The magic finally ran out for the Croatian national basketball team Friday night in Ljubljana.
After winning eight straight games at the 2013 European championships in Slovenia, Croatia were beat 77-62 by a tough Lithuania team in the semifinal match. After only being down three at the half, Croatia fell apart in the third quarter, letting Lithuania go on a 21-8 run to complete the period. That was all she wrote for the Cinderella Croats as they could not muster up a fourth quarter comeback.
Bojan Bogdanović led all Croatians in scoring with 15 points while Ante Tomić had six rebounds and three steals to add to his seven points in 23 minutes on the floor. All is not lost as Croatia have already booked their ticket to the 2014 World Basketball championships in Spain and will play for European bronze on Sunday against Spain, who lost to France in overtime in the other semifinal.
Since Spain are the hosts of next year’s World Cup, it means that the top-6 teams (not including Spain) get to go to the FIBA World Cup next year.
So Serbia actually did qualify by beating Italy today in the 7th place match. They got the last available spot.
Spain, Lithuania, France, Croatia, Slovenia, Ukraine, and Serbia are the European teams next year.
No Greece, Russia, Turkey, Germany or Italy next year.
Croatia, lithuanians will be with you tomorrow!
@Poglavnik
agreed, when i first saw the list i thought, oh well modric and suker will be here (it has legends, hence my suker statement), anyway as i scrolled down i saw luka, ok fine, then i thought ok maybe no other croats, then i saw mario gomez and i thought.. shit mandzu must be in the top 10 if that fucking loser is where he is.. rofl..
it’s a shit list but that, keep in mind from the url i gave, that is EA’s list, not mine.. it’s horseshit, of course : /
@ Ivica
Good point!
I feel there is a shift and our boys will benefit from easier passage into EU leagues. It is important to first be the best Balkan basketball playing nation.
Litva and Spain are the elite of Europe. It will serve our national psyche well to just be on the court with them deep into a major tournament. A whole generation of young ballers have now been inspired to become elite.
Bronze would be nice but more important is that we show up and compete with Spain.
I hope our fans come out in droves this Sunday to support this team in finishing off this tournament powerfully.
Also a blessing to be going to the World Cup in Spain. I pray our nogomet team will match them in Brazil.
@Bobby V
Serbia maybe?
@Iggy
That list looks wack!
It’s got Mario Gomez at #28.
He’s not even the 28th best player in Serie A right now!
Lithuania is a European country whose basketball team is much better than their soccer team. What other European country can you really say that about?
Surprised nobody mentioned that the Serbs lost in the classification match to the Slovenci. They’re out of next year’s tournament. They’ve fallen hard these past few years in basketball with very few NBA caliber prospects in their pipeline. We might see a reversal between us and them if Šarić & Hezonja pan out. Bogdanović looks legit and will be in the NBA soon.
also only one hrvat in the top 50 in the game
http://www.easports.com/fifa/news-updates-gameplay/article/fifa-14-top-50
yeah i know suker is in the legends part..
but why no cro in ’14 this time ?? did sukers inability to accept the deal – was that a multi-year fuckup??
yeah i am waiting in ziva’s expected response.. ie if you play video games and u are over 20 yeares old your parents failed u, etc etc etc
Ok, deep down secret momci
I have a signed Puppet Suker 98 jersey that I wear to sleep every night!
Jebiga! There it is and my real name is Marin! BOOM!
No but Suker will be in the game on legends mode lol.
Aaaaaaaaaaaand
Predictable Ziva Istina response in 3 … 2 … 1 …
no croatia in fifa 14 again???
http://www.easports.com/fifa/news-updates-gameplay/article/fifa-14-leagues#therest
: (
better team won today…….still, a nice ride. Crowd gave he team a good response.
I wasnt expecting France to knock out the defending champions Spain but they did so in overtime.
Marc Gasol will give us problems, however, he’s not a post up player. No Pau gasol and no Ibaka…
Croatia’s big boys need to step up. Today, point guard Roko Ukic led us in rebounding with 7.
Still congrats to the guys on a great run and giving us some excitement over the tourney.. let’s hope they can manage to pick up da bronze
Zadar to Venice would be nice.
@JM that’s a lot a benzine, it won’t be cheap. 🙂
@ mishko id sign up if you can get me from dalmatia to istra without having to go on the magistral. i miss the days of the hidrogliser
@JM, the EU is psyched because they could not force Croatia, an EU member to leverage I don’t know, the province of Istra as collateral for the Billions of POS Euros they’ve going to need to INFLATE their currency to make the jewish bankers happy.
I’m sorry that we lost today, but thankfully you’ve pointed out what’s really more important.
Should be interesting to see how this plays out.
BTW – Do you think a taxi service on the Adriatic with boats that do 75 mph could be profitable? Been considering it.
