USA vs. Spain: Why the Exhibition Won't Mean Anything for Olympics

With the top talents from the United States' and Spain's national basketball teams reconvening for the first time since 2008's Olympic gold-medal game, many are viewing their July 24 exhibition as a championship preview for London.

The game will act as a final tune-up for both the United States and Spain, who enter the 2012 Summer Olympics as FIBA's No. 1 and No. 2 ranked teams, respectively.

Unfortunately, this game will act as little more than foreplay for the assumed future medal-round matchup.

In interviews leading up to the game (broadcast at 4:30 p.m. EST on ESPN2), Spain has made it clear that the United States will see little, if any, actual strategy Tuesday evening.

As Spanish center Marc Gasol told ESPN.com's Marc Stein, "'I think it's going to be a good test, but I don't think it's going to determine who's better or not. … I don't think we're going to try it all [strategy-wise Tuesday].'"

And that's without even mentioning the plethora of nagging injuries ailing the Spanish starting five