Poland loses against Serbia

After an exciting match Poland had lost against Serbia 72:77 (22:23, 14:20, 17:19, 19:15). Now we have to win one of two remaining games against Slovenia or Spain to qualify to quarter-finals, where teams like Greece and France that are yet to loose will wait for us.

This game did not start well for Poland as we were loosing 7:0. However our team was able to pick up the game and after first quarter we were trailing by a point only. Unfortunately the second quarter did not go well for us as Serbia was able to stop our fast attacks and was able to stop David Logan. Also Maciej Lampe had a bad day, so we were in big trouble scoring. After the break we were even in a worse position as simple pick and rolls and good inside- outside play had torn our defense. 

Desperate Muli Kazurin took all starting line up players off (apart from Gortat) and that seemed to work. Aggressive defense and transition offence allowed us to pull within 4 points. However Nedan Kristic and company were able to hang on to this lead.

This game was won by bench players. It showed that our bench very ambitious and well defending cannot play on the same level as our opponents. Also reluctance of Muli Kazurin to use those players does not help them to gain necessary confidence needed to win games.

It is a shame as two remaining opponents are theoretically stronger than Serbia and our team has to win one of those two games to qualify to quarter-finals.