We will spare you too many of the gory details of Team USA’s massacre of Finland. Here’s all you need to know: The Finns were 0-for-17 from the field in the second quarter.
If you watched the entire game, congratulations.
You have proven yourself worthy of throwing away two perfectly good summertime hours from your Labor Day weekend that could have been spent doing something more enjoyable, like watching paint dry.
Day One of the 2014 FIBA World Cup is in the books, and the only people who are disappointed are those who thought taking Finland and the 35 points was a worthy gamble.
At least one American did, and he is $1 poorer because of it. Hint: He was at the game in Bilbao, and he had the funniest tweet of the game. It concerned Tom Thibodeau.
Making $1 bets on basketball games is permissible even among the most puritan of journalists. I have been betting $1 on Knicks games for about 15 years with a longtime beat writer who is not named Frank Isola, and we carry over the balance from season to season without ever squaring up.
Myself, I am still down $1, net, on this year’s Team USA games after getting beaten up in two straight friendlies (we alternate on who gets to make the pick.) I will go ahead and make a prediction: The Americans will be favored by 39 1/2 over Turkey when the line is posted, and the spread will move into the 40s from there.
But back to Saturday’s US-Finland game, and noteworthy items from other games, because you came here for details:
_ Finland was one of the wild card entries into the tournament after defeating Greece, Turkey, Russia and Slovenia last year at Eurobasket. You can poke fun at them all you want, but Murphy, Peteri Kaponen and the unfortunate Gerald Lee (three fouls in the first 2 minutes, 8 seconds) can at least boast that they are playing. So take that, Timofey Mozgov, Danilo Galinari and Yi Jianlian. There is no joy in losing by 59, but it is better than watching on TV because you let down your entire country by failing to qualify — as was the case for the Italians, the Russians and the Chinese. Oh, and another thing. Murphy gets to play with LeBron James next season if he makes the Cavs in training camp. They got him in a trade with the Jazz.
_ Who played great for Team USA? Heck, who didn’t? OK, there actually was one guy who didn’t: Stephen Curry (should we start a debate over whether Klay Thompson should be starting ahead of him? Hey, we’ve all grown tired of the Kyrie Irving v. Derrick Rose debate). Curry was 0-for-5 on 3s and 1-for-6 overall, though he did have five assists — matching the number of turnovers committed by Rose. DeMar DeRozan also merited dishonorable mention for going 1-for-5.
_ Klay Thompson was high scorer with 18 points and Anthony Davis had 17. Take away the, ahem, shooting of DeRozan and Curry, and the remainder of the U.S. team shot 41-for-62 (66 percent). Rose was a plus-45 in 23 minutes. James Harden had four steals. Andre Drummond make his only foul shot — though it hung on the rim long enough that someone could have knocked it out of the basket cylinder, which is allowed in FIBA games, if the players weren’t as disinterested as the folks watching back at home, whether in Helsinki or Hyannis.
_ The game was so boring that it offered viewers the opportunity to Google Miss Finland. Her name is Bea Toivonen, and she apparently doesn’t miss many meals. And you now have an explanation for the photo posted above. They should name a panda after her: “Chin-chin.”
Thankfully, the USA-Finland game wasn’t the only one being played. Some fast facts from the other games:
_ Best match of the day was Brazil-France, won by the old men from South America 65-63. The Brazilians have 10 guys on their roster 29 or older. (The Americans have none.) Brazil coach Ruben Magnano went 12 deep, using every player on his roster. Marcelinho Huertas, who is not playing in the NBA only because his buyout with FC Barcelona is 8 million Euros (not a typo), led Brazil with 16 points and five assists. France is playing without Tony Parker and Joakim Noah.
_ Some consolation news to fans of the Indiana Pacers, who just learned that Ian Mahinmi (Roy Hibbert’s backup) is out 2-3 months with a dislocated shoulder. Indiana reserve Luis Scola, who did quite the Houdini impression during the NBA playoffs, had 20 points and nine rebounds in Argentina’s 98-75 victory over Puerto Rico. Also in this game, the market for trade bait J.J. Barea of the Timberwolves may have heated up as he went for 24 points and shot 5-for-8 from downtown. Why on Earth did Sam Hinkie not get him in the Thaddeus Young deal? The Sixers confuse us.
_ In the Yo Brooklyn! department, incoming Net Bogan Bogdanovic had 26 points in Croatia’s 81-78 overtime victory over the Philippines. Former Net and unsigned free agent Andray Blatche had 28 points and 12 boards for his adopted homeland in a losing cause. Sixers property Dario Saric had 10 points, nine rebounds and four assists for Croatia.
_ Spain defeated Iran 90-60, making the 30 point spread a push (the 23-point Greece-Senegal line was a push, too). Hamed Haddadi had 16 points, 15 rebounds and seven turnovers. He is one of 30 former NBA players in the tournament, along with 45 active NBA players and 17 players whose rights are held by NBA teams. For Spain, Pau Gasol had 33 points in 29 minutes and Marc Gasol had 15 points in 31 minutes. Serge Ibaka was a DNP. (hamstring).
_ Dante Exum might have been a poor pick for All-Tournament team. He had no points, one assist and one turnover in 11 minutes of Australia’s 90-80 loss to Slovenia.
_ Jonas Valanciunas was 8-for-8 from the field in Lithuania’s 87-74 victory over Mexico. Lithuania shot 55 percent from 3-point range. They are the only team, in my opinion, that has even the slightest chance of defeating Team USA in the knockout stage. The teams would likely meet in the semifinals.
_ Aron Baynes (New Zealand, UFA-Spurs) and Gorgui Dieng (Senegal, Timberwolves) each scored 21 points as their teams lost.
