By Eurohoops team/ info@eurohoops.net
The Spaniards wanted it and the Spaniards took it. But it was not only a matter of desire or need that pushed the “Furia Roja” to easily prevail 92 – 73 against Argentina.
Their new exquisite performance looked like a natural continuation of their blowout win against Lithuanian and that memorably dominant output. Now, with a 3-2 record, Spain has checked its ticket to the quarterfinals where it will meet France.
Brazil, who got left out despite defeating Nigeria some hours before, was probably not amused.
Rudy Fernandez hailed as an acting floor leader with 23 points, 7 rebounds, plus arms and legs all over the place on defense. Pau Gasol had another day in the office (a.k.a. a double-double) with 19 points and 13 rebounds.
Nikola Mirotic and Sergio Llull added 10 points each.
With the highly energetic Rudy sounding the charge, coach Scariolo’s players made their intentions clear right from the start, finishing the first quarter with a 25-15 lead.
Initially preserving and then increasing their advantage was not a problem for the extremely determined Spanish players. Their game was fine enough to not let any room for questioning by the Argentinian side. Fluent on offense and quite dynamic on the defensive end, last year’s Euro champions did their job and then some.
With most of its stars evidently fatigued after a 50-minute effort vs Brazil and affected by lack of a serious motivation, Argentina found no cure to counter its opponents’ qualitative game.
And when coach Hernandez realized that things have taken their course, he decided to rest some of his stars and give more time to his bench players. Like Nicolas Laprovittola who paced his team with 21 points and 4 assists.
Manu Ginobili had 16 plus 5 rebounds He was the only other Argentinian scoring in double-digit numbers.
