Russia wins

So has Andrei Kirilenko jumped up a few rounds in Fantasy drafts based on these Euro championships? Russia beat Spain with a 60-59 score in what seems like was a hell of a battle. J.R. Holden hit the game winner with 2.1 seconds left, Pau Gasol missed a buzzer beater.

Garbo- 3 for 6 shooting, 6 boards
Gasol-4 for 13 shooting, 5 for 12 ft throws, a nice 14 boards, a nice 3 steals and 5 turnovers
Calderon-5 for 7 3pt shooting,15 points, 4 boards, 2 assists and 2 steals
Navarro-0 for 5 shooting, 1 assist.

Navarro?!? What happened??? And Gasol, nice boards but the shooting and turnovers! Got to give credit to Russia for some kick ass defense. Not the best offensive team, but as they proved today and yesterday, they can bring the goods on D. And Kirilenko is a big part of that equation.Today he had 17 points, 5 boards, 2 assists, a steal and a block.

Here though in all the stats is the key... Spain shot 7 for 35 from 2pt range for 20 percent. That is just a sad number. Tough defense from Russia.

Does this matter from Spain? Pride might be hurting today, but they are playing next year so at the end of the day, it's not the worst thing that has happened. For Russia, this is great news. They made a splash this year in my opinion. And not enough can be said about the play of Kirilenko. I look forward to see what he produces this up coming NBA season.

Note to Raptors TV and every other sports network. This is real basketball. Find a spot for it. I mean on Raps tv, all we get is Lakers vs Boston game 5 from 87 and Bulls vs Jazz game 6 from 98. Having that is great, but not replayed literally 40 times during the summer!! You want to expand viewership, covering the Euros will get more of the basketball freaks interested in ordering. Let's look at it like this...my little blog here has tripled in web traffic ever since I started to cover the Euros. You missed out this year but learn from this for the future.