Reality woke Spain up from what until now had been a placid dream in Tbilisi.
Belgium, a serious but second-rate team, without a recognizable star in their squad, unseated the team on a fateful afternoon.
A defeat as a wake-up call before what is to come, Monday and Tuesday, Montenegro and Turkey, the two strongest in group A, to try to go to Berlin with the least fierce crossing possible.
[73-83: Narration and statistics]
Those of Scariolo drowned in their own bewilderment.
The disastrous outcome -no point in the final three and a half minutes- was a prolongation of the anxiety that they were accumulating while, on the other hand, the Belgians saw how their undermining work gave the expected results.
It was a constant mud, a fight against mistakes -seven of 28 in triples, nine missed free throws...-, against intensity failures in individual defenses, which allowed doubly painful penetrations, for the points received and for the sensation of helplessness
Lecomte put on his boots and the rebound (14 offensive for Belgium) was like a Malaysian drop.
With all those ingredients, the difficult part would have been successful.
This time Spain failed to find the key, as if the two previous simple battles had dampened their tusk.
He found himself with a perennial minefield, with an aggressive rival who stole the rebound from him out of sheer desire, an officiating to which he could not adapt and a lack of aim to worry about.
To make matters worse, in the troubled beginning, Rudy Fernández committed two fouls in the blink of an eye.
So the first half turned out to be a mess from which the second unit only managed to escape for a little while when the second unit got its act together in defense - almost nine minutes without scoring in Belgium's game for a 15-0 run - and Darío Brizuela acted as expected from he, of authentic revulsive.
He left with a minimal advantage at halftime (33-32), but with twisted feelings.
Gillet did too much damage, Scariolo had to shout more than necessary, although at that point no red alarm went off: Spain was aware that he was better than his opponent, but he had to put on his overalls, the discipline that did him so much good the first two games.
But the picture was not clear for Spain, which missed its oppressive defense.
More penetrations from Lecomte, like daggers to the heart and triples from Vanwijn.
Everything progressed in fits and starts, a thickness that did not suit the team.
An arreón caused by Juancho was a hopeful 9-0, but was soon answered by a 1-11.
Thus the final act was entered, where things did not improve.
Two triples (Parra and López-Aróstegui), for two triples (
Tabu and Obasohan
)... and Spain always in tow.
Until the final collapse.
And that Lorenzo Brown, with his connection with Willy Hernangómez (the best with 18 points, but few rebounds), seemed to be the solution.
The defeat moves Spain away from first place in the group, which prevents, for example, teams such as Slovenia or the local Germany.
But the hardest part is yet to come.
To the duels against Dubljevic's Montenegro and Larkin's Turkey, Osman and company will attend Spain knowing that their mediocre version is not good for much in these new times.
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