Great Britain’s path to qualifying for the 2009 European Championship started off rough, with an overtime loss to Israel. Many were worrying about whether the other players had enough time to gel with Luol Deng, who joined the team late. Since that first loss, Great Britain has dominated Group D, and has now qualified for the 2009 European Championship as the winner of Group D.

Great Britain clinched there spot in the 2009 European Championships with a 67-63 win over the Czech Republic. This is Great Britain’s second win of the tournament against the Czech Republic. Previously, Great Britain defeated them 87-68 in a game where Great Britain had to redeem itself from the Israel loss.

While this game was closer than the previous game against the Czech Republic, the driving forces behind the victory were the same. Luol Deng scored 21 points and Nate Reinking added 20 points for Great Britain to lead them to victory. In their previous victory against the Czech Republic, Deng scored 21 points and Reinking added 22 points.

Pops Mensah-Bonsu had another solid game against the Czech Republic with 9 points and 11 rebounds. In their previous game against the Czech Republic, Mensah-Bonsu had 13 points 16 rebounds 3 steals and 3 blocks.

Luol Deng again had turnover problems, having 5 in the game. Great Britain had 22 turnovers as a team.

Despite their turnover problems, Great Britain was still able to overcome Jiri Welsch’s 28 point scoring burst, for the victory.

With this victory, Great Britain probably has proven all they needed to that they are competitive enough to deserve the host spot in the 2012 Olympics in London.

Great Britain will wrap up its play in the qualifying portion of the tournament on Saturday in a game against Bosnia and Herzegovina.

Great Britain defeated Bosnia and Herzegovina this afternoon, 82-74, to maintain its spot in first place in Group D of the 2009 European Championship Qualifying tournament.

Bosnia and Herzegovina played Great Britain tough in the first quarter, trailing Great Britain 20-18 after the first quarter. They continued to play Great Britain tough, making it a tie game, 41-41 at half time.

Unlike in the last game against the Czech Republic, Luol Deng had a strong first half this game. Luol Deng finished the first half with 14 points.

Great Britain started the 3rd quarter on a 17-2 run to race ahead to a 58-43 lead halfway into the quarter. Luol Deng drained two three point field goals during this run. Great Britain led 66-52 after three quarters.

Bosnia and Herzegovina was able to bring the lead down to only 6 points, but Great Britain responded with a tip in by Andrew Sullivan off of a missed Flinder Boyd layup attempt. This was followed by a Nate Reinking layup, a Pops Mensah-Bonsu slam dunk, and a Luol Deng three pointer to cap off the run. This run gave Great Britain a 15 point lead with just under 4 minutes remaining, allowing Great Britain to go into cruise control mode.

Luol Deng finished the game with 29 points, 8 rebounds, and 5 assists. Luol Deng looked a bit more comfortable in the first option role today, however, he is still struggling with turnovers. Most of Deng’s turnovers were ballhandling related or traveling related. These are not that indifferent from Ben Gordon’s classic turnovers. These types of turnovers seem to be the result of trying to create offense with the entire defense being focused solely on one player.

Pops Mensah-Bonsu finished the game with 15 points, 11 rebounds, and 3 blocks. Mensah-Bonsu has slid nicely into the role of Deng’s number two man.

Chris Finch made the determination that Andy Betts was not quite ready to play in this game. Prior to the game, there were reports that Andy Betts might be available for today’s game.

Following this game, Great Britain is in first place in Group D. Both Great Britain and the Czech Republic have 2-1 records, but Great Britain is winning the point tiebreaker by one point (Great Britain has a 17 point differential and the Czech Republic has a 16 point differential).

Great Britain’s next game is on September 13th, against Israel, in Liverpool, United Kingdom.

The Great Britain National Team will take on Bosnia and Herzegovina today at 1:30 CT in Birmingham, England. Great Britain is coming off a powerful 87-68 victory over the Czech Republic. Bosnia and Herzegovina is coming off a 77-71 victory over Israel.

Right now, after tiebreakers, Great Britain is currently in first place. Right now, all four teams are sitting at 1-1 records, so the tournament is up for grabs for whoever wants it.

Luol Deng comes into the game as the leading scorer for Great Britain at 25.5 PPG. He is currently trying to become comfortable in the role of a number one option.

Great Britain have their star center, Andy Betts, for the first game in this tournament. Betts has been suffering from a back injury. Chris Finch will stick with the same starting lineup, however, and bring Betts off the bench.

Bosnia and Herzegovina really does not have anyone of note on their team. According to betting sites, Great Britain is about a 7 point favorite in this game.

After a disappointing loss to Israel in their first game of the qualifying rounds for the 2009 European Championship, Great Britain was able to bounce back and defeat the Czech Republic 87-68.

