Don’t Sleep on Spain as Scariest Elimination-Round Threat to Team USA Basketball

Saturday afternoon, Spain reasserted itself as a medal contender with its 50-point thrashing of previously unbeaten Lithuania. Two days later, it cemented its return to glory with a 92-73 win over Argentina in a game that never felt close.

Now, it moves on to the elimination stage:

This is how the tournament bracket looks, per Sports Illustrated’s Ben Golliver:

Rio Olympics basketball bracket is set — USA’s path to gold: Argentina, then Spain or France, then CRO/SRB/AUS/LTU pic.twitter.com/BK81fZu9mO

— Ben Golliver (@BenGolliver) August 16, 2016

Against Argentina, Spain did its best Usain Bolt impression early in the proceedings—letting the opposition get out of the blocks with a nifty 8-0 run before sprinting past and leaving its competition in the dust. By the time the buzzer rang to end the first quarter, it had already earned a 10-point advantage, whic it never relinquished.

This was not the Spain from the beginning of the group stage.

“Honestly, I don’t like the situation for sure,” Rudy Fernandez said Tuesday, according to the Associated Press (via the New York Times), after he and his teammates found themselves in an 0-2 hole. “We lost the first two games, but I remember in London we lost two games, too.

“I trust in my teammates. … We are very good players. We know the situation we are in. Honestly, we have a chance. We have a chance to win the next three games.”

That’s exactly what they did, and the disappointing beginning against Croatia and Brazil is nothing more than a distant memory. So too is a lackluster performance against Nigeria that, while it resulted in victory, did nothing to imbue the international heavyweights with any semblance of sorely needed confidence.

Ricky Rubio (two points, five assists) isn’t rolling, and his shot has deserted him in Rio. But the rest of the team is thriving around him, particularly when Pau Gasol and Rudy Fernandez are clicking. The heretofore absent confidence is now plentiful.

That was the case Monday, and the aforementioned duo’s efforts were aided by a dizzying array of contributions from nearly every member of the Spanish roster. Nikola Mirotic (10 points, six rebounds) and Sergio Llull (10 points, four assists) were the only other players to hit double figures, but underwhelming play was tough to find—five turnovers from Sergio Rodriguez, Rubio’s poor shooting and Juan Carlos Navarro’s ejection for flopping may be the only examples.

But Gasol and Fernandez were the stars.

The former was a beast when allowed to play his brand of immobile defense in a rim-protecting role and sparked Spain’s offense with his passing and ability to stretch the floor. His line of 19 points, 13 rebounds, two assists and two blocks sounds terrific, but it still sells his impact short.

Meanwhile, the latter couldn’t miss, recording 23 points on just 10 shots from the field.

Behind those two, Spain changed its narrative. Instead of wondering whether this team can survive, we’re curious about how high it can rise. That, above all else, is the biggest benefit of wiping the floor with Lithuania and then using Argentina to prove the momentum-altering result was no fluke.

Gasol and Co. will square off against France in the quarterfinals, …

continue reading in source www.bleacherreport.com