By Niki Bakouli/ bakouli@eurohoops.net
Spain played its best basketball yet in Eurobasket 2013 in the quarterfinal game against Serbia. The players of coach Orenga run a defensive clinic that led to a whooping 40 points leads (69-29) and took advantage of the inexperience of the Serbs. The final score was 90-60 and it’s a sign of the basketball that the defending champions can produce in the knock out games of the tournament.
NBA defensive player of the year Marc Gasol neutralized Nenad Krstic and that was the key for Spain’s total dominance in the game. In offense, Rudy Fernandez finished the game with 19 points, having scored 13 of them in the first quarter (21-5 for Spain) and Sergi Rodriguez with 22 points was the top scorer for the winners. The 30 point loss is the biggest ever in the history of Serbia in Eurobaskets.
“No, we are not the favorites for the gold now, it doesn’t work this way, we should play even better”, said Gasol after the game, while Serbian coach Duda Ivkovic admitted: “We lost the game in the first quarter. We started the game really bad, then the pressure got bigger and we couldn’t react”.