Great Britain leaped ahead to an early lead behind the scoring prowess of Pops Mensah-Bonsu and Nate Reinking. Mensah-Bonsu had 8 points in the first 6 minutes of the game, helping Great Britain to an early 10-4 lead. Then Nate Reinking took over the scoring load, finishing the first quarter with 7 points.

Great Britain held strong in the 2nd quarter, leaving the quarter with the same 14 point lead that they entered it with.

Luol Deng was terrible in the first half, only scoring 1 point on 0-3 shooting, with a turnover. Luol Deng looked very passive in the first half, although that was okay for this game, with Mensah-Bonsu and Reinking carrying the load in the first half.

Great Britain relented a little bit, allowing the Czech Republic to cut the lead down to 8 behind a pair of shots from Peter Benda, but Reinking and Deng led Great Britain to a 55-37 lead at the end of the 3rd quarter.

Great Britain was just on cruise control for the rest of the game, with the game in hand, and cruised to victory.

Luol Deng finished with 21 points, 4 rebounds, 4 assists, and 2 blocks. Pops Mensah-Bonsu finished with 13 points, 16 rebounds, and 3 blocks. Nate Reinking finished with 22 points.

Jiri Welsch, a former NBA player, is the only play on the Czech Republic who had a good game. Welsch finished with 17 points and 8 rebounds.

Overall today, Luol Deng failed in establishing himself as a dependable first option. Deng had 14 of his 21 points in the 4th quarter, when the game was already out of reach for the Czech Republic. This has been a common complaint of Deng. Gordon is said to always score when it matters, such as in the 4th quarter of a close game, while Deng scores his points when it doesn’t matter, in the first quarter or the fourth quarter of a blow out game. (The former argument is rather silly, as those points in the first quarter help in winning games).

It looks more and more like Deng will never develop into that player you can depend on when the going gets tough, but rather be a great complement to great players who can fill that role.

Great Britain is currently ranked 2nd in Group D, behind Israel. Israel plays Bosnia and Herzegovina later today.

Great Britain’s next game is on September 10th, in Birgmingham, United Kingdom at 1:30 PM CT.

Great Britain fell to Israel today, 102-92, in their first game of the qualifying portion of the 2009 European Championships.

Luol Deng checked back into the game with 6:42 remaining in the 4th quarter, as Great Britain trailed Israel 75-71. Great Britain trailed Israel 79-73, but surged back into the game as the result of a total team effort. In the final 6 minutes of the game, Luol Deng scored 4 points and Joel Freeland scored 9 points.

Great Britain recaptured the lead, when Luol Deng laid it in to make the game 82-81. Israel quickly recaptured the lead with a Lior Eliyahu jump shot. Great Britain retook the lead on the second of two Luol Deng free throws.

Nate Reinking extended Great Britain’s lead to 2 points, making it 85-83 with 3 seconds left. Reinking missed the second of the two free throws. With one second left, Reinking fouled Meir Tapiro, who made two free throws to tie it up and bring the game to overtime.

Great Britain was competitive in the beginning of the overtime period, behind a three point field goal and a two point field goal made by Luol Deng. After Deng fouled out, it was all Israel, as they ran away to a 102-92 victory.

Meir Taprio had 27 points for Israel and Lior Eliyahu had 24 points. Top draft prospect, Omri Casspi had a very poor outing, scoring only 3 points and grabbing 4 points.

Luol Deng still looks a bit uncomfortable in the role of a first option. Overall, he did pretty well in the game, finishing with 30 points, 4 rebounds, 4 assists, and 3 blocks. However, he was very turnover prone in this role, racking up 6 turnovers in the game.

Deng’s turnovers were actually very Ben Gordon-esque. He had 2 turnovers as the result of offensive fouls, 2 turnovers as a result of traveling, and 1 turnover as a result of his ball handling. Up until last year, these were what made up a lot of Gordon’s turnovers.

Deng also didn’t quite show that killer instinct that a Kobe Bryant or Ben Gordon possess. When Israel started to take the lead and pull away a bit, Luol Deng did not demand the ball and step up for his team. Instead, at one point in the 3rd quarter, we went through nearly 4 minutes of Deng not taking a shot, as Israel started to pile it on.

Still, at the end of the day, a 30 point game is still a pretty impressive game.

If Great Britain wants to keep their hopes of qualifying for the 2009 European Championship alive, they need to get their act together quickly. Luol Deng is a far superior player to anyone else that they are playing and Great Britain has a pretty decent supporting cast. With that, there is no excuse for Great Britain losing to any team in Group D. Israel is a team that they beat without Deng in a friendlies match.

Great Britain’s next game is September 6th against the Czech Republic.