Turkey in team fouls already with 4mins left in the 1st and throwing the ball away each time up the floor

NZ playing well and controlling the tempo. Need to box out better under the basket especially but up 17/8 at the end of the 1st quarter.
Vukona & Loe showing some hustle with 7 O boards.
Turkey showing no propensity to run their offence so far and their turnover rate as been very high.
NZ showing restraint with Turkey not shooting a free throw in the first quarter.

The fast tempo..Turkey hates it

A few times they fouled to stop the fast break but it was hardly a FB and more of a semi trans.

Tai played a great 1st quarter.

NZ need to be careful with the fouls off the ball fighting over screens.

Up by 10 with 4:30 to go in the 2cnd

Mystro you watching through Sky?

Commentators are heavily bias towards Turkey.

Yup, not sure why though as Turkey have looked like rabble so far but NZ need to keep them honest.
At least NZ aren't relying on Penney for offence.

Nice half from the Tall Blacks. Turkey looking very frustrated really struggling to put points on the board.

38/28 to NZ at halftime.

7/15 from outside

28/19 on the rebound count to NZ

Frank, Vukona & Cory Webster all with a few fouls each, will need all those guys down the stretch so they will need to be smart in the 3rd quarter.

The Turkish players showing signs of frustration, stupid fouls and lots of complaining to the refs. Their bench has also been warned by the refs.

YEsss come on TB'S!!

Commentators think its Turkey playing bad rather than NZ playing well and forcing the Turkey errors.

Hopefully Australia go well in the tourny as well.So sick of how euro media and commentators/journalists constantly undermine the league and its players down here. Yes so Turkey have numerous players who play in this 'high level' Turkey league...so what? The NBL is probably a better league and your players look average.

Loe unlucky to not get the foul call on Asik after hitting that 3.
Tai Webster showing his potential that went missing at Nebraska, just needs to cut down on the errant passes but very good half from the youngster.
Cory getting his shot going but needs to be careful at the other end.

I agree MACDUB, give the Kiwi's some credit. We are a well coached team with a ton of heart and no fear, we just need to play like this the whole game and cut out the mental lapses and cheap fouls to make it easier on ourselves in the 4th.

Yeah hopefully Australia have a good tourney also so the rest of the world starts taking all of us seriously.

Some matador defense by the Tall Blacks and Turkey have come back to within 3.
46/43 with 4:00 to go in the 3rd.

Turkey have taken the lead with 2mins to go in the 3rd

Justice!

Tech foul.

Never seen players moan and complain about sweet FA.

Great finish to the quarter, Frand & Fotu come up big and then the whinging from the Turkish guard end up in a tech.
NZ still dominating the boards.

NZ up heading into the 4th.

I watched the replay about 8 times. He wasn't even touched LOL.

12 point lead. 8min to go. Come on lads.

Webster is ballin

Dodgy calls down the stretch.

Yup but tai not helping the cause with sloppy ball security and then an unsportsmanlike. Tall blacks throwing their hard work away

Turkey are the most arrogant pric**

They make team USA look humble.

Gutted!
Webster and Penney with a chance to send it to OT but shouldn't have come down to that. Massive crumble as anon said.
Tall Blacks go down by 3. May as well have been 30.

Tall Blacks will come to regret throwing that game away, wasted opportunity to sneak a win over the Turks.

We should have won that. Up by 12..6mins to go.

The Vucinic tech foul hurt. Was a fair tech though and consistent with the Turkish one I suppose.

Can't wait to see USA put Turkey back in their place. Massive egoes and as arrogant as I've ever seen a team.

14 points in 94 seconds.... that's really bad.. I'm off to vomit now

Tough loss for the Tall Blacks...

A very tough loss after they (NZ) put themselves in such a great position to win it.
I held my breath when Turkey stormed back to take the lead and then was pleasantly surprised when the Tall Blacks showed composure and execution to get some stops and knock down some shots and stretch the lead back out.
I ended up swearing my head off at the TV when they surrendered the 12 point lead in the 4th quarter on the back of that Tech Foul on Vucinic and Tai Webster subsequent turnover and Unsportsmanlike Foul followed by the Turkish 3 that broke the Camel's back.

The Tall Blacks looked pretty composed for most of the game and didn't rely on Kirk Penney to produce Offence instead sharing the load around.
The undersized Kiwi's smashed the taller Turks on the glass and contested every loose ball.

Rob Loe & his ability to stretch the floor negated Omar Asiks influence nicely.
Isaac Fotu played with energy and attacked the glass much like Loe & Vukuna, he had me out of my seat yelling when he made the 3point play on the outback and then the big 2 handed tip dunk kept NZ in the game.

Abercrombie was solid but not spectacular, needed to get more involved offensively rather than Cory Webster being relied upon to create and Abercrombie should have arguably put up one of those final 3 point shots to send it to OT.

Bartlett & Tait looked pretty out of their depth against this level of competition.

Casey Frank hit his jump shots when left open but was unable to finish around the basket against the taller timber of the Turks. Hustled well and sparked a Tall Blacks resurgence with a massive block when Turkey where mounting a comeback justifying his selection over Horvath so far in the tourney.

NZ missed too many free throws compared to the clinical Turks and would have got over the line if they had taken advantage of those freebies and still had too many turnovers.
The Dominican Republic is up next and a must win if we are to advance.

*putback

You just can't give up a tech followed by an unsportsmanlike in the final quarter at a world cup. Heartbreaking.

Agree re Abercrombie getting more involved, seven rebounds in 20 minutes is outstanding for a SF but only two shot attempts? I think he and the team need to get him more involved.

Webster is just a gun, his final term was outstanding. Amazing to think they almost toppled Turkey but for a cruel 90 seconds with Penney going 3/11.

The bright side is they are in the form to win against anyone in the group not named USA, they've just got to make it happen.

I love Nenad as a coach but he has failed to solve the fullcourt pressure issue that raised its head last year. He needs to be a little more creative with that one.

NZ looked good when Mika was rebounding and then pushing the ball up the court quickly. It left plenty of time on the shot clock to run the offence if nothing was on while Turkey retreated and took the pressure off the guards. Turkey were reacting to NZ's transition game by quickly fouling the ball handler in the first half and then in the second half NZ's defensive intensity dropped away and Turkey's shots became more open and then they starting hitting them. NZ were then picking the ball out of the net and a resultTurkeys defense was comfortably set by the time NZ's guards got the ball over halfway.

Needless turnovers from errant passes along with missed free throws were a killer as they negated a lot of the great hustle on the offensive boards and loose balls.

Turkey did a pretty good job on Kirk Penney for the most part so Abercrombies outside shot & midrange jumper were sorely missed. If he can get that going and get out on the fast break for some easy points and Fotu & Loe can keep up their offensive contributions NZ should be able to keep their noses in front of the opposition.

Rob Loe did not play final quarter- why?

not sure why Rob Loe didn't play the 4th. He wasn't injured or in foul trouble. Casey Frank gave NZ some rim protection which did almost pay off but he also did have a couple of horrible turnovers that were costly in the scheme of not gifting points.

to think how good this NZ squad could be with Steven Adams & a fit Alex Pledger on it. If Cedric Jackson could be lured into naturalising they would surprise a lot of these european teams they have come so agonisingly close to beating so many times.

Why isn't Adams playing?

Asik was absolutely average. I think matchup-wise he couldn't get going and then the big oaf, savas, took over. On another note, poor form Turkey to walk away from Haka.

fudged

Yeah, I thought it was a bit subpar. Sure there might be competitive/psych reasons to avoid watching it, but it's flavour for the game. Watch it as entertainment if nothing else.

I liked how Team USA watched and then applauded when it was done. Some NBA fans made a deal out of Harden and Rose's reactions, but I thought they seemed curious but polite.

The USA were very respectful of tha Haka, the Turks were ignorant and disrespectful.

Remins me of Italy in a Rugby WC game a few years ago. They turned their backs on it I believe, shame NZ Tallblacks couldn't do what the Allblacks did that day and smash'em...