Spain Olympic Basketball Team 2012: What La Roja Must Do to Beat Team USA

The 2012 Olympic basketball gold medal game is most likely going to be between Spain and the United States of America.

These are the two best teams, comprised of the best group of players in the world that know how to execute offensively, shut their opponents down defensively and have great team chemistry.

They met in the 2008 Beijing Games with the gold on the line, and Team USA (with a similar roster) ended up winning, 118-107.

In order to avoid another heartbreak in the championship game, here is what the Spaniards must do:

Learn from Exhibition Game

Spain has a major advantage heading into the Olympics. They have scheduled an exhibition game against the Americans for July 24, just days before the tournament begins.

They will get a chance to match up against Team USA, learn their tendencies and find what works to limit their effectiveness.

While the US also has the ability to take these same measures, they will be more effective for the underdog.

Pound the Rock Inside

In a Washington, D.C.-based exhibition against Brazil, the US looked a bit shaky inside and were clearly struggling against Nene, Anderson Varejao and the other NBA-caliber bigs on the South American team.

Spain possesses two All-Star level post players in Pau and Marc Gasol, plus another elite PF in Serge Ibaka.

If La Roja can continually find a way to feed the ball into the paint to these three NBA stars, they have a great chance to pull the upset.

Deny US Scorers

Team USA has a ton of transcendent bucket makers, but they also have players on the roster that are there to play defense and grab rebounds rather than score.

By doing their best to keep the ball away from players like LeBron James, Kevin Durant, Carmelo Anthony and Kobe Bryant and leaving players such as Tyson Chandler, Andre Iguodala and Kevin Love more open, the Spaniards can limit the damage that America will do on the offensive end.

While those players are still great at putting up points, they aren’t quite at the level of some other stars on Team USA.