Tokyo 2020 Wheelchair Basketball: Men's Quarter-Final Day Round-Up
Why even play the games when you can just take my predictions as gospel?
Every day throughout the Tokyo 2020 Paralympics, I will be bringing you a round-up of the goings-on in the Wheelchair Basketball event. My Bench Units co-host, James MacSorley, is actually competing in the Paralympics and so has better things to do than write up details of the games.
As you may know, the Tokyo Paralympics are taking place in Tokyo. Tokyo is 8 hours ahead of the UK, so some of the games are happening in the dead of the night for me.
I’m making it my mission to watch as many of the games as I can so I can do the best possible write-ups here. If I don’t get the chance to watch a game, I’ll state that up front and my review will be based on the stats, plus any educated guesses I might have, or anything that sounds plausible enough that I can say I heard it from James and blame him if it’s incorrect. I promise I’m not biased for or against any teams.
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Let’s get into it…
Note: Today was quarter-finals day for the Men’s competition, so I haven’t bothered to put “(Men)” next to each game.
Also important: Roped in guest host Mendel Op den Orth to talk all things Paralympics with me yesterday. Check it out at benchunits.com/episodes or wherever you get your podcasts!
11/12 Playoff Game: Colombia 70 - 47 Algeria
1am UK Time
Yesterday’s prediction: Colombia by 23
Would you look at that. Right off the bat, my prediction lands on the button. Colombia must have known I’ve been stumping for them this entire tournament, as they close out with a win and won the final quarter by exactly enough points to prove me correct. What a set of good dudes.
In a match-up of the only two winless teams left in the men’s competition, something had to give. Depending on your interpretation of that statement, either Algeria or Jhon Hernandez did most of the giving.
Hernandez took it upon himself to get Colombia a W, filling it up with 28 points, 11 rebounds and 9 assists. Daniel Diaz put in 14 to close out his Paralympics as he heads back out on tour with Korn, kind of like how Chris Jericho used to split his schedule between WWE and that band called Fozzy. It must be that having two jobs harms the musical quality because Fozzy are one of the few bands that are definitively worse than Korn.
Disclaimer: Korn’s cover of Word Up! was dope, but it doesn’t really excuse them because they didn’t write it.
For Algeria, Bilel Ayache stepped up with both Nabil Guedoun and Omar Zidi well and truly worn out by the work they’ve put in all tournament. Ayache put up 20 points and 9 rebounds, and has quietly had a decent tournament.
I won’t bother with a screen-grab of Colombia’s boxscore because the number 23 isn’t nearly as rampant as the number 14 was for China yesterday.
End of the road for both of these teams, with Algeria finishing 12th and Colombia getting 11th place. Similar to the women’s side, the last-place team is a long way back of the field. A shame to see when there are competitive teams missing out because of zonal rules.
QF1: (B2) USA 52 - 45 Turkey (A3)
4:30am UK Time
Yesterday’s prediction: USA by 19
Ozgur Gurbulak smelling blood is a dangerous position to be in. The USA found themselves in a precarious spot as Turkey jumped out to an 18-11 lead after one quarter, and threatened to make the USA play catch-up from that point on.
It was largely the USA’s second unit that came in and turned the game around. The pressing lineup gave Turkey similar issues to what we saw when they played Japan 2 days ago, and was able to frustrate the Turks and expose their lack of ball-handling outside of Gurbulak.
With a defensive system headed up by Matt Scott and Trevon Jennifer, the Americans were able to hold Turkey to just 14 points across the middle two quarters. Their own offense was unspectacular during the same stretch, but some steady points from Josh Turek saw them take a 3-point lead into the final quarter.
Turkey didn’t go down quietly, busting out of their slump and making big shots to keep the game close, to the point where the USA had to put the game away on freethrows down the stretch. Brian Bell led the USA with 18 on 9/12 shooting, but was actually a -4 in his 26 minutes of game-time.
Ozgur led Turkey with 21 points, battling it out for the full 40 minutes against a team designed to limit guys just like him.
