LITHUANIA vs. TEAM USA -- Thursday, 3:00 p.m. ET
How did Lithuania get here? Lithuania's quarterfinal 73-61 win over Turkey put them into the semifinals. Once again, Jonas Valanciunas showed his game and impact are growing at a rapid pace. He set the tone inside with a 12-point, 13-rebound performance, which also included going 5-of-9 from the field and blocking a shot. He drew Omer Asik's fourth foul (remember FIBA only allows five of them) early in the fourth quarter, which hurt Turkey considering he was having a great game. Asik finished with 11 points, 10 rebounds, and two blocked shots.
Aside from Valanciunas' big impact, Renaldas Seibutis was the leading scorer with 19 points on 6-of-10 shooting (including a perfect 3-of-3 from 3-point range and 4-of-4 from the free throw line. Seibutis and Martynas Pocius (13 points and three assists) completely outplayed the guard trio of Sinan Güler, Ender Arslan, and Kerem Tunçeri. Turkey's inconsistent outside shooting finally sank them, as they made just 3-of-18 from downtown. Lithuania was incredibly accurate from outside by going 10-of-19.
How did Team USA get here? There was a legitimate struggle in the first half against Slovenia. Domen Lorbek, Goran Dragic, and Zoran Dragic were doing a fantastic job of matching Team USA. They were only down seven at half and looked to be poised to take this game down to the very end. Stephen Curry wasn't involved much at all while they had James Harden start the game 0-for-9 from the field. But then the floodgates opened up for Team USA in the second half and they cruised to a victory that showed just how quickly they can jump all over an opponent without having to overextend themselves.
They used a 70-34 advantage in the second half of the game to end up winning 119-76. Harden finally was able to right the ship and recovered to finish with 14 points on 4-of-14 shooting. Klay Thompson led all scorers with 20 points on 7-of-12 shooting. Big men Kenneth Faried and Anthony Davis combined for 10 offensive rebounds, as Team USA dominated the offensive glass with 24 of them. Faried had 14 points and 10 rebounds while Davis finished with 13 points, 11 rebounds, and three blocks. Derrick Rose looked great too with 12 points and five assists. Their defense also forced 25 turnovers in the rout.
Key matchup: Anthony Davis vs. Jonas Valanciunas. This will be the marquee match-up of the game and maybe even of the entire round. You have two up-and-coming big men who look to be ready to take huge leaps this season. Valanciunas will have to use his strength and mass against Davis inside. Davis' length can do so much damage on the defensive end and around the rim on offense. Valanciunas has a huge strength advantage but he has to be able to throw it around without actually fouling and getting his minutes cut due to foul trouble.
Valanciunas is averaging 12.9 points, 8.6 rebounds, and 1.3 blocks while making 73.1 percent of his shots. Davis is averaging 13.7 points, 7.0 rebounds, and 2.3 blocks while making 54.9 percent of his baskets. It should be a great battle between the two.
Outlook for the game: Lithuania is a very proud and dangerous basketball team, but without Sarunas Jasikevicius and Linas Kleiza, it's hard to believe they have the leadership and firepower to compete with Team USA for a full 40 minutes. Lithuania's size can be matched by the bigs USA brought with them, so then it comes down to perimeter play where the United States has a vast superiority. We may see another game like Slovenia-USA in which it's competitive for quite a while before Team USA makes it look like a laugher.
SERBIA vs. FRANCE -- Friday, 4:00 p.m. ET
How did Serbia get here? Serbia destroyed Brazil with an 84-56 win. The win itself isn't shocking for Serbia, but the fact that they turned this into such an embarrassing experience for a very good Brazilian team is certainly shocking. Much like we saw in the USA's win over Slovenia, this game was close for a half and then a blowout in the second half. Brazil fought in an ugly first half to be down 37-32. The points were hard to come by for both teams, but Brazil just couldn't anything going on the perimeter, which took away the effectiveness of their NBA big men.
Then in the second half, Serbia scored more points (29) in the third quarter than Brazil did in the third and fourth quarters combined (24). Bogdan Bogdanovic had a nice scoring game for Serbia with 12 points on 5-of-9 shooting, but Milos Teodosic was the big star of the game. He scored 23 points on 5-of-9 shooting and went 10-of-10 from the free throw line. He also had four assists to lead Serbia to the easy second half victory. Only Anderson Varejao (12) and Marquinhos Vieira (12) broke into double-digit scoring from Brazil. Nene and Tiago Splitter were only able to combine for seven points on 3-of-15 shooting in 36.5 minutes.
How did France get here? With the upset of the tournament! France was always good enough to give Spain a game and they're certainly big time rivals in international play in various sports. But they completely shut down an impressive Spanish attack and went on to fight for a 65-52 victory. Spain flat-out couldn't make shots. They shot 32.3 percent from the field and were 2-of-22 (9.1 percent) from 3-point range. This impressive front line for Spain was destroyed on the boards as well, losing the battle on the glass 50-28. Pau Gasol scored effectively with 17 points on 12 shots and Juan Carlos Navarro broke into double digits with 10 points on 11 shots. Nobody else on Spain cracked six points.
The frontcourt of France was much better in this game. Boris Diaw was the phenomenal leader with 15 points, five rebounds, and three assists. But even more impressive was the play of youngsters Joffrey Lauvergne and Rudy Gobert. Lauvergne had four points and 10 rebounds while Gobert finished with five points and 13 rebounds. They didn't score much but they outplayed the best frontcourt in the tournament. Thomas Heurtel was great too, scoring 13 points and making some big shots in the game. This would have been impressive on a neutral court, which makes the fact that Spain had a home game and lost this game even more of a victory for France.
Key matchup: Thomas Heurtel vs. Milos Teodosic. Heurtel is relatively new on the scene and he's been doing a great job of working with Antoine Diot to make up for the absence of Tony Parker in this tournament. Diot's been a good playmaker but Heurtel is leading the charge from the backcourt. He's averaging 8.9 points and 4.1 assists while making 53.3 percent of his shots and 38.5 percent of his 3-point attempts.
Teodosic is a veteran, star European point guard with tons of accolades to his name. He's let Bogdan Bogdanovic take over the offense at times, but Teodosic is the second leading scorer on the team (12.6 behind Miroslav Raduljica's 13.9) and he's averaging 4.3 assists. Teodosic is nearly 50-40-90 for the tournament as well with 50.9 percent from the field, 44.7 percent from 3-point range, and 88.2 percent from the charity stripe. The point guard with the bigger impact in this semifinal match-up probably wins the game.
Outlook for the game: This will be a great match-up with two evenly matched and equally hungry teams. Serbia just took down a powerhouse in Brazil and France has an even more emotional victory over Spain on enemy hardwood. It's basically a coin flip at this point, but France may have more going for them after such a big win over a long time rival.
