European basketball championship 2007

This article describes the 2007 European Basketball Championship for men. For the women see the 2007 European Women's Basketball Championship .

Eurobasket 2007
35th European Basketball Championship of Men
Number of nations	16  (of 39 applicants)
European champion	Russia (1st title)
venue	Spain
Opening game	0September 3, 2007
Endgame	September 16, 2007
Games	54
Basket points	7940   (∅: 147.04 per game)
Most basket points	Dirk Nowitzki Germany
Most valuable player	Andrei Kirilenko Russia
← European Basketball Championship 2005 European Basketball Championship 2009 →

The 2007 European Basketball Championship (officially: EuroBasket 2007 ) was the 35th edition of this tournament and took place from September 3rd to 16th, 2007 in Spain . After the USSR won many titles, Russia won the gold medal for the first time, Spain the silver and Lithuania the bronze medal. Russia's Andrei Kirilenko was voted Most Valuable Player of the Tournament (MVP) . The tournament was also about qualifying for the 2008 Olympic Games . The two finalists qualified directly for the games, the teams in places 3 to 7 will take part in a qualifying tournament in July 2008. Since Spain, already qualified as the reigning world champion, reached the final, third place was enough for the direct qualification.

The European Basketball Championship is a biennial basketball competition between European national teams that is organized by Munich- based FIBA Europe , the European Basketball Association.

Lithuania - Italy at the Telefónica Arena in Madrid

qualification

→ Main article : Qualifying for the 2007 European Basketball Championship

A total of 16 teams took part in the tournament, which qualified for the tournament in different ways:

• Greece was automatically selected as defending champions.
• The eight European participants in the 2006 Basketball World Cup - Germany , France , Italy , Lithuania , Serbia , Slovenia , Spain and Turkey - were directly qualified for the 2007 EuroBasket.
• The other seven participants were determined in a qualifying round again in a Division A and Division B was discharged.

Venues

group	city	Hall	Built	Places
A.	Granada	Palacio Municipal de Deportes de Granada	1991	07,358
B.	Seville	Palacio Municipal de Deportes San Pablo	1988	10,000
C.	Palma de Mallorca	Velódromo de Palma	2006	06,000
D.	Alicante	Centro de Tecnificación	1992	05,425
Intermediate round	Madrid	Telefónica Arena	2003	10,500
Final round	Madrid	Palacio de Deportes	2004	15,500

Preliminary round

In the preliminary round four teams played against each other in four groups. The winner of a game received two points, the loser one point. On October 19, 2006 the groups were drawn in Madrid .

Group A - Granada

game	date	Team 1	Team 2	Result	1. V.	2. V.	3. V.	4. V.	Loss
A1	09/03/2007	Serbia	Russia	65:73	13:21	17:17	18:16	17:19	-
A2	09/03/2007	Israel	Greece	66:76	16:19	15:12	17:21	18:24	-
A3	09/04/2007	Russia	Israel	90:56	17:15	23:13	26:13	24:15	-
A4	09/04/2007	Greece	Serbia	68:67	12:11	19:20	09: 07	16:18	12:11
A5	09/05/2007	Israel	Serbia	87:83	16:23	20:22	25:15	26:23	-
A6	09/05/2007	Russia	Greece	61:53	15: 08	10:14	19:16	17:15	-

space	team	Games	Victories	Dutch	Points	baskets	Diff	qualified for
1	Russia	3	3	0	6th	224: 174	+50	Intermediate round
2	Greece	3	2	1	5	197: 194	+ 03
3	Israel	3	1	2	4th	209: 249	−40
4th	Serbia	3	0	3	3	215: 228	−13

In Group A of the European Championship, vice world champions Greece did not live up to their role as favorites at the start, a lackluster victory over Israel led the team to a hard-fought 68-67 victory over Serbia, in the last game they even lost against the surprisingly liberated team from Russia with 53:61.

The surprise of the preliminary round was the team from Russia, which won all three games, in the first game Serbia was beaten 73:65. In the second match Russia clearly won against Israel with 90:56. In the last game the favorite from Greece was defeated, so that Russia moved into the second round as group winners.

Israel held up well against Greece for a long time, but still lost 66:76. In the second game, however, they lost against Russia clearly with 56:90. In the last game, the outsider surprisingly won 87:83 against Serbia and moved into the second round.

Serbia turned out to be a big disappointment and lost all of its games without clearly losing once, the team appeared as the youngest team in the European Championship, even NBA star Milicic was just 22 years old, who made a big break in the last game and insulted the referees.

