Basketball: Tall Blacks' dream after defeat against Greece

Greece 103
Big blacks 97

For the second time in their history in the basketball World Cup, the Tall Blacks will not participate in the second round.

Requiring a win over Greece to qualify for the last 16, the Tall Blacks were right in a major defeat cry over three periods, but the NBA MVP, Giannis Antetokounmpo, is proved too resistant, achieving a 103-97 victory and ending a superb World Cup Stadium.

The Tall Blacks were just one of four teams to have won the last 16 games in each cup since 2002. The other three, the United States, Spain and Argentina, are evolving, but the Tall Blacks are find in the consolation category, where they will play. Turkey and Japan, with their only potential prize to retain their place in the Olympic qualifying tournament.

New Zealand has missed its chance to qualify automatically. Australia has qualified for the Olympic Oceania place after reaching the last 16 places, blocking itself to finish ahead of the Tall Blacks.

In spite of their historical antecedents, the Tall Blacks having not progressed are exactly what a neutral expert would have predicted: Brazil and Greece have always been favored to take the next step, and they quickly made it . The hopes of the Tall Blacks to play a new appearance in the final 16 were not helped by a more difficult group stage, where only 50% of their pool progressed, as opposed to previous World Cups, where four six teams progressed from each group.

But the Tall Blacks made a name for themselves by overcoming obstacles, and although they came close, they failed to do the same in 2019.

In the end, they lost five and a half minutes, which cost them a chance to defeat Brazil. Even though they bounced back to beat Montenegro, Greece, the world's No. 8, has always been too difficult, although the Great Blacks have given them a fair fight.

This time, it was not the third quarter that was a problem, but the first, with a botched run at the end of the opening period, allowing Greece to take an advance that it would never give up. Rob Loe's worst moments in an otherwise awesome tournament saw him flip the ball three times and miss four free throws. Greece opened an advance of 28 to 19.

As he had all the tournaments, the shots of Corey Webster kept the Tall Blacks in the race, shooting five free kicks to reach 21 points in the first period. However, from the score of six minutes of the third quarter to 35 seconds in the fourth quarter, Webster lost the score while Greece found a way to silence him, while the Tall Blacks were surpassed by the talents of the quarterback. ; Antetokounmpo.

The outstanding Milwaukee Bucks player was incriminated 15 times as it proved difficult to stop the dribble, and as the Tall Blacks constantly applied paint to him, he did well to find open shooters, finishing with six assists for 10 rebounds and 24 points.

The Tall Blacks held up well, winning the second and third quarters with a sharper and more efficient performance as Tom Abercrombie pulled himself together, bringing the deficit down to five points and leaving a quarter. However, the incredible impact of Antetokounmpo freed more shooters early in the fourth quarter, and three consecutive triples boosted the lead to 12 points.

New Zealand is not dead wondering – trailing itself again in the five points with five minutes to play – but Greece has not flinched in front of the last desperate shots of the Tall Blacks, then that they went to the second round and that the Tall Blacks – for once – did not.