By Eurohoops Team / info@eurohoops.net
Just like against France, the Spaniards played their best at the end of the game and they reached for the second consecutive time, the Olympic men’s final, by beating Russia 67-59, at the first semifinal.
After failing to rise up to the expectation on the first half, Spain outscored Russia 47-28, with Jose Calderon scoring 12 points (he finished with 14) and Pau Gasol adding 16, with Marc Gasol being the dominator in the paint.
In the meantime, the Russians, who lead by 13 in the first quarter, had zero help from Andrei Kirilenko and Alexey Shved. After the break, the finalists got more energetic, they began their revolution from their defense and in that way they made their lives easier in offense, where they shoot something way better than the 21% of the first half, when Russia… blocked the Spaniards by playing their game and with good defense and quite good choices on the other end, they build a +13 lead (27-14), before finishing 31-20. And then, they collapsed…