Montenegro now a ‘must-win’ game
The Tall Blacks are taking a blinkered approach to the World Cup Mission Impossible they’ve been handed.
For the Kiwis to make it out of their pool in China they are again going to have to flip the international hoops order on its head after opening with a 102-94 loss to Brazil on Sunday night in Nanjing.
That starts with tonight’s second Group F matchup, against Montenegro, in Nanjing (8pm start, NZ time) and will conclude with their final pool game on Thursday against NBA MVP Giannis Antetokounmpo and his ominous Greece side.
It’s a brutal assignment facing Paul Henare’s New Zealand men who will likely have to win both of those games to keep alive their run of four straight appearances in the knockout rounds of the game’s global championship. The Greeks opened the tournament impressively with an 85-60 defeat of Montenegro.
Following their third-quarter meltdown against Brazil, when they saw a 50-50 halftime deadlock turn into a 16-point deficit, the Tall Blacks immediately shifted their focus to Montenegro, led by Orlando Magic NBA star Nikola Vucevic who had a quiet
12 points against the Greeks. ‘‘There are no ifs or buts, it is must-win,’’ said Tall Blacks forward Tom Abercrombie whose
100th international on Sunday was a less than memorable one. He made just two of eight shots for five points and seven rebounds.
‘‘We back ourselves. We put a lot of effort and energy into Brazil but everything now is geared towards getting the bodies recovered for the next game. We are as prepared as we can be, and we will bounce back and be good. Mentally, we just have to lock in and get to know these guys as best we can.’’
Abercrombie said he felt like Sunday’s pool opener had been ‘‘one that got away’’ after the Tall Blacks ruined a promising first two quarters by coming out flat in the third term and allowing Leandro Barbaso and the Brazilians to take the game by the scruff of the neck.
Corey Webster’s 15 secondperiod points had seen the Tall Blacks threaten to break loose, only for the Brazilians to hang in the contest with some fine shotmaking of their own. They put the defensive clamps on the Kiwi sharpshooter after halftime, and kept him to just one more made bucket.
‘‘We came out with a good mindset and played a really tough first half and probably should have been up more,’’ said Abercrombie.
‘‘The third quarter saw a few errors, they made a couple of shots and we dropped our heads for a few seconds. That’s all it takes at this level and they capitalised.’’
Power forward Isaac Fotu, who had 17 points and five rebounds, said the Kiwis had to stay locked in for longer to compete at this level.
‘‘It was a mixture,’’ he said of the 28-12 third-quarter slump. ‘‘There was some miscommunication and it was some effort things. Small stuff like that builds up and that’s why they took such a big lead in that third quarter.
‘‘We’re a team that has to play almost perfect for 40 minutes. We can’t have those lapses; we’re just not that talented. That hurt us a lot.’’
The Tall Blacks scored the ball well enough, that third quarter apart, with Webster’s teamhigh 19 points well supported by Fotu’s 17, Shea Ili’s aggressive 16 (including 10 free throws), Tai Webster’s 12 and Rob Loe’s double-double of 11 points and 10 boards.
But they just couldn’t clamp down enough on the Brazilian scorers, with 36-year-old 14-year NBA vet Barbosa (a game-high 22 points), Rafa Luz (15) and Alex Garcia (14, all in the second half) getting too many open looks as they poured in 81 points over the final three periods.