By Aris Barkas/ barkas@eurohoops.net
The preparation game on Tuesday at Palau Saint Jordi, Barcelona, between Spain and USA could also be a preview of the London Olympics’ final. So, it’s the right time for Eurohoops.net to dive into the Olympics and presents the story so far from the European perceptive.
It goes without saying that Spain, even without Ricky Rubio, is the biggest favorite to upset USA at London. Spaniards, after all, are unbeaten so far at seven warm up games – as are also the Americans at four games – and the generation of Navarro and Spain’s flag bearer Pau Gasol wants the Olympic gold medal, the only major title they have not won so far.
Last Eurobasket’s runner up France has mixed results and a 6-4 preparation games record. On Monday night they lost to Australia 69-67 on their first game with a full roster after the return of Portland’s Nicola Batum from the States. Lithuania and Russia after their success at FIBA Olympic qualifying tournament played one warm up match between them at Moscow, with the home team winning by 22 points (101-79).
Those four teams are expected to qualify at least to the Olympics quarterfinals and the biggest question in the old continent is what the host team of Great Britain can achieve. After two good showings in the loses against Spain (79-74) and France (78-74) and two wins against a weak Portugal team (83-68, 86-66), everything went wrong. That translate to three straight losses by USA (118-78), Tunisia (73-69) and Belgium (79-56).
Eurohoops reached GB coach Finch (who gave us earlier a very interesting interview) and asked him about the image of his team just days before the tip off at London. His answer was quite frank: “We are very worried about our team’s health right now. We have suffered three freak injuries (Freeland, Clark, Lenzly) in the past week which will hurt our preparation for London. Right now it’s fair to say that our team is worse than it was two weeks ago and with not much time to recover.”
However the idea of bringing new players in the last minute is not the solution. Finch clarified the situation of two NBA players who refused to play in the Olympics: “Ben Gordon and BJ Mullens both opted not to play due to small injuries at the time our camp opened. We were willing to work with each of them on their arrival date but each decided they could not make the commitment”.