FIBA Olympic Qualifiers, first round gone: Carlos playing well, but treys won't fall

First round in FIBA Olympic qualifiers is over and Argentina with its Buck player, Carlos Delfino, won all four games against Paraguay, Uruguay, Puerto Rico and Panama. The team showed, as expected, a very tight defense, good ball passing and team work, but some problems in their offensive: with Scola and Delfino missing too many shots,  Argentina ended relying too much in Manu Ginobili individual attempts.

Delfino, who played only the last three games due to a slight injury in his ankle, embraced his glue, multifunctional role, in a way that resembled what he does with the Bucks. Starting as SF,  he carried the ball, he made sure to keep it in movement, made some good assists, and had some key steals which mostly turned out in fast break points. Nevertheless, the rim seemed to shrink down as games went by: he made 3 of 5 treys against Uruguay, 1 of 4 against Puerto Rico and 1 of 8 against Panama, arguably his poorer match. Regardless of this, he managed to score a total of 36 points in these three games.

Here are his numbers:
MIN   2p    3p     FT    REB As Steals  Points
Vs Uruguay (85-81)
22    1/2    3/5    0/0     5     1       1          11

Vs Puerto Rico (81-74)
33    5/9  1/4      1/2     4     0       3          14

Vs Panama (90-71)
29  3/3   1/8        2/2    3     5       3          11

If you want more, here are the boxscores, recaps (in Spanish), and video highlights for all the first phase games of the tournament.  Check the nice put back and steal & running Carlos made vs Puerto Rico: as usual, he’s the one with the long socks :)


Now Argentina will face in the second round the better 4 teams of the B group. Her’es the fixture, starting today at 4 PM vs. Canada

Monday 5

Vs Canada

Tuesday 6, 4 pm

Vs. Venezuela

Wednesday 7, 4 pm

Vs. Brazil

Thursday 8, 4 pm

Vs Dominican Republic
 
Hopefully, I will be watching live games against Brazil and Dominican Republic and afterwards semifinal games (Sat 10th, winners go to London) and the final one. So far, I’ve enjoyed watching some very good basketball: the Barea-Arroyo tandem is fun to watch, as Greivis Vasquez  and Al Horford.

Finally, if you missed some USA presence in this post, here’s something funny to watch. Ribeirao preto, Brazil, 2000,  17 years old Carlos playing Pan American Under 21 final game vs USA. Delfino aside, Scola and  Tayshaun Prince were there too. And apparently Drew Gooden (!), Carlos Boozer and Zach Randolph were also in USA’s roster.  Carlos was chosen MVP of that game.