ATHENS (Greece) - One game does not define the sample size, but if their preparation game against Poland in the Peace and Friendship Stadium is anything to go by, the rest of the world will see a whole new style of play with Vassilis Spanoulis's Greece.
They won the game 78-73, with both teams just starting their camps ahead of the FIBA Olympic Qualifying Tournaments. Greece will host the one in Piraeus, while Poland travel to Spain in search of their Olympic ticket.
The story of the game
Coach Spanoulis knew he would have Giannis Antetokounmpo on board this summer, so he decided to surround him with shooters. Plenty of them, with everybody getting the green light to take the first shot available, especially when Nick Calathes is running the offense on the floor.
Giannis sat this one out, as did Jeremy Sochan on the Polish side of the court, both not yet game ready ahead of the OQTs. However, Giannis's teammates kept on behaving like he was out there and took an incredible number of threes.
Back at the FIBA EuroBasket 2022, Greece averaged 29.6 three-pointers attempted per game, and their FIBA Basketball World Cup 2023 number is right there, too, with 29.9 per game. In their game against Poland, Greece unleashed 41 three-pointers, making 13 of them.
They were especially effective in the first half, hitting nine of them, with the entire team getting 14 of their 26 assists before the break. The ideology was simple, the middle was open the entire time, even when Georgios Papagiannis was playing the center, spreading the floor with four three-pointers attempted.
Poland had a masterful first quarter which saw them lead the game 27-19, but as the game progressed, you could see their legs were still heavy from the first part of the training camp. There was no dramatic finish to the game, Greece led by eight up until the final few seconds, when Igor Milicic Jr set the final score with a three-pointer.
The player of the game
Productivity was the name of the game for Papagiannis. He only played 15 minutes in this one, but he scored 12 points, including two triples, taking on the matchup with Olek Balcerowski, but the duel had a sad ending.
With six minutes left to play in the third quarter, Papagiannis went in for a layup, got it to go, but as Balcerowski was coming down, he hit the Greek center just above the right eye, causing a stoppage of play due to heavy bleeding.
Luckily, Georgios was okay after leaving the court and getting help in the locker room. He came back to the bench with a few stitches above the eye, but there was no need to risk a greater injury, so coach Spanoulis opted not to send him back into the game.
The stats of the game
Greece attempted only 19 shots from inside the arc, a number which is bound to be a lot bigger once Giannis plays. They won the assists battle 26-15, while applying a lot of pressure and stealing the ball 10 times.
Poland also had 10 steals, but only converted three of their seven fastbreaks into points, never being able to get Greece out of their rhythm.
The takeaways from the game
Greece are obviously going to be shooting a lot of threes this summer, and those will be a bit more open when it's their Milwaukee Bucks superstar attacking the painted area. Hence, it's key for the entire backcourt of Greece not to be hesitant when they get the ball and the opportunity to shoot.
As for Poland, the modus operandi is the same as in the past. Once AJ Slaughter is on the floor, the offense looks way more fluid, not just because of his shooting, but his movement off the ball, which created good looks for others and even drew a smiling applause from coach Milicic when Slaughter's backdoor cut created a wide open triple for Michal Sokolowski.
The defensive issues will be much easier to tackle when Sochan gets cleared to play, probably in one of their two upcoming preparation games in Croatia.
FIBA