Group B - Seville

game	date	Team 1	Team 2	Result	1. V.	2. V.	3. V.	4. V.	Loss
B1	09/03/2007	Latvia	Croatia	85:77	18:18	18:18	20:15	29:26	-
B2	09/03/2007	Portugal	Spain	56:82	13:23	08:23	14:18	21:18	-
B3	09/04/2007	Croatia	Portugal	90:68	19:19	23:17	33:14	15:18	-
B4	09/04/2007	Spain	Latvia	93:77	25:20	16:16	29:19	23:22	-
B5	09/05/2007	Portugal	Latvia	77:67	17: 09	11:15	27:20	22:23	-
B6	09/05/2007	Croatia	Spain	85:84	21:28	19:22	27:15	18:19	-

space	team	Games	Victories	Dutch	Points	baskets	Diff	qualified for
1	Croatia	3	2	1	5	252: 237	+15	Intermediate round
2	Spain	3	2	1	5	259: 218	+41
3	Portugal	3	1	2	4th	201: 239	−38
4th	Latvia	3	1	2	4th	229: 247	−18

Croatia played up and down in the first days of the tournament, the team showed little of their true class in the first game and lost against Latvia 77:85. In the second match they were much better and beat Portugal, the underdog of the group, with 90:68. In the last game they were behind the reigning world champions Spain by 40:50 and already looked like the loser, but the Croatians showed an incredible performance, did not let the Spaniards around superstar Gasol come into the game and won with 85:84.

Spain showed a strong performance in the first game and beat Portugal with 82:56. In the second game they beat Latvia 93:77 because Pau Gasol contributed 26 points. In the last game they played against Croatia for a long time and looked like the winner, but Croatia caught up impressively and Spain lost 84:85, the second big surprise of the tournament was perfect.

Portugal was the clear underdog of the group, as expected they lost 56:82 against world champions Spain. In the second game against Croatia they played discouraged, did not dare enough and clearly lost with 68:90. Only in the third game did the Portuguese show that they had a pretty good team together: In the game against Latvia they clearly won with 77:67 points, which was not to be expected after the previous tournament.

Latvia beat the favored Croatian selection in the first game with 85:77. In the second game against Spain, the team conceded the expected defeat with 77:93. Latvia was not expected to be eliminated, but they lost to Portugal. Another very good team left earlier than expected.

Group C - Palma de Mallorca

game	date	Team 1	Team 2	Result	1. V.	2. V.	3. V.	4. V.	Loss
C1	09/03/2007	Czech Republic	Germany	78:83	14:12	17:13	13:21	30:28	4: 9
C2	09/03/2007	Turkey	Lithuania	69:86	16:19	20:25	12:19	21:23	-
C3	09/04/2007	Lithuania	Czech Republic	95:75	32:15	22:16	18:24	23:20	-
C4	09/04/2007	Germany	Turkey	79:49	16:11	24:16	18:12	21:10	-
C5	09/05/2007	Lithuania	Germany	84:80	30:17	19:15	19:25	16:23	-
C6	09/05/2007	Czech Republic	Turkey	72:80	15:28	16:18	18:13	23:21	-

space	team	Games	Victories	Dutch	Points	baskets	Diff	qualified for
1	Lithuania	3	3	0	6th	265: 224	+41	Intermediate round
2	Germany	3	2	1	5	242: 211	+31
3	Turkey	3	1	2	4th	198: 237	−39
4th	Czech Republic	3	0	3	3	225: 258	−33

Lithuania, the seventh in the World Cup last year, was the big favorite of this tournament alongside Spain and Greece and showed this impressively in the first game against the highly rated opponent from Turkey, when they showed the Turks their limits with 85:69. They beat Lithuania twice at the 2006 World Cup. In the second game, the team around superstar Šarūnas Jasikevičius also clearly won against the Czech Republic with 95:75. In the third game against Germany, the Lithuanians lost a 53:32 lead, but they still won with 84:80.

Germany around superstar Nowitzki showed a poor performance in the first game and was lucky that the Czech Republic only led by half; The German team only prevailed in extra time. In the game against Turkey, the Germans showed their best tournament performance and clearly beat Turkey 79:49. In the last game they just lost against top favorite Lithuania with 80:84.

Turkey did not convince at all in the first days of the tournament and clearly lost the first two games against Lithuania and Germany. Only in the last game did the team's class partially flash when they defeated the Czech Republic with 80:72.

