The Spanish men's basketball team fell 83-76 this morning against the United States, in their

last friendly before the Tokyo Olympics

and in which they paid dearly for their offensive mistake midway through the third quarter.

Until that moment of the clash at the Michelob Ultra Arena in Las Vegas

, Spain had stood up and even dominated the scoreboard,

with defensive seriousness and led in scoring by a newly successful

Ricky Rubio, the best with 23 points.

However, an 11-0 run was a very hard toll against an opponent who could only prevail in attack when he escaped.

It was not an overly showy match between two of the great candidates for the Olympic podium in early August.

The Minnesota Timberwolves base did not find support in an attack weighed down by the

poor night in the triple (8/28)

and that sometimes crashed before the physique of the locals, not excessively fine in the shot, but with

Lillard, Durant, Johnson and LaVine

with double-digit scoring.

The duel began marked by errors.

The Americans imposed their physique in defense and controlled well the attempts of Spain to do damage inside

Marc Gasol.

The locals started better (9-3), but the changes introduced by Sergio Scariolo worked and the clash turned away.

Although it took the world champion almost five minutes to make her first basket in play through Ricky Rubio, her rotation was more positive with the contribution of

Garuba, 'Chacho' Rodríguez, Abrines

and a

Pau Gasol

back to the United States courts. United.

In this way, and with

Greg Popovich's men

very erratic and unable to dominate the rebound, he turned the score around and ended the first quarter ahead (14-18).

The 14 points scored by the Americans reflected their bad night in shooting, personified in a 'gunner' like

Kevin Durant (1/5).

The aim did not return from the beginning for the current Olympic champion, who continued to be dominated by her rival, launched by

Rudy Fernández's

triples

.

Two hits from the Balearic Islands opened the first interesting gap (18-27) and Rubio's good minutes, with nine points in a row, kept it before the awakening of Durant, author of another nine points, with two triples and a '2 + 1' , and Lillard's improvement.

However, a drought in the pace and the physical struggle that the Americans like the most stopped

Scariolo's men

, still ahead at halftime (36-38).

THE UNITED STATES DOES NOT FORGIVE THE DROUGHT

Ricky Rubio continued assuming offensive responsibility after passing through the changing rooms to already reach twenty points and that Spain could continue to command in the electronic.

Popovich's men could not find Durant, Lillard or Tatum to improve offensively and they

continued with weak percentages

, but neither did they disengage in a clash again with more errors than successes.

And that ended up paying the double world champion who conceded

a partial of 11-0

to see herself again behind on the scoreboard after many minutes (53-46).

Spain was denied before the rival ring, but a triple by 'Chacho', the first basket in play in more than five minutes, made the 'injury' less for the final ten minutes.

The United States finally scored easily from the outside and the match was seriously complicated for the Spanish (65-52).

Scariolo tried defensive changes to get back into the game, but

LaVine

and his repertoire were in charge of finalizing the last contest before facing the challenge of Tokyo 2020.

DATA SHEET.

RESULT: UNITED STATES, - SPAIN, (36-38, at halftime).

EQUIPMENT.

UNITED STATES:

Lillard (19), LaVine (13), Tatum (6), Durant (14) and Green (6) - starting five - Adebayo (4), Grant (5), Jenkins (1), Johnson ( 15), Garland (-) and Mathias (-).

SPAIN:

Rubio (23), Abalde (-), Rudy Fernández (6), Claver (-) and Marc Gasol (10) - starting five - Garuba (4), Pau Gasol (8), Sergio Rodríguez (9) , Abrines (5), López-Aróstegui (-), Willy Hernangómez (11), Oriola (-) and Brizuela (-).

PARTIAL:

14-18, 22-20, 21-12 and 26-26.

PAVILION:

Michelob Ultra Arena in Las Vegas.

According to the criteria of The Trust Project

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