Sports/Olympics / Basketball
Greeks admit Spain were better prepared
(fiba.com)
Updated: 2006-09-05 08:48
SAITAMA (FIBA World Championship) - Greece players and their coach
admitted that Spain were the better prepared team as Spain defeated the
Greeks 70-47 in the final of the FIBA World Championship.
In the game of a life-time, the reigning European champions couldn't call
up their usual fighting spirit, as they were out-hustled by a motivated
Spanish team playing without injured center Pau Gasol.
"In three years we play one game very bad. Unfortunately it was the
final. But that happens. That's basketball," said Greek captain Mihalis
Kakiouzis.
"Today our minds were gone. We played really bad, especially on defense.
And that's our speciality. They took advantage of all of our mistakes on
defense."
The Spanish made 43 percent of their shots, but most importantly hit 12
of 30 three-pointers (40 percent) to initially pull away from the Greeks
and then keep them from coming back.
"The hardest thing is the way that we lost the game. They had us
hand-cuffed," added playmaker Theodoros Papaloukas.
"I think Spain was much more prepared than us today. They wanted the game
more. And for me, they really deserved the win."
Greek coach Panagiotis Yannakis said his team lost their faith in their
game.
"My players today didn't have patience and concentration for the game.
And this was the problem. We try too fast to do something when Spain took
the lead. We lost some easy rebounds and that took our lose our faith for
our game. It was the same problem for everybody. Tonight we didn't have
the passion to come back," the coach said.
Greece are now left to think about what they gained from this tournament.
And then they will begin thinking about further tournaments in the
future, including next summer's EuroBasket in Spain.
"This was the first World Championship for me. I had a great time, and I
hope Greece will be here again and maybe win the gold medal next time,"
Papaloukas said.
And Kakiouzis added: "I told some journalists that we would not be happy
if we lose tonight. And we are not happy with the silver. We want to try
and win everything. We deserved to be in the final. And it was a big day
for us, winning the first medal in the history of our country. But we
wanted more. Now maybe we can play Spain in the final next year for
Europe."
Papaloukas said it will take a few days for the satisifaction of Greece's
first FIBA World Championship medal to sink in.
"Right now we have a strange feeling. But you say that a country of 10
million people beat the U.S.A. - a great team with great players - and
they won a silver medal with an 8-1 record, I think it's good. But you
have to stay focused. Life isn't done. We have more tournaments. This
team is young. And we're going to do a lot of things in the future."
And Papaloukas added: "Sometimes losses are more important than wins
because you learn things. I keep all the good things. And from this loss
I have to remember that this tournament is big and you have to wait until
the end. Still, it's a very big success for Greek basketball."
The playmaker said what's important is that Greece are the second best
team in the world.
"Nothing can take back any of the big things that we've already done. If
we had won everything here then we may not have the motivation for the
future. Now we have the motivation to work even harder and win the next
time."
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