The Czechs showed a courageous performance and just missed the big sensation against Germany when they only had to admit defeat in extra time. In the second game, however, the team had no chance against Lithuania and lost significantly with 75:95. In the last game, the team was slightly inferior with 72:80 and was eliminated as expected, but the team did not disappoint.

Group D - Alicante

game	date	Team 1	Team 2	Result	1. V.	2. V.	3. V.	4. V.	Loss
D1	09/03/2007	Poland	France	66:74	18:22	14:13	21:25	13:14	-
D2	09/03/2007	Italy	Slovenia	68:69	14:21	11:17	20:18	23:13	-
D3	09/04/2007	France	Italy	69:62	17:20	14:16	20:11	18:15	-
D4	09/04/2007	Slovenia	Poland	70:52	13:19	21: 07	12: 07	24:19	-
D5	09/05/2007	Slovenia	France	67:66	16:18	15:21	21:17	15:10	-
D6	09/05/2007	Poland	Italy	70:79	16:14	19:27	22:23	13:15	-

space	team	Games	Victories	Dutch	Points	baskets	Diff	qualified for
1	Slovenia	3	3	0	6th	206: 186	+20	Intermediate round
2	France	3	2	1	5	209: 195	+14
3	Italy	3	1	2	4th	209: 208	+ 01
4th	Poland	3	0	3	3	188: 223	−35

Slovenia's team was the surprise in this group, which included three World Cup participants from the previous year, all of whom had been rated as co-favorites. In the first game, the Slovenes beat Italy 69:68. In the second game they didn't give outsiders Poland a chance and won 70:52. Slovenia was also able to win against France with 67:66, so Slovenia had mastered the most difficult group of the tournament.

France could not really convince, they defeated Poland 74:66, but for a long time they had a hard time despite stars like Turiaf and Tony Parker. They showed a stronger performance against Italy, but the French only won 69:62 thanks to 36 points from Parker. The French then lost against Slovenia 66:67.

Italy was very unlucky, so they led in the first game just before the end 68:66 and conceded another three and lost. In the second game you slept through the third quarter and also lost, so you had to win the last game against Poland; Only here did the Italians play with the young NBA players Belinelli and Bargnani much more experienced and won with 79:70 and prevented an early elimination.

Poland was an outsider in the toughest group of the tournament, losing all three games, but the team held up against France for a long time. The team had no chance against Slovenia, the team was also constantly behind with 7 to 12 points against Italy and lost in the end by 9 points.

Intermediate round

After the preliminary round, the first three teams in each group qualified for the intermediate round. The three teams of groups A and B formed group E, the qualified teams of groups C and D formed the new group F. Each team competed once against each of the three teams from the other preliminary group. The points from the preliminary round games were continued.

Group E - Madrid

game	date	Team 1	Team 2	Result	1. V.	2. V.	3. V.	4. V.	Loss
E1	07.09.2007	Portugal	Russia	65:78	13:16	17:28	19:24	16:10	-
E2	07.09.2007	Spain	Greece	76:58	23:15	22: 09	11:15	20:19	-
E3	07.09.2007	Israel	Croatia	80:75	14:17	19:18	20:16	27:24	-
E4	09/09/2007	Russia	Spain	69:81	23:20	12:20	16:23	18:18	-
E5	09/09/2007	Portugal	Israel	94:85	28:14	18:20	19:14	29:37	-
E6	09/09/2007	Greece	Croatia	81:78	20:19	13:21	25:14	23:24	-
E7	09/11/2007	Croatia	Russia	70:83	21:19	21:22	14:19	14:23	-
E8	09/11/2007	Greece	Portugal	85:67	16:17	29:17	19:13	21:20	-
E9	09/11/2007	Spain	Israel	99:73	19:29	28:19	27:20	23: 05	-

space	team	Games	Victories	Dutch	Points	baskets	Diff	qualified for
1	Spain	5	4th	1	9	422: 341	+81	Quarter finals
2	Russia	5	4th	1	9	381: 325	+56
3	Greece	5	3	2	8th	353: 348	+ 05
4th	Croatia	5	2	3	7th	398: 396	+ 02
5	Portugal	5	1	4th	6th	350: 420	−70
6th	Israel	5	1	4th	6th	360: 434	−74

