adverse partial 1-14 was stopped by Rafa Luz with a tray that entered agonizingly and was qualified by Marquinhos with a triple to reduce losses for the ‘canarinha’, who went to the locker room with a 30-40 that stopped the Greek storm .
Brazil had to react and they did, with a 6-0 after leaving the locker room with a hook and a layup from Varejao and a run from Marquinhos (36-40). Hellenic coach Thanasis Skourtopoulos called his team to a time out to make sure they had not stayed in the locker room.
With the Greek difference already invalidated, the match turned into a power-to-power duel in which the Brazilian defense left no loose ends and its veterans, Álex García and Marquinhos, struck in attack (52-48, min. 28).
Greece clung to Sloukas’ appearances, while Antetokounmpo watched from the bench with three fouls. Skourtopoulos had to take him out to pick up a rebound on the last play of the third quarter and force a 2 + 1 that made it 56-53 on the scoreboard with the last 10 minutes of the game remaining.
What remained was a quarter of power to power, in which Greece turned the mail around in two minutes (59-60, min. 32), although it was a fleeting change, because Brazil continued to dominate from defense and attacking with his classics: Leandrinho and Álex García, who entered the Hellenic defense like a knife in butter (67-62).
The Greek difficulties only increased with the fourth foul by Antetokounmpo, who was still on the track but without showing his star cache, because those who shone were Rafa Luz in the direction, making Leandrinho run, and Bruno Caboclo collecting rebound after rebound, with a 73-68 advantage to 2.22 from the end.
A good defense and a 2 + 1 from Calathes tried to rescue Greece, but a layup from Leandrinho, a rebound from Caboclo and a free kick from Leandrinho himself kept the ‘canarinha’ (76-71). However, an error by Luz gave an unsportsmanlike performance to Greece, which together with a triple from Printezis equaled the duel at 35.5 seconds.
Leandrinho entered and doubled back for Varejao’s ‘bombita’, and in the last Greek play Bruno Caboclo intercepted a pass to Antetokounmpo, an action that signed the Brazilian victory despite the fact that Sloukas enjoyed three free throws for an innocent foul by Brazilian Didi Louzada . The Greek guard missed one, so Brazil goes to the second phase and Greece will have to fight for a ticket against New Zealand on Thursday.
– Data sheet:
79 – Brazil (15 + 15 + 26 + 23): Luz (4), Benite, García (13), Caboclo (8), Varejao (22) -the starting five-, Leandrinho (13), Felicio (2), Huertas (2), Lima, Louzada and Marquinhos (15).
78 – Greece (19 + 21 + 13 + 25): Calathes (16), Papapetrou (7), Giannis Antetokounmpo (13), Papanikolaou (5), Bourousis (4) -initial quintet-, Papagiannis (4), Printezis ( 20), Sloukas (9) and Thanasis Antetokounmpo.
Referees: Antonio Conde (ESP), Intae Hwang (KOR) and Sergiy Zashchuk (UKR). Eliminated the Brazilian Rafa Luz (min. 39) and the Greek Giannis Antetokounmpo (min. 39).
Incidents: match of the second day of Group H of the 2019 China Basketball World Cup, played at the Nanjing Youth Games Pavilion. EFE