if you want to see some beautiful basketball...

[Kestutis.Kveraga@xxxxxxxxxxxxx (Kestutis Kveraga)]

...watch Lithuania in the Eurobasket semifinals Saturday morning (against
France). Yesterday they fairly easily disposed of Serbia /Montenegro 98:82, the
2002 World champions (no, it's not the Lakers, I'm talking about the same
tournament in which Team USA took 6th place). To be fair, S&M were missing
Stojakovic (ankle), and they did make a run in the fourth, coming within 4
points, to be burried again. Peja Drobnjak (13 and 9) and Marko Jaric (14 and ,
but 9 TOs) did their best (Jaric was playing with shiners under both eyes and a
broken nose), but it wasn't quite enough. Lithuania ran up the score early,
scoring 57 points in the first half (20 minutes), and led by 15-20 points
almost the entire game  while playing unselfish team basketball. Picture
Argentina with better defense and excellent shooting. They also run  fast break
to perfection, sometimes after scored baskets, which is why they're shooting
50% as a team, 60% on 2-pointers. S&M were playing more like the Celtics, lots
of individual penetrations (mostly unsuccessful), and didn't capitalize enough
on their power game where they have an advantage due to their size. 

Jasikevicius, who even the dimwit announcers noted should have a place on an
NBA team, sliced up the S&M defense with great passes, racking up 11 assists in
addition to his  21 points and 4 rebounds. However, Larry Bird presented the
Game MVP trophy to his teammate Siskauskas, who had 27 points on 9-14 shooting
and generally wreaked havoc all over the court (think Ginobili with a better
shot). Near-Celtic Songaila had 14 on 6-8 shooting. 

Anyway, it's a style of play that Obie should watch and try to emulate with the
Celtics (if he weren't  beholden to use the
Toine-and-Paul-take-turns-doing-isos offensive doctrine).
Kestas