Group F - Madrid

game	date	Team 1	Team 2	Result	1. V.	2. V.	3. V.	4. V.	Loss
F1	09/08/2007	Italy	Lithuania	74:79	13:21	26:19	22:22	13:17	-
F2	09/08/2007	France	Germany	78:66	26:20	21:19	15:10	16:17	-
F3	09/08/2007	Turkey	Slovenia	51:66	15:20	14:11	11:15	11:20	-
F4	09/10/2007	Lithuania	France	88:73	19:18	29:14	20:28	20:13	-
F5	09/10/2007	Italy	Turkey	84:75	15:29	19:14	24:11	12:16	14: 05
F6	09/10/2007	Germany	Slovenia	47:77	09:30	13:15	12:18	13:14	-
F7	09/12/2007	Slovenia	Lithuania	61:80	18:26	23:18	08:19	12:17	-
F8	09/12/2007	Germany	Italy	67:58	12:18	15: 09	19:10	21:21	-
F9	09/12/2007	France	Turkey	85:64	20:22	23:13	13: 08	29:21	-

space	team	Games	Victories	Dutch	Points	baskets	Diff	qualified for
1	Lithuania	5	5	0	10	417: 357	+70	Quarter finals
2	Slovenia	5	4th	1	9	340: 312	+28
3	France	5	3	2	8th	371: 347	+24
4th	Germany	5	2	3	7th	339: 346	- 07th
5	Italy	5	1	4th	6th	346: 359	−13
6th	Turkey	5	0	5	5	308: 400	−92

Final round

mode

After the intermediate round, the first four teams of both groups E and F qualified for the final round. The quarter-finals were played crosswise against an opponent from the other intermediate round group. Then both the winners of the quarter-finals in the semi-finals and the losers in the placement round for positions 5 to 8. The winners of the semi-finals played the final, the losers the game for 3rd place. The winners of the placement games played for 5th place, the losers for 7th place.

Tournament tree

All times in Central European Summer Time (CEST)

	Quarter finals				Semifinals				final
	43 - September 13, 2007 - 9:30 p.m.
	Spain	83
					49 - September 15, 2007 - 7:00 p.m.
	Germany	55
					Spain	82
	45 - September 14, 2007 - 9:30 pm
					Greece	77
	Slovenia	62
									54 - September 16, 2007 - 9:30 p.m.
	Greece	63
									Spain	59
	44 - September 13, 2007 - 7:00 p.m.
									Russia	60
	Russia	75
					50 - September 15, 2007 - 9:30 p.m.
	France	71
					Russia	86			Game for third place
	46 - September 14, 2007 - 7:00 p.m.
					Lithuania	74
	Lithuania	74							Greece	69
	Croatia	72							Lithuania	78
									53 - September 16, 2007 - 7:00 p.m.

Places 5 to 8

	Placement games				5th and 6th place
	47 - September 15, 2007 - 4:30 p.m.
	Germany	69
	Slovenia	65
					52 - September 16, 2007 - 4:30 p.m.
					Germany	80
					Croatia	71
					7th and 8th place
	48 - September 15, 2007 - 14:00				51 - September 16, 2007 - 14:00
	France	69			Slovenia	88
	Croatia	86			France	74

Quarter finals

game	date	Team 1	Team 2	Result	1. V.	2. V.	3. V.	4. V.	Loss	Top scorer
43	09/13/2007	Spain	Germany	83:55	18:14	22:13	26:16	17:12	-	Calderon 17; Nowitzki 11
44	09/13/2007	Russia	France	75:71	21:23	18:19	14:14	22:15	-	Chrjapa 16; Diaw 17
46	09/14/2007	Lithuania	Croatia	74:72	17:19	21:16	15:20	21:17	-	Songaila 20; Planinić 16
45	09/14/2007	Slovenia	Greece	62:63	17:14	17:14	17:12	11:23	-	Nesterovič 16; Papaloukas 17

Placement games

game	date	Team 1	Team 2	Result	1. V.	2. V.	3. V.	4. V.	Loss	Top scorer
47	09/15/2007	Germany	Slovenia	69:65	18:16	14:15	14:23	23:11	-	Nowitzki 28; Lakovič 17
48	09/15/2007	France	Croatia	69:86	13:21	18:26	19:14	19:25	-	Parker 18; Popović , Planinić 15

Semifinals

game	date	Team 1	Team 2	Result	1. V.	2. V.	3. V.	4. V.	Loss	Top scorer
49	09/15/2007	Spain	Greece	82:77	24:18	17:21	18:21	23:17	-	Gasol , Navarro 23; Spanoulis 24
50	09/15/2007	Russia	Lithuania	86:74	25:12	15:21	25:25	21:16	-	Kirilenko 29; Šiškauskas 30

