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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