It’s Serbia-Montenegro vs. Argentina; Darko Milicic vs. Carlos Delfino; “Former Piston” vs. “Maybe Wants to be a Former Piston.” Who wins?
Serbia-Montenegro, the tournament’s defending champion, took a 66-61 advantage into the final period but couldn’t hold the lead.
Carlos Delfino of the Detroit Pistons hit back-to-back 3 pointers to tie the game 74-74 with six minutes left.
Manu Ginobili of the San Antonio Spurs gave Argentina (5-0) an 80-77 lead on a pair of free throws with 1 minute left.
After a Juan Sanchez free throw, Igor Rakocevic scored a layup to make it 81-79 but Ruben Wolkowyski hit a pair from the foul line in the final seconds to seal the win for the Olympic champions.
Rakocevic led Serbia-Montenegro with 25 points. Darko Milicic of the Orlando Magic added 24.
Darko also grabbed 12 boards. Manu led the way for Argentina with 22 points, but Delfino was second with 14 in just 18 minutes, going 4-5 from three-point land while chipping in a pair of assists and four boards.
Argentina 83, Serbia-Montenegro 79 box score [FIBA.com]
Game Recap [AP]
This is just the beginning of 10 years of painful Darko stat lines for Pistons fans: the guy we gave up to, um, keep Ben Wallace. With Darko coming off the bench as Nazr’s backup the Pistons would have a quality backup at every position - and the Pistons are clearly lacking depth inside. Does ANYONE think Dale Davis has anything left to contribute?
The Darko Dump is going to haunt Detroit for a long time, but my question is this: Why didn’t Detroit wait to SEE if they could resign Ben before dumping Darko/Arroyo? It can only be because Davidson didn’t want to be over the cap (for one season - they could have made virtually the same trade (with someone) the following year).
Dumars is going to get the long-term grief about this decision, but it should really be Davidson who has some explaining to do. In the meantime, Detroit really needs a promising young big man.
Also, does anyone think that Delfino will stay long-term? After the treatement that Delfino and Darko have gotten, it seems like Detroit is an unhappy place for a talented young player.