{"id":1977,"date":"2025-08-28T20:38:06","date_gmt":"2025-08-28T20:38:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/greekinter.net\/giannis\/?p=1977"},"modified":"2025-08-28T20:51:31","modified_gmt":"2025-08-28T20:51:31","slug":"greece-was-better-without-giannis-against-italy","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/greekinter.net\/giannis\/2025\/08\/28\/greece-was-better-without-giannis-against-italy\/","title":{"rendered":"Greece was better WITHOUT Giannis against Italy"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Giannis in the game, Greece 3pts ahead<\/p>\n\n\n\n

He leaves the game, Greece 9pts ahead<\/p>\n\n\n\n

He comes back in, Greece down to 4pts ahead<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Q3 Giannis leaves the game , Greece ahead 7 points. Without Giannis, Greece ahead 11 points<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Q4 Greece ahead 13 points when Giannis enters the game.  With Giannis on the court that falls to only 9 points<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The facts speak for themselves. The Greek national team plays much better without Giannis on the floor. No two ways around it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

But that isn’t even the start. He played virtually no defence all night, content to watch his team mates from the 3point line! Despite the fact that Italy had nobody even close to able to defend him. He made 5 turnovers, most of which were simply infantile. FIBA basketball emphasises team defence, with a smaller court and different rules (e.g., no defensive three-second violation), which can limit Giannis\u2019 rim-protecting impact compared to the NBA. FIBA\u2019s no defensive 3-second rule<\/strong> allows bigs to camp in the paint \u2014 a setup that should enhance<\/em> Giannis\u2019s elite help-defence capabilities. But no, he simply did not engage at all. If he\u2019s not using that to deter drives or anchor switches, it\u2019s a wasted asset.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Five turnovers are significant in a FIBA game, where possessions are fewer due to shorter game lengths (40 minutes) and a slower pace compared to the NBA. Turnovers directly give the opponent extra opportunities, which could explain why Greece\u2019s lead shrank during periods when Giannis was on the court (e.g., from 9 to 4 points when he returned, or from 13 to 9 points in Q4) Many of these turnovers, weren\u2019t forced \u2014 they were bad reads<\/strong>, over-dribbling, or trying to \u201cforce the issue.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n\n\n\n

With Giannis, the offense too often bogs down into \u201cgive it to Giannis and watch\u201d<\/strong> \u2014 which stagnates spacing, tempo, and creativity. If ever there was a clear case of Giannis simply getting highlights but in fact damaging his team, tonight was it. And all this on a night when most of the Italian players were terrible. Greece simply moves the ball better and plays better defence without him. It is a much more balanced team when it is not constantly looking for a Giannis highlight. Without Giannis, Greece plays more structured<\/strong>, disciplined<\/strong> team basketball \u2014 multiple ball-handlers, consistent help defense, and less reliance on any one star. This was against a weak Italian team<\/em>. If Greece can\u2019t dominate with Giannis against this<\/em>, what happens against stronger competition? a bad fit<\/em><\/strong> for this system, this environment, and maybe even this version<\/em> of the Greek team. And it\u2019s a hard truth for fans and analysts to accept because of how dominant he is in the NBA. FIBA success requires fit, feel, and flexibility<\/strong>, not just individual talent. If Giannis isn\u2019t adapting to the format \u2014 or worse, if the team has to bend around him and gets worse as a result \u2014 that\u2019s a serious issue.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The facts speak for themselves. The Greek national team plays much better without Giannis on the floor. Just check the play by play and see when the Greek team made the difference.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":1984,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"advanced_seo_description":"","jetpack_seo_html_title":"","jetpack_seo_noindex":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[3],"tags":[708,715],"class_list":["post-1977","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-postgameeval","tag-euro","tag-italy"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/greekinter.net\/giannis\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/hq720.jpg?fit=686%2C386&ssl=1","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/greekinter.net\/giannis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1977","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/greekinter.net\/giannis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/greekinter.net\/giannis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/greekinter.net\/giannis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/greekinter.net\/giannis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1977"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/greekinter.net\/giannis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1977\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1986,"href":"https:\/\/greekinter.net\/giannis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1977\/revisions\/1986"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/greekinter.net\/giannis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1984"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/greekinter.net\/giannis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1977"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/greekinter.net\/giannis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1977"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/greekinter.net\/giannis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1977"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}