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What's coming up? August 23: Group A
(fiba.com)
Updated: 2006-08-23 11:33 Nigeria vs Argentina
SENDAI (FIBA World Championship) - Nigeria welcomed their day off today as they failed to play with the same degree of intensity in their past two games - both defeats - as they did in their group opener to upset Serbia & Montenegro. "These two losses have been very disappointing but we can meet our goal that we set coming into this tournament of winning a couple of games and advance to the second round. That's still very much on the cards," Nigeria head coach Sam Vincent said. The African nation trained today and reviewed some of their game tapes to figure out what they did wrong and hope to make the necessary adjustments in time for tomorrow's encounter with the Olympic champions. Vincent welcomed the day off, especially for some of his more experienced players. "The older guys on the team find it tough to play three games in three days. I know by looking at Julius (Nwosu) that in the last two games he didn't have the same presence as he did against Serbia & Montenegro. So the rest and recuperation should do them some good." There is some optimism within the Nigeria camp that they can return to the way they played in the first game. "In the final quarter of the last two games we've been that team that won on the first day. We gave ourselves a fighting chance against Venezuela and rallied back against France late in the game by being energetic and aggressive. We need to play like that for the full game." Meanwhile top of the group Argentina will hope the one-day break won't slow them down after they played near flawless games against Lebanon and Venezuela, whom they beat by 35 and 42 points respectively. "We just try to play perfect basketball for 40 minutes," Argentina head coach Sergio Hernandez said. "We don't want to embarrass our opponents but at the same time we don't want to insult them either by playing less than 100 per cent." But Manu Ginobili warned this next game would not be like that. "Nigeria showed against Serbia & Montenegro that they have the ability to surprise and even though they lost their last two games you can't rule them out. We won't take them lightly."
SENDAI (FIBA World Championship) - Venezuela were equally glad not to have to play a game today after a resounding 96-54 defeat to Argentina in which they shot only 27 per cent. Captain Victor Diaz had an off night, finishing with just six points on 2-6 shooting, a day after scoring 24 against Nigeria. "That's the way the game goes some times. One day shots fall and the next they don't," he said. "I won't make excuses for a bad game. We must recover and prepare for the last two games." "We have to put the first three games behind us and just focus on the ones we still have to play." Head coach Nestor Salazar conceded the game against the Olympic champions was always going to be a tough one but that Venezuela had some lapses. "We played against a great team, who did very well defensively but we lost our temper at times and that's why we lost by so many points. We have to learn to stay calm," he said. Serbia & Montenegro will look to carry over some momentum from their impressive rout of Lebanon as they make a push to get through to the knockout stages and keep their title defense alive. "We had a good win yesterday and now we must beat Venezuela to have a chance of going through to the next round," Marko Marinovic said. "Our first two games I felt we were very unlucky but I hope that we have turned things around." Dragan Sakota's men - the winners at the FIBA World Championship in Indianapolis - certainly looked the part on Monday night, shooting 63 per cent from the field, including 12 of 20 from three-point range.
SENDAI (FIBA World Championship) - Everyone seems to believes France have played the toughest three games of the group and that the last two should be guaranteed wins - everyone except France that is. Claude Bergeaud is well aware that Lebanon and Venezuela could turn out to be dangerous opponents, especially after a day's rest. "We can't underestimate any team in this tournament. We have to approach these two remaining games as if we were playing in a final." Les Bleus though are happy with how they have performed so far considering the last minute loss of star playmaker Tony Parker. "Overall I would say that we have accomplished what we set out to do in the first three games. We wanted to win one of the games against Argentina and Serbia & Montenegro and we did that," Bergeaud added. "The game against Nigeria was a surprise to be honest. I didn't think we were going to win by 11 points. But they fought back late on and gave us a bit of a scare. That's why I think we have to strike first against Lebanon. We can't give them a chance to go out in front." France will be encouraged by the solid play of their substitutes Joseph Bokolo, Mamoutou Diarra who were both instrumental in the win over Nigeria. Lebanon head coach Paul Coughter said he saw this game as a good experience for his side but added that he didn't have any real hopes of beating a team that finished third at last year's FIBA European Championship in Belgrade. However, Bergeaud doesn't necessarily buy into this. "Of course he will say that he doesn't expect anything from this game other than the experience of it for his players. However, deep down they'll be looking for something good to come out of it. Basketball is not the first thing on the mind of the Lebanese players at the moment but they will want to get a good result against us so we have to be on our guard."
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