OUR national basketball She started her series of EuroBasket friendly matches with smiles and against such a big name as Spain (winning 86-70), showed – as expected – unpreparedness, but also showed the points where they would be her compass.

Greece and Spain lined up with more passes but also losses. The team of Dimitris Itoudis will be deprived of the services of Mitoglu, they are waiting not only for Sloukas, but also for Papajannis, and the Iberians arrived in OAKA without Mirotić, Yul, Garuba, Ambalde, Rubio and Sergio Rodriguez, who left the team. his country.

Nevertheless, the Greek national team showed that its main principle is defense. 31-13 in the first period and 50-35 in the first half confirm the correctness of this statement. Coach Itoudis started with an American Five with Giannis and Kostas Antetokounmpo, Kalatis, Dorsey and Papanicolaou, whom he kept on the floor for a long time, wanting to see how they would react.

Of course, at this event, our team will also move around Giannis. The 27-year-old Bucks star dominates both defense and offense, and everything is geared for him. He has clearly improved a lot from his previous appearance on the team at the 2019 FIBA ​​World Cup in China, but everything will depend on the chemistry of his teammates.

It is to be expected that all the teams that we meet will “notice” Giannis and somewhere there… difficult things will begin.

In Tuesday’s match, the Spaniards made great strides with the Greek ace on the bench. In the second half, the Iberians adapted better to him, and Itoudis and his colleagues must coordinate the clocks of their players as quickly as possible. A complicated thing, of course, for such a group of special conditions as a national one.

The Greek team is a set of speed and an open field. When he doesn’t find one of the two, he’ll be in set-game trouble, and expect substantial help from Sloukas and Papagiannis here (if he does manage to show up).

From now on, starting with the match against coach Scariolo’s team, we can keep Dorsey’s good game, the game with Kostas Antetokounmpo and his energy, the defensive actions of Panagiotis Kalaitsakis and the decisions that Dimitris Agravanis gives from time to time.

The national team will go to Spain for … a friendly rematch and, for sure, additional conclusions will be drawn there.

It should also be noted a large turnout of people in the KLA. In the midst of August and on a working day, about 16,000–17,000 spectators watched the match from close range, and this says a lot.