Another day is in the books at EuroBasket 2015. Let's first get to the games involving Wizards players and go from there.
Poland edges Russia, 82-79
Marcin Gortat led the Polish with 18 points, 6 rebounds, and 3 assists to lead them to a hard-fought win over the Russians which was close from start to finish. Andrey Zubkov led the Russians with 21 points and 7 rebounds in the losing effort.
For more, Bartek Biadasiewicz has a detailed breakdown of what happened here. Poland will play France at 3 p.m ET Monday, which will be on LiveBasketball.TV or ESPN3. The French will be heavily favored, but the Polish won't be a pushover with a guy like Gortat around.
The Czech Republic blows out Ukraine, 78-64
Tomas Satoransky scored 15 points on 6 of 11 shooting in the game which the Czechs controlled from start to finish. He also showed his hops with this early slam:
The leading scorer for the game was none other than ... Jan Vesely. He scored 19 points, grabbed 9 rebounds, and dished 3 assists. Why couldn't we see this side of Airwolf when he was in D.C.?
Oh well. But I'm glad to see that Vesely is playing well. Highlights of the game are embedded above via FIBA's YouTube channel.
The Czech Republic will continue group play against Latvia Monday at 11:30 a.m. ET which you can watch online via LiveBasketball.TV or ESPN3.
Other Group A games
Israel defeats Finland, 79-66 - Omri Casspi didn't erupt for 33 points for Team Israeli like he did against Russia yesterday. In fact, he only scored 10 points on 3 of 9 shooting. On this day, Lior Eliyahu picked up the slack where he scored 22 points and grabbed 6 rebounds in a game where they made some big runs early in the first half and never looked back.
France annihilates Bosnia and Herzegovina, 81-54 - The first quarter was closer than they would've liked, but the French offense was really rolling in the second and third quarters of the game. No one scored more than 12 points by either team, but the French dominated in the field goal percentage and rebounding battles which helped make the margin that it was.
Also, this block by France/Utah Jazz center Rudy Gobert was close to a goaltend, but still great nevertheless:
Group B
Serbia beat Germany, 68-66 - After a big win over Spain yesterday, the Serbians kept their undefeated streak going by beating the Germans on their homecourt in a back and forth affair. Serbia's Nemanja Bjelica scored the winning basket by making a floater with .9 seconds left to make the final score what it was:
Italy avoids upset by Iceland, wins 71-64 - The Icelanders kept this game close throughout and were leading 62-59 with 3:22 left to play. However, the Italians went on a 10-0 run from there which was the deciding factor in the game.
Spain blows out Turkey, 104-77 - The Spanish showed the world that yesterday's loss to Serbia was an aberration by pouncing on the Turkish team from the start. Pau Gasol led all scorers with 21 points and five more Spanish players scored in double figures in a game where they shot a torrid 63.5 percent from the field.
Group C
Macedonia beats the Netherlands, 78-71 - A day after pulling off a major win over Georgia on Saturday, the Oranje Lions squandered a huge opportunity to get very close to securing a berth in the knockout rounds by losing to the unranked Macedonians.
The Lions' emotions from Game 1 didn't carry over today as they were fighting an uphill battle against Macedonia who nailed three pointers left and right (12 of 30 overall). The win is huge for the Macedonians, who now have a shot themselves to get into the knockout rounds themselves if they can win at least one more game.
If there's one Dutch player who caught my eye, it's their leading scorer, former St. Bonaventure guard Charlon Kloof, who showed his hops on defense today:
and he also made a nice putback dunk yesterday in their win against Georgia:
Slovenia beats Georgia 79-68 - The Slovenians shot a torrid 52 percent (11 of 21) from the three-point line to get a win in Group play over the Georgians who remain winless. Given that Georgia already lost to the Netherlands yesterday despite a too-little, too-late comeback, it's safe to say that they are now close to the brink of being eliminated before the knockout stage.
Greece comes back to beat Croatia, 72-70 - Even though they were down by a many as eight points in the fourth quarter, the Greeks completed the comeback to take a lead in the Group C standings. Vassilis Spanoulis led Greece with 16 points and 6 assists while Krunoslav Simon led Croatia with 18 points.
Other games in Group D
Belgium blows out Estonia, 84-55 - The Belgian Lions took care of this one early by racing to an early 22-2 lead and never looked back. There were times when it just seemed that they were just toying around the Estonians who had no answer. I'll let the highlights speak for themselves:
Emma Meesseman's happy with the win this morning though I wished that the Mystics would have beaten the Dream as well earlier this afternoon.
@BulletsForever @belgianlions I told you! #OnToTheNext
— Emma Meesseman (@EmmaMeesseman) September 6, 2015
Lithuania blows out Latvia, 68-49 - One day after not playing as well as they should have, the Lithuanians came back into form in this game. After a slow start, the game was ugly from the second quarter on when they outscored their Baltic neighbors, 55-30 and dominated in every most statistical categories.
For a listing of the schedule for all the games tomorrow, check out SB Nation NBA's listing here.