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@ mishko . never said the US was in good financial condition. but yes the dollar is worth something. reserve currencies historically are the countries with most powerful military–> rome back in the day, england once upon a time, and now for a good time the US. (do note that rome collapsed cause of financial ruin). the US risks that a long time down the road, but right now the dollar looks like the one eyed man in the land of the blind . I’m sure the EU must be psyched to have another member with junk credit rating
@JM and you think the dollar is worth anything? The petro dollar is almost finished. The only thing we got is a massive military.
on another note, ive had people me all day about croatia being downgraded to junk status by fitch. thanks corruption and post Yugoslavia communism for bankrupting the country
Haha – that’s pretty ironic, there’s a Croatian monastery in Lemont, Illinois.
No i live in Lemont..marquete park is dead area now)
Wicker Park is the douchiest part of Chicago.
Lithuania – Congratulations, you’re team played excellent defense.
Do you live near Marquette Park? Big Lithuanian community there. We used to play soccer against the Liths at their home field there.
Mishko..im from Chicago..so deal!!!)))
@Lithuanian, if you guys win I’ll get a Lithuanian flag and drive around Los Angeles with it.
Kinda like this.
http://img853.imageshack.us/img853/8983/9uun.jpg
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disappointing as this was a game that could have been won. but great tournament. team played with heart. unexpected perforamance. 8 wins in a row. qualified for world cup. and still a chance to medal. with the up and coming talent, hopefully this sets the stage for a return to former glory days
Thank you guys! Hope you will get a bronze!
If Jerry Garcia was still alive he would be proud of the Lithuanians. They deserved the win and played better.
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congrats to lithuania, hope they get the gold.
Congratulations to Lithuania. The glass is half full hopefully we can get our shit together for the worlds. LOL, we’re dropping flairs.
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@Lithuanian we’re been very nice to you, please don’t come here talking shit. That’s not very gentleman like.
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You still think you can win?))) Go Lithuania!
Down by 16 going into the 4th quarter. Looks like we’re done. But I’ll watch til the end.
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Draper, The Dark Croatian, is making missed shots look easy.
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cant miss free throws and expect to win
Down by 15.
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Down by 14.
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Down by 12.
We’re not having any luck.
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my boy draper back in
Down 9 points.
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COME ON HRVATI.
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Lithuania looks better, however, a little bit of luck and Croatia advance.
Now it comes down to conditioning. Which team has enough in the tank to pull this off.
Kleiza was a decent nba player for the raptors and nuggets.
Lets go, we got this boys.
Kleiza was playing for toronto raptors
Guys i think we will make it today)
Signed with fenerbahce.
My bad, he was released this summer.
17 from Kleiza, but, nothing in the last 8 minutes. Tired already or they made a defensive adjustment.
Croatia needs to set themselves up for outside shooting in the second half and run when they can to get easier looks at the hoop.
Croatia’s depth will show up in the second half – we win the game by 8.
@Majstore, didn’t know thanks for the info. How’s he doing in the NBA?
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Can someone IP ban the guy that keeps posting the croatian whore story?
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He does, he plays for the raptors.
I meant Kleiza.
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Why isn’t Kleinz playing in the NBA, he’s fricken good.
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@Ante B, thanks buddy now I’ve got coffee everywhere. LOL.
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Draper is from the deeeeep deeeeeeep south of Dalmacija
…another block – take the outside shot!
dalmatinac draper will pick it up
We are going inside too much and getting our shots blocked – beat them with the shorter jumpers.
They are struggling on offense. Need to run more to create easier chances. We can wear them down.
we are killing ourselves with 8 turnovers lucky to be tied
He had a hell of a game yesterday and with 11 hajdukovci on the team, someone has to take over. Tell your boys to pick it up
One thing is for sure the refs are doing a good job.
And we are tied at 31.
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Money. Croatia all tied up after being down 7
@Ante B,
whats up with your purger Simon?
Croatia needs to beat them with their guard play. Agree 100% with Mrs. Draper – Kleiza a one man team. We are going to kill them in the second half.
Lithuania a one man team – once Kleiza gets tired, it’s all over.
24-19 end of first quarter
Kleiza having his way with us, 10 points with a minute left in the first quarter
anyone cheering for Draperic ?
get a rebound
WOW this is turnover central.
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Also ESPN 3
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Game is live on NBA TV in the states. Also, HRT2 on saan..
Thank you ! Good luck you too guys))
Ajmo HRVATSKAAAAAAA !
(Lithuanian dood, good luck, if croatia doesn’t win this thing I hope you guys do)
Marca on Modric:
Saving Private Modric
http://www.marca.com/2013/09/20/en/football/real_madrid/1379666763.html
I don’t follow basketball much, but I am surprised by how many games they play in so little time.
Croatians…we are waiting for you)