PARIS (George Eddy's International Show) - After the first two days of competition, we can already see some surprising trends and tendancies at EuroBasket 2015, starting with an amazing individual performance by the Euroleague MVP, Nemanja Bjelica, against Spain in the biggest game Saturday.

With 24 points and 10 rebounds, he led an excellent Serbian squad to a 10-point victory by winning his duel with Nicola Mirotic and establishing himself as Serbia's second most important player after Milos Teodosic.

Serbia's physical defense lowered Spain's shooting percentage from the outside and Bjeilica carried the offense. He followed up his stellar performance with the game-winning floater shot on Sunday against Germany!

Not bad for two days of work and this shows us that Nemanja has the potential to make some noise with the Minnesota Timberwolves next season as the franchise continues to rebuild around Andrew Wiggins.

Bjelica was highly motivated after playing for three seasons in Spain at Vitoria and by outplaying a confirmed NBA up-and-comer like Mirotic, this late-bloomer will be interesting to watch as a 27-year-old rookie. The key for him will be to stay mentally tough and consistent for the long 82- game schedule on a struggling team that will lose more than it will win!

Also in Group B, we witnessed a fabulous shooting display by Italy's Danilo Gallinari who scored 33 points on 9-of-10 shooting in a heart-breaking two- point loss to Turkey in an offensive, high-stakes game on Saturday. He also made 14 free throws in a row before missing a big one down the stretch.

One can only be happy for Danilo who missed the whole 2013-14 season with a serious knee injury. Contrary to Bjeilca, he was an early- bloomer starting his NBA career with the Knicks at the age of 20. His return to top form will be key for Italy in their difficult quest to qualify for the Final Phase out of what is, by far, the toughest group in Berlin.

In Group A, the biggest surprise was Finland almost beating the hosts from France Saturday night in front of 4,000 fantastic Finnish fans in Montpellier. The defending champs had to go to overtime to seal a difficult victory over a Finnish team which masters "small ball" and three-point shooting from anywhere at any time by anyone!

The Finns move the ball quickly away from defensive pressure and it's hard to catch them. This team gets the most out of its limited potential with this modern and uptempo style which is fun to watch. The problem is that they looked exhausted from their efforts the next day against Israel and a lot of their shots fell short. With two losses in two games, they will struggle to qualify for the next round.

On the other hand, a surprising team from Israel has now beaten both Russia and Finland and is in an excellent position to qualify as is Poland who will face off against France this evening in a duel between two unbeaten teams before a welcome rest day tommorrow.

Tony Parker should become the all-time leading scorer in EuroBasket history in that game tonight.

The biggest game in Group C saw Greece squeak out a precious victory over the hosts from Croatia in Zagreb Sunday.

Parker says he fears Greece the most in this EuroBasket and their typical come-from-behind victory, led by Vassilis Spanoulis during the money time as usual, proves that they are very dangerous.

Nick Calathes, Kostas Koufos and Giannis Antetokounmpo add an "NBA" dimension to a team with a solid, classic european style and tradition built around defense, teamwork and controlling the tempo. The fact that Bojan Bogdanovic did not play for Croatia because of a head injury helped Greece's cause, too.

Surprising things happened in Group D this past weekend, too, starting with Ukraine losing by only one to powerhouse Lithuania on Saturday.

Ukraine's loss to the Czech Republic on Sunday gave the Czechs two wins in two days and a wide-open window into the next round.

I'm really looking forward to the next four days as the stakes get bigger and bigger for all these countries trying to qualify for the second round. Fasten your seat belts!

George Eddy

FIBA

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