Group A – Argentina still focused as they expect to continue their golden run

KAYSERI (2010 FIBA World Championship) – Argentina is no stranger to tough moments in their Golden Generation run over the last nine years.

Injuries, slow start in tournaments; last second shots to win games and many achievements internationally make this generation one of the most impressive in FIBA basketball history.

Their recipe for success has been great preparation, leadership, great talent pool and most importantly: discipline and team basketball.

This summer has been a tough one for the Argentinians, including the loss of Manu Ginobili for personal reasons and Andres Nocioni, Juan Pablo Figueroa and Juan Pablo Cantero during the preparation process.

Still, Argentina has a strong team and must live up to the expectations in the 2010 FIBA World Championship, coming in as the #1 team in the FIBA rankings.

The key combination for this team is Pablo Prigioni and Luis Scola, who have been teammates in club and national team competitions for many years, making them an unstoppable force offensively during the last couple of years.

Rounding up the starting lineup is Carlos Delfino, who has shown consistency on the shooting guard position and Hernan Jasen who had a great warm-up stage this year. Fabricio Oberto will bring defense and rebounding power to a front line that had Luis Scola as their only consistent player inside.

The group, which is considered one of the toughest and the most balanced in the tournament, also has Angola who comes from winning the FIBA Africa Championship and for this tournament they added Miguel Lutonda who is considered the best guard to come out of Africa and at 39 will have a very important role as a leader.

Angola is led by Joaquin Gomes who has been consistent in many FIBA tournaments, with strength and intensity along with Olimpio Cipriano and Eduardo Mingas who have experience with the team.

Despite being dominant in Africa, Angola hasn’t had a good performance in FIBA World Championships and come focused this time around to make it thru into the next stage.

Australia comes into the tournament with a strong defensive showing in the warm-up games but they haven’t had a consistent offensive output.

Patrick Mills will surely have a breakout tournament after a strong showing in the 2008 Olympics, this time he will have a lot of more responsibility with the team after the loss of Andrew Bogut. That will force the team to improve their perimeter shooting if they want to continue playing in the late stages of this tournament.

The experience of David Andersen, Matthew Nielsen and Mark Wothington will be key inside as they need to grab rebounds consistently to ensure their offensive possessions.

Strong team play will be surely the presentation card for Germany who doesn’t have Dirk Nowitzki but comes in with a balanced team, more maturity and young rising stars that will make this edition very interesting to watch.

The maturity of Steffen Hamann playing the point guard position will be key for this team and also the perimeter shooting and intensity from Demond Greene will guarantee a good showing. Their big men have solid fundamentals and have shown improvement in their perimeter shooting and inside scoring, making this team tough to defend.

Jordan shocked the world by winning Bronze in the 2009 FIBA Asia Championship and it was done led by guard Rasheim Wright and forward Zaid Abbaas. They will need the help of their teammates, who need to improve their perimeter shooting, in their first FIBA World Championship appearance.

The young Serbian team comes from a second place finish in the Eurobasket Championship. Their rebuilding process has been done well enough to secure a strong showing in their first appearances last year.

In the first couple of games they will lose Milos Teodosic (two games), their main guard last year and center Nenad Kristic (three games) after their brawl against Greece in a warm-up game. Now the reserves have to step up in order to have a consistent showing in the preliminary round.

Over the years Serbia have shown great performances in the FIBA World Championship and this time around is not exception with an aggressive but disciplined style of play.

On the first day there will be three intriguing matchups as Australia opens the tournament against Jordan, then Angola takes on Serbia and Argentina finishes against Germany.

The excitement and sense of urgency will come early for teams like Jordan, Angola and Germany who hope to secure a second round berth. Argentina hops to have a strong start and is focused on the German team while Serbia will have to change their strategy after their key player losses to take on an Angolan team that is always dangerous early on. Jordan will face a strong minded Australian team as both teams will leave it out on the court for a first win.

FIBA