By Aris Barkas/ barkas@eurohoops.net
Two unbeaten teams, Spain and Slovenia, will face each other, while the other two semifinalists will be the winners of today’s big games between opponents who know each other pretty well.
And at least in theory, the teams from Istanbul’s Group D should be considered the favorites to get the two tickets.
Greece v Russia (17:45 CET/ 18:45 local time)
After a bad start in the tournament, Greece turned it up against Poland and Lithuania. Can they play their trademark defense also against Russia and tournament’s top scorer Alexey Shved? That would be pretty much the key of the game.
Shved is having his best ever tournament and probably plays his best ever basketball, averaging 23.7 ppg and 6.7 asp. Together with Timofey Mozgov they create an amazing duo that can dominated pretty much any game. Add to this the fact that for the first time since 2007, Russia seems to have a pretty clear gameplan, defined roles in the roster.
For Greece things are simple. If the team of the last two games appears again on the floor, then anything can happen. If not and the Greeks revert to their bad group stage habits, then Russia will have it easy.
Italy v Serbia (20:30 CET/ 21:30 local time)
You can expect a shootout between Marco Belinelli and Bogdan Bogdanovic. With that being said, Serbia has played better than Italy so far in the tournament and there’s no big man in coach Ettore Messina’s roster who can stand on equal ground with Boban Marjanovic.
It will be more than interesting to see the approach of Messina’s team in the game and if a smal-ball unit will make things interesting. However, it seems that the biggest weapon for Italy is the fact that there’s no real pressure on the team at this point, which despite losing Danilo Gallinari, made it to the quarterfinals. And that makes the team more than dangerous.
(Photo credit: FIBA.basketball)