Game for 7th place

game	date	Team 1	Team 2	Result	1. V.	2. V.	3. V.	4. V.	Loss	Top scorer
51	09/16/2007	Slovenia	France	88:74	18:17	18:23	15:17	37:17	-	Lakovič 26; Parker 31

Play for 5th place

game	date	Team 1	Team 2	Result	1. V.	2. V.	3. V.	4. V.	Loss	Top scorer
52	09/16/2007	Germany	Croatia	80:71	16:25	20:19	22:13	22:14	-	Nowitzki 31; Banić 16

3rd place match

game	date	Team 1	Team 2	Result	1. V.	2. V.	3. V.	4. V.	Loss	Top scorer
53	09/16/2007	Greece	Lithuania	69:78	19:20	15:21	20:21	15:16	-	Zisis 23; K. Lavrinovič 19

final

game	date	Team 1	Team 2	Result	1. V.	2. V.	3. V.	4. V.	Loss	Top scorer
54	09/16/2007	Spain	Russia	59:60	22:11	12:20	15:15	10:14	-	Calderon 15; Kirilenko 17

Final score

rank	team	Siege: Niederl.	Basket ratio
1	Russia	8: 1	1.1364
2	Spain	7: 2	1.2115
3	Lithuania	8: 1	1.1010
4th	Greece	5: 4	0.9859
5	Germany	5: 4	1.0116
6th	Croatia	3: 6	1.0129
7th	Slovenia	6: 3	1.0714
8th	France	4: 5	0.9815
Eliminated after the intermediate round
9	Italy	2: 4	0.9638
9	Portugal	2: 4	0.8333
11	Israel	2: 4	0.8295
11	Turkey	1: 5	0.7700
Eliminated after the preliminary round
13	Latvia	1: 2	0.9271
13	Serbia	0: 3	0.9429
13	Czech Republic	0: 3	0.8720
13	Poland	0: 3	0.8430

Honors

The Russian Andrei Kirilenko was chosen as the best player of the tournament ( MVP ) . In a total of nine games, Kirilenko averaged 18.0 points, 8.6 rebounds, 2.4 assists and 1.8 blocks per game. He had a hit rate of 47.3% (53 of 112) from the field and 82.8% (48 of 58) from the free throw line.

In addition to Kirilenko, the Spaniards Pau Gasol and José Calderón , the German Dirk Nowitzki and the Lithuanian Ramūnas Šiškauskas were elected to the All-Tournament Team .

statistics

All in all

• 54 games
• 7,940 points
• 3,749 rebounds (of which 1,105 offensive and 2,644 defensive)
• 1,233 assists
• 2,368 fouls
• 1,361 lost balls
• 687 steals
• 281 blocked throws

Most of the points

player	nationality	Points
Dirk Nowitzki	Germany	216
Tony Parker	France	181
Pau Gasol	Spain	169
Andrei Kirilenko	Russia	162
Ramūnas Šiškauskas	Lithuania	124

Most points per game

player	nationality	Points
Dirk Nowitzki	Germany	24.0
Tony Parker	France	20.1
Hedo Türkoğlu	Turkey	19.2
Pau Gasol	Spain	18.8
Andrei Kirilenko	Russia	18.0

Most rebounds per game

player	nationality	Points
Yaniv Green	Israel	9.3
Dirk Nowitzki	Germany	8.7
Andrei Kirilenko	Russia	8.6
Viktor Kryapa	Russia	7.8
Mehmet Okur	Turkey	7.7

Most assists per game

player	nationality	Points
Šarūnas Jasikevičius	Lithuania	5.6
Meir Tapiro	Israel	5.0
Jaka Lakovič	Slovenia	4.3
Massimo Bulleri	Italy	4.0
Viktor Kryapa	Russia	3.2

The German team

The German team consisted of Stephen Arigbabu , Mithat Demirel , Patrick Femerling , Robert Garrett , Demond Greene , Guido Grünheid , Steffen Hamann , Johannes Herber , Jan Jagla , Dirk Nowitzki , Ademola Okulaja and Pascal Roller ; The coach was Dirk Bauermann .

Web links

Commons : Eurobasket 2007  - collection of images, videos and audio files

• FIBA information on EuroBasket 2007
• FEB (Federación Española de Baloncesto) website for EuroBasket 2007
• FIBA Europe