Unimaginable Twist

I am happy for Spain and the USA for advancing to the finals, but right now I'm very anxious about Manu Ginobili's twisted ankle. The sight of him in pain was unimaginable. “He was pretty bad. He was in pain,” said fellow-Argentine Carlos Delfino.

The injury took place during the early period of the first quarter. Suddenly, Ginobili was limping off the court and sat. The pain was all over his face. I actually wished, it was just a joke to trick the Americans. But it was no joke at all, he's badly hurt. Several tests must be taken just to make sure that his ankle is fine. Otherwise, the worst that could happen is to have him in a surgery.

I really hope he's fine.

Clash of the Titans

As I watched the game between Croatia and Argentina last night, I reminded myself that the Croatians are as good as the other teams, so it could be a close fight. But as the game continued, the Croatians were suffering both on the offensive and defensive ends of the game. The Argentines were in control of the game and seized the chance of taking the lead right on the first quarter. What's probably worse for the Croatians was the 9-point score during the second quarter, which was the result of their poor shooting. And when it comes to defense, the Argentines displayed the best they had, stopping the Croatians from scoring in double-digits.

Andres Nocioni was the Man of the Night for Argentina, posting 18 points and eight rebounds. Following him was the Toronto Raptors star, Carlos Delfino adding 15 points, mostly three's, and six boards, sealing the game for Argentina and ruining the perfect record of Croatia, who is now tied with the Argentines in Group A.

As for Group B of the 2008 Beijing Olympics Men's Basketball, things are going smooth for the undefeated team USA. Team USA had no trouble defeating Greece 92-69 on Thursday, proving that they're better. I remember, the last time these two teams faced each other, it was the Greeks who ended up victorious. But since the Americans have proven that they're better and more mature, they deserve to be eventual winners of Group B if they win against Spainiards tomorrow, August 16. The court will definitely look like a battle field as soon as these two Group B titans meet.

One World, One Dream

I haven't written any post here for quite sometime and that's because, hmmm... it's a long story. I might as well just forget about it. And yes, I've pretty much changed the layout of my blog, for a change. [wink]

What I'm writing about this time is the approaching 2008 Beijing Olympics, which my friends is about to happen this August 8, 2008 [8-8-8]. Yes, I'm excited. Who isn't anyway?! Of course, among the highlighted events that'll take place ing the Olympics and what I am and most of my fellow-NBA fans have been anticipating is basketball. Twelve teams will be battling it out for the Olympic Gold. So, who's in? On Group A: Argentina, Australia, Croatia, Iran, Lithuania, & Russia. On Group B: Angola, China*, Germany, Greece, Spain, & the U.S.A. Achieving the Olympic Gold is going to be hard this time especially for the defending Olympic Champions - the Argentinian team. And that's because of the more solid lineup of team U.S.A. and of course, you can't count out teams Spain, Russia, and Greece. There's also a women division for basketball, which includes Australia, Belarus, Brazil, Korea, Latvia and Russia on Group A. Group B includes China*, Czech Republic, Mali, New Zealand, Spain, and the U.S.A.

So, how does a team achieve the Olympic Gold? First, the 12 teams will have to trim down their number to eight, meaning the top four teams for each group will be the ones who are moving on to the knockout stage. During the knockout stage, the top four teams from both groups will face each other and the four winning teams will carry on to the semis. Then, the two teams who will survive the semis are going to battle it out on the Gold medal game. The team who wins will achieve the elusive Olympic Gold. So, which team's are you rooting for? Are you going for the Kobe-powered team U.S.A.?