It’s day four of the 2010 FIBA World Championship and for San Antonio Spurs fans it meant another look at Nando de Colo and Robertas Javtokas — two players who have been drafted by the Spurs.
de Colo:
In his last game against Lebanon, de Colo finished the game with 14 points, shot 44% from the field, 33% from the three-point line, went 4-4 from the free-throw line, had two assists and two turnovers in 23 minutes of play.
In today’s game against Canada, de Colo didn’t look as good as he did in the previous game but there were some bright spots from his performance.
He started the game for France and did not look comfortable setting up the offense. It got to a point where the French coach had to have a few words with him. After he settled down a bit, he displayed nice ball handling skills and was able to get in the lane.
In the second quarter he was moved to the shooting guard position where he looked much more comfortable. He was finding players in the lane and in one play he found former Spur Ian Mahinmi which led to a dunk. He scored his first points in the game when he was aggressive driving into the lane and got a shot to fall.
He did not play in the third quarter but de Colo got major minutes in the crucial fourth quarter as the game was close. Again he played at the shooting-guard position and continued to find the open player, recognized mismatches and knocked down an important three-point shot as Canada was trying to take the lead. He still needs to work on defense when on one play he let a Canadian player just go right past him to the basket.
He ended up fouling out of the game late in the fourth quarter and finished the game with five points, 40% shooting from the field, 33% from the three-point line, one rebound, four assists, one turnover and three steal in 23 minutes.
France remains undefeated at 3-0 beating Canada, 68-63.
Javtokas:
Lithuania won their third straight game, this time in a thriller over Spain. Lithuania came back from an 18-point second half deficit to beat Spain 76-73.
Javtokas, who is Lithuania’s captain, has not played much, due to a lingering foot injury. He played three minutes against Canada, but was on the court for considerably more minutes today. While he struggled at times with Spain’s big men, including Marc Gasol, Javtokas found a way to contribute, especially on the glass.
In 23 minutes, Javtokas scored four points on 25 percent shooting from the field, but pulled down eight rebounds, which led his team in that category.
Lithuania is now second in Group D behind France, who they will play at 1 p.m. CST tomorrow. Javtokas will likely play as many or more minutes tomorrow and I expect he’ll have a bigger role against France’s inferior big men.
Michael De Leon contributed to this post.