Chris Sheridan is publisher and editor-in-chief of SheridanHoops.com. He has covered every senior U.S. national team since the 1996 Olympics (and will be reporting on the 2014 World Cup on-site from Barcelona and Madrid from Sept. 5-16). Follow him on Twitter.
what the crown and residential school survivors
Chicks spend their first few weeks in a warm brooding room within the cattle
barn. Workhorses have helped David Fisher power Natural Roots Farm since 2000.
A wise traveler back then always asked to look inside a cabin before renting.
My webpage Hay Day Hacks (Mahalia)
Wow, those comments about Miss Finland are absolutely disgusting. I googled her, too, and she’s not even remotely fat – actually, she looks borderline anorexic in several of her swimsuit photos! Maybe they were older photos, though – in the more recent ones she looks like a blonde bombshell with a perfect body.
Sheridan’s comments are all the more pathetic when you see his photo next to his byline and realize that he is a balding, bug-eyed man who looks like he fell out of the ugly tree and hit every branch on the way down.
This garbage might have gotten my click, but it’s also getting this long-time reader to UNFOLLOW. Goodbye Sheridan Hoops!
Mr. Sheridan,
Of your sardonic article, as a seasoned basket ball expert, should be useful to take a look behind the scenes.
Me, as a Finn, I am still proud of the game and the supportive fans as well: this was the first time ever Finland has been in this tournament, and the first adversary is the indisputable might in basket ball. For the Finnish team,it was perhaps the once in lifetime they could play against these stars.
Fnland is a midget of basket ball, admitted, our national sport is hockey. With the population of 5 million, to compete at top level at any sport requires an effort. USA has 4 (four) times basket ball players the population of Finland.
Statistics:
USA basket ball players, autumn 2013: 21,93 million
Finland: players 61 000, registered players: 16 000, of them under 18 years: 10 000.
source:http://www.statista.com/statistics/227414/number-of-basketball-players-usa/
Ice hockey we have managed better, Sochi winter olympics, pronze medal for Finland, also beating USA 5-0. Yet, this mocking attitude seems to be missing in the hockey scene.
Registred players in hockey: Finland 66 000 against USA 510 000.
And of Miss Finland: using more time to google, you would have learned that her mother is also a former miss Finland. As a fact, Bea resembles a lot of her mother during her days. The look is in her genes.
Respect, man 😉
Chris, I guess you didn’t google Bea. She may eat healthy and not miss meals but she is no where near large, as your “Chin-Chin” comment tried to imply. Stay in your lane buds, Basketball is what you comment on well.
Well he got all of us to Google Miss Finland images. Now, I will look forward to watching the Miss Universe contest to see which Miss Finland shows up. From the other photos, she’s not at all overweight and is more beautiful than any American contestants I have ever seen. Her mother was Miss Finland of 1985, but I wasn’t able to find out if mom, turned out to be obese.
And since Chris gets paid more advertising dollars if there are more comments and clicks, his side-act appears to have been a success.
Actually, USA should have won by more than 70 pts but were rather sloppy with the ball. So often they would force steals only to give the ball back. Cousins has fantastic ability to make things happen. I still can’t believe that Rod Thorn took Favors over Cousins, because he said DeMarcus was a “stone cold 5”, after boasting a philosophy that one should take the best player available.
People may wonder why TeamUSA doesn’t go easier on its opponents? Actually, the players are aware that the media and fans will be comparing this team to teams of the past. People do compare score differentials and lets not forget that the rest of the world IS getting better. Of course it will all be for nothing if USA doesn’t win every game.
Regarding former Net Andray Blatche; Billy King can still come to his senses and re-sign Dray, as Nets still own his Early Bird rights. Nets would have 16 players under contract, but could trade the useless Marcus Teague and his 1.1 M contract, with the help of a 2nd rounder and/or some cash. I have a feeling the reason that won’t happen doesn’t have to do with basketball. I suspect KG and Blatche don’t get alone or Dray did something very nasty off the court (maybe involving someone’s wife). No reporter has revealed the true reason, but apparently GMs of other teams have been notified.
Nets can still do well without Blatche, but he would be insurance against injury to one of the Nets’ bigs.
In other news, will the MEDIA attempt to redact the title of Michael Sam being the “First Openly Gay NFL player”?
To think that Oprah wanted to have a Reality TV show, before people advised her otherwise.
Let’s try Around Baynes as Australia and RFA
Spurs.
Dang new phone!!! Aron Baynes of course.
“Her name is Bea Toivonen, and she apparently doesn’t miss many meals. And you now have an explanation for the photo posted above. They should name a panda after her: “Chin-chin.”
First and foremost, I would like to say I have been a reader of yours since the 2010 World Championships, you are an awesome authority on international basketball and I will continue reading because the content is excellent.
With that being said, you should seriously consider redacting that comment. A lot of Americans, including myself, have had eating disorders effect either their families or themselves, and no small part of the reason for it is the skewed sense of what is permissible and what isn’t in regards to societies perception of beauty. Comments like that contribute to this problem. The woman in that photograph is absolutely gorgeous, and the fact that Finland is able to not only recognize that women can still be beautiful and not be unhealthily thin, but also perpetuate that by using Ms. Toivonen to represent their nation as Miss Finland is, in my strong opinion, something that should be celebrated rather than ridiculed in such a crass manner.
Again, you are an awesome writer, keep up the great work. Just please, don’t be disrespectful to someone just because they have a healthy body image.
Chris Sheridan, I think you’re a nasty pervert and delusional when it comes to beautiful women. Bea Toivonen sure is prettier than any American white trash anorectic you might consider beautiful. That’s sad, really. I guess that’s what you get paid for. Have a nice life hating yourself for being such a witty dude.