I imagine this sight will become a bit more common over the next couple of days, but it really is tough to see a legend of the game like Gurbulak fighting back tears as the knockout games see their mission come to an end. There’s a bunch of guys in this tournament who may not be back for Paris, and not all of them are going to get the ending to their international career that they deserve.
If this is the end for Gurbulak, then I’d like to salute one of my favourite players I’ve ever watched, and I’ll savour the chance to watch him slug it out one more time for 5th and 6th place, bringing an intensity and ferocity to the game that only he can.
QF2: (A1) Spain 71 - 68 Germany (B4)
7am UK Time
Yesterday’s prediction: Spain by 9
After an up-and-down tournament that saw myself and Mendel acknowledge Germany’s potential but ultimately give the nod to Spain, the Germans very nearly showed us up.
There was never a point where this one wasn’t close. There was never a score gap of more than 8 points, and never an unanswered scoring run of greater than 8-0.
Let’s start with the fact that, if Spain were going to win or lose, it was going to be on Asier Garcia’s terms. Spain’s one-man army put up 19 points, 16 rebounds, 13 assists and 5 steals, and the numbers don’t even do it justice. For three and a half quarters, Asier carefully controlled the flow of the game and picked his spots accordingly. And then it happened.
With 5 minutes left in the game the German coach, Nicolai Zeltinger, pulled an old favourite move out of his bag and challenged the height of Asier’s chair. He pulled the exact same move in Spain’s quarter-final against Germany at the 2017 Euros, in a decision that got Asier ejected from the game and saw Spain advance.
No such luck this time and, man, did this one ever rattle the cage. The unsuccessful challenge saw Germany slapped with a technical foul and gave Asier a freethrow attempt, which he canned even though he’d been stood idle for several minutes while they measured his chair.
That freethrow represented the start of an 8-0 Spain run, which included 6 points from Garcia and one assist to Pincho Ortega for a layup. Garcia was clearly very offended at the accusation, as he made a point of acknowledging the German bench after each made basket.
A fired-up Spain is a tough opponent, and Germany had a tall task in playing catch-up after that momentum swing. They had their chances, but Thomas Bohme (who had an incredibly unfortunate shooting game) and Andre Bienek both missed threes that could have leveled the score.
Tough tournament for Germany, who showed so much promise early in the tournament. If anything, this game makes Spain look even more formiddable as they move on to meet the USA in the semi-final, a rematch of the Rio 2016 gold medal game.
QF3: (B1) Great Britain 66 - 52 Canada (A4)
10:15am UK Time
Yesterday’s prediction: GB by 14
Stop me if you’ve heard this before, but do you know what’s a great number?
The answer is of course the number fourteen (14). It’s how many days are in a fortnight, and probably how many hours a day the average 14-year-old spends playing the game Fortnite. But that’s not why I think it’s great. I think it’s great because it’s the number that keeps on giving.
It gave GB a win. It gave Canada a loss (even after leading by 10, which you could make a statistical case would have been a safer lead if they’d got it up to around 14). Most importantly, it gives me chance to take yet another vomit-inducing, self-congratulating victory lap that you’ll probably end up reading through anyway.
But I won’t do that. This game deserves better. Also, to be truly transparent, when I was writing my predictions out yesterday, the GB/Canada game was in the same slot as China/GB had been yesterday, so I just changed the word “China” to “GB” and left the number 14 where it was. Sometimes you just can’t turn it off.
I’ve written off Canada on approximately 14 occasions throughout this tournament, but that certainly didn’t seem to discourage them in this one. Patrick Anderson came out determined to exert complete control over the game, and that’s pretty much what he did. He ran every Canadian play in the first half, hitting some incredibly difficult, contested shots and making some passes that most people would need X-Ray Vision goggles to even think about attempting.
Gaz Choudhry did his best to match Anderson play-for-play, and at one point had even taken 14 (!) of GB’s 27 shots in the game. Canada took a 32-28 lead into the half, with neither team having been able to get on a sustained run.
Canada’s real glimmer of hope game in the third quarter when they were able to stretch the lead out to double-digits. With Pat being hounded, the Canadian supporting cast stepped up and made some shots. With his offensive impact being limited, Pat focused on the defensive end and was able to almost single-handedly counteract GB’s ball movement, flying across to the weak-side to swat Abdi Jama’s catch-and-shoot attempt and give Canada all the momentum.
10 points down, GB needed a run, and found an unsuspecting source of energy in Jim Palmer. Jim came into the game for Abdi and immediately went to work establishing Lee Manning inside, taking away Anderson’s ability to roam and disrupt GB’s passing. This change in offensive structure lead to a series of open looks for Gregg Warburton, who slotted multiple shots from around the top of the key pushed GB out to an extended run.
From being down 10, GB would outscore Canada and finish the game with a 14-point win. I predicted the margin, but not the comeback, and that’s the bit that was special.
Similar to Ozgur Gurbulak, we don’t yet know if this is it for Patrick Anderson. If it is, he went out in one of the most gripping games I’ve seen in a long time. Another salute to the greatest to ever do it.
GB stamp their ticket to the semi-finals, where they now get ready to play…
QF4: (A2) Japan 61 - 55 Australia (3)
12:45pm UK Time
Yesterday’s prediction: Australia by 3
Biggest upset of the tournament? This tournament has gone by so fast that I feel like I can’t remember a single result when I try and look at the big picture but, in terms of both implications for the tournament and passing the eye test, this might have been the most shocking result so far.
Japan just looked better than Australia in this one. Australia started the tournament like gangbusters, going 3-0 in the first three pools games. They’ve lost 3 straight since then, losing form against three tough opponents (one of those was a 1-point loss to GB in which they’d held a 20-point lead, but a loss is a loss at this level).
This one wasn’t a case of the Aussies coming up short or letting it get away from them, this was all about Japan making a statement as to who they are (and as to who myself, James and subsequently Mendel thought they might be after a year of centralised training). Japan came out strong in the first quarter, riding a balanced effort from Reo Fujimoto, Kei Akita and The Human Jump-Cable (still taking nickname submissions) Renshi Chokai. It was 14-14 after 10 minutes, and that set the stage.
Hiro Kozai (that Bench Units Ones To Watch pick is looking increasingly magnificent) came out in the second quarter and strutted around like he owned the place. Hiro put in 14 points in the period, raining them down from all over the floor and nearly matching Australia’s total score (16) on his own.
After winning the third quarter by a further 3 points, Japan were able to keep a desperate Australian comeback at arms-length for the final 10 minutes of the game. They saw their lead shrink all the way down to 2, but it was never extinguished. Fujimoto made a huge finish through a foul (taking the time to shush the crowd, which consisted of nobody and would typically be full of Japanese supporters cheering him on, so I really don’t know what he was getting at), Chokai stole a pass intended for Bill Latham and took it all the way for a layup, and Kozai sunk a dagger with 25 seconds left.
Japan will go to the semi-finals for the first time in their history and take on Great Britain. Australia will do some serious pondering about what went wrong, and then battle Turkey for 5th place.
Up Tomorrow… Women’s Semi-Final Day!
Borrowing an old Bench Units gimmick that myself and Ben Fox (also in Tokyo - really need some colleagues who aren’t too good for me) used for the World Championships in 2018, I’m going to list out tomorrow’s schedule and my predictions for the results, based on almost nothing at all.
4:30am - Men’s 9/10 Playoff - I.R. Iran vs Republic of Korea - Iran by 4
7am - Women’s 7/8 Playoff - Great Britain vs Spain - GB by 5
10:15am - Women’s SF1 - Germany vs Netherlands - Germany by 2
12:45pm - Women’s SF2 - China vs USA - USA by 1
Man, this tournament is flying by. Appreciate you all taking the time to read! Check out yesterday’s podcast episode if you haven’t already!