By Eurohoops Team / info@eurohoops.net
French had during the longest period of the game against Spain, the ticket for the semifinals in their hands. Although, in the fourth quarter they were trapped in Sergio Scariolo’s defense, scored only six points and things got bad (66-59). In front of the prospect of defeat, the situation became even when Ronny Turiaf fouled hard Rudy Fernandez and in the next phase Nicolas Batum punched Juan Carlos Navarro.
The fight in the court stopped quickly, but Blazers’ forward kept a bit of his aggression for the mixed zone where he said “I hit Navarro to give him a good reason to flop» and answered in a question about the “Olympic spirit” of his punch: “Do you think if you lost a game on purpose, that’s the Olympic spirit?”
“La Bomba” said only: “I ignore theam” and the conversation stopped…
After this victory Spaniards have qualified again in Olympics semi-finals but they want to come out improved enough to win this time Russians who qualified for the first time in the semifinals of the Olympics after Soviet Union’s collapse (in 1992 Games they participated as Unified team).
Lithuania appeared less competitive than expected and having fewer solutions defeated (83-74) by David Blatt’s players, who showed also in the group stage game that they know how to win the Spaniards. Lithuanians weren’t able to impose their game and with 37% (22/59) FG, they lost inevitably.