Yesterday we managed to achieve an important win against Mexico
(82147)The game saw some swings from one side to the other, with both teams playing the same tactics. Most of the first half was very even, however just at the end, the first gap opened. In the last three minutes, Mexicans outplayed us with a score 10-2, and got a +9 advantage for the half-time break.
We managed to catch them in Q3, getting to 71-70, but again fell off in the final minutes of the quarter, which ended in 79-72. It only took us 3 minutes into Q4 to finally equalize the score to 84, and then three more to take the lead with 92-90. Afterwards we managed to hold the lead for a few minutes, with our highest lead being +4.
One minute to go, Mexicans equalized to 102, but fortunately
Sören Häggin quickly responded for 104-102. Good defending, and another two points from
Kalle Håkansson got us to 106-102 with 31 seconds to go. Our nerves got a bit stressed, when guests scored a three pointer for 106-105 19 seconds to go, but it got a bit easier, when Lasse Lundell hit both free throws for a three point lead. Timeout didn't help Mexicans, who failed to score another three pointer, and then it was just additional series of our free throws, which confirmed a well deserved win.
Our starting five scored 95 out of 112 points, so obviously our problems and weaknesses emerged when backups were on the court. This is also evident from the +/- statistics, ranging from +8 to +16 for starters, and from -1 to -9 for backups.
To be honest, I am not completely happy with the performance. Seeing higher attitude, knowing we also had a home court advantage, I expected the game to be smoother for us. But if I look it from another perspective: According to ranking, a win against Mexico (ranked 21st) is the equalized second best opponent Sweden had ever won against. The last win against country with such high ranking happened in a very distant season 34 (against Hong Kong, also ranked 21st), and the only time Sweden had won against higher ranked team was in even more distant season 20 against Argentina (13th). So looking from such perspective, this is definitely a good achievement, signaling good times for the NT.
With a score 4-0 we are now in a very good position, almost guaranteed of a playoff spot, while we can still very much hope for a home court advantage in the first round of the playoff (so finishing top 16). Although this will still be very difficult, probably requireing a 7-1 score. On the other hand, we had already improved our 3-5 score from two seasons ago.
Next week we face Bosnia, a game where our chances of winning are very slim. Still, going into the game without any burden can lead to positive surprises, so we'll see how it goes.