Janne Palomäki
Although Finland improved in the World Cup, it is still not capable of miracles, writes Janne Palomäki from Okinawa.
Basketball is like a relationship.
On average it’s nice, but it certainly doesn’t work with everyone.
It took the Finnish coaching staff too much time to understand that Lauri Markkanen’s and Olivier Nkamhoua’s basketball chemistry will not match. Both would skillfully belong to the opening five, but the end result is better if Elias Valtonen grabs the winger role.
Nkamhoua’s fate was to stay for a good eight minutes of play in the opening period, when Markkanen worked almost twice as hard.
At the beginning, Finland was well ahead of Germany. Susigengi led the EC bronze medalist for more than six minutes in the first two quarters.
But if the purpose of coaching was to strengthen the defense, the implementation did not meet expectations. Germany ran up 47 points on the board at the Okinawa Arena before the halftime buzzer.
Only the mother country of the sport, the USA (2014), has managed to forge as many points during the opening period against Finland at the World Championships.
Finland also played with Germany in the last World Cup qualifying group. Last November, the home team ran away to a 14-point victory in Bamberg.
In Espoo in February, Susijengi had already secured their place in the World Cup, and Germany won by only six points.
The story continues after the picture
Lauri Markkanen lost the battle of NBA stars to Dennis Schröder (right). Jenni Gastgivar
The results don’t lie. Finland is currently not as good a team as the champion candidate coached by Gordon Herbert.
Tuesday’s match showed that Susijengi’s tournament did not really end in a loss to Japan. Finland had already been condemned since it was drawn to this block of death in the spring.
If Finland had beaten the hosts on Sunday, it would have had to beat Germany by at least 15 points.
At last now we understand that it was just silly daydreaming.
The white shirts had no stake against Susijeng. Nevertheless, it took an overwhelming points victory.