World Championships Day 4 -- Ersan Ilyasova

Half-pool action again today, back to full schedule tomorrow and Thursday for the final two group rounds.

Ilyasova comes up huge today in Turkey's massive win for Group C lead, over hated rival Greece. The fans were whistling against Greece THE ENTIRE GAME, from minute one, great game atmosphere.


Ersan Ilyasova, PF (TUR) -- 26p (14 shots), 5r
Kirk Penney, SG (NZL) -- 26p (19 shots)
Thomas Abercrombie, SF (NZL) -- 23p (17 shots), 7r
Tomofey Mosgov, C (RUS) -- 19p (10 shots), 5r
Fadi El Khatib, SF (LEB) -- 18p (8 shots), 7r
I Bourousis, C (GRE) -- 15p (13 shots), 7r
Levon Kendall, PF (CAN) -- 15p (8 shots), 4r
JJ Barea, PG (PR) -- 13p (7 shots), 9a

World Championship Day 2 - Luis Scola

Star performers:

Luis Scola, PF, ARG -- 31p (19 shots), 9r (4 off)
Vassilis SPANOULIS, PG, GRE -- 28p (12 shots)
Hamed Haddadi, C, IRI -- 27p, 9r (5 off)
Joe Ingles, SG, AUS -- 22p (15 shots), 4r
Marc Gasol, C, ESP -- 22p (9 shots)
Jan Jagla, PF, GER -- 22p (11 shots), 9r, 4a
Kirk Penney, SG, NZL -- 21p
Kosta Perovic, C, SRB -- 20p (10 shots)
JJ Barea, PG, PUR -- 20p (12 shots)
Jackson Vroman, PF, LEB -- 19p, 5r, 3st
Linus Kleiza, SG, LTH -- 18p, 10r
Tiago Splitter, PF, BRA -- 16p (10 shot), 4r
Kevin Love, PF, USA -- 10p, 11r (5 off) in 13 minutes
Levon Kendell, PF, CAN -- 9p, 11r
Ilyasova, PF, TUR -- 10p, 10r

World Championships Day One - Kirk Penney

Of course, the big news of the day was the shocking loss of all-White Spain to the heavily Black squad from France. France actually started a White player at guard, who then got a grand total of 8 minutes playing time. We have seen that pattern of "starting only to sit on the bench" far too often in the NBA. It is hard to know what motivates it.

There were a number of incredible performances by White players at the Worlds today.

Kirk Penney, SG (NZL) -- 37p (20 shots and 16-20 FTs)
Linus Kleiza, SF (LTH)-- 27p (15 shots), 8r
Carolos DelFino, SG (ARG)-- 27p (18 shots), 8r
JJ Barea, PG (PUR) -- 25p (17 shots), 4a, 4r
Aleks Maric, C (AUS)-- 23p (14 shots), 9r
Derek Anderson, PF (AUS) -- 22p (10 shots), 9 r, 4a
Aleksandar Rasic, SG (SRB) -- 22p (9 shots), in 18 minutes
Ioannis Bourousis, C (GRK) -- 21p (12 shots), 8r
Luis Scola, PF (ARG) -- 20p (12 shots), 4r
Guilherme Giovannoni, PF (BRZ) -- 17p (10 shots), 7r
JC Navarro, SG (ESP) -- 17p (13 shots)
Ersan İlyasova, PF (TRK) -- 17p (8 shots), 8r, 3a, in 21 min.
H. Haddadi, C (IRN) -- 16p, 9r, 5 blocks
Goran Dragic, SG(SLO) -- 16p (9 shots), 8a, 5r
Marko Popovic, PG (CRO) -- 16p (8 shots)
Levon Kendall, PF (CAN) -- 11r (4 offensive)
Kevin Love (USA) -- 10r in 11 minutes.
Marcelo Huertas, PG (BRZ) -- 10p (5 shots), 9a in 22 min.
A. Ponkrashov, PG (RUS) -- 10p (5 shots), 11a