France-Italy (and Portugal-Bosnia, too)

Meaningful basketball! Yay!

You can theoretically watch the France-Italy game, live from Cagliari, here.

The starting 5 for France: Batum, Diaw, Jeanneau, Florent Pietrus, and Turiaf.

And for Italy: Amoroso, Bargnani, Belinelli, Poeto, Soragna

Update after first quarter: 21-15 lead for France. France completely dominated the early going, playing a far better brand of basketball and looking much more like a team than the Italians. But Italy managed to make a bit of a run at the end to get themselves back into a half decent position. Florent Pietrus is the game's leading scorer, with 10 points.

Update at half time: 35-29 lead for France, after an up and down second quarter. Italy maintained their momentum from the end of the first quarter at the beginning of the second, managing to at one point take the lead after a short period of dominance. But France were able to come back and go on a bit of a run of their own, getting the lead up to 8 before taking their present 6 point advantage into the half. The athleticism of the French squad seems to be their main advantage of the Italians, and it's an advantage which they've been able to use repeatedly.

Update after three quarters: 51-51 tie. Exciting stuff. Some of the crazy-ass shots the Italians have been throwing up started going in, and this game's gotten really exciting. The crowd in Cagliari has gotten loud. Should be a great fourth quarter.

After Regulation: 66-66, and going to overtime. Nicholas Batum missed a chance to win it at the end as he shot an air ball on France's last possession.

After Overtime: France win 80-77! A huge away result for France, without Tony Parker. This makes them the clear favorite to get out of this group, and Italy will likely have to beat France away to have a chance. Batum and Pietrus led France with 20 points a piece, both on over 50% shooting. Belinelli led Italy with 24 points, but he looked for his shot very often and was only 7/16 from the field.

PS: Alright, who the fuck won the Portugal game? There are conflicting reports on the eurobasket site (like, on the same page), and everywhere I look has a different result. This is ridiculous. Did this game happen? Do they even play basketball in Portugal? Bastardo!

PPS, a long time after this shit ended: I can confirm with relative certainty that B&H beat Portugal 62-56. You can now return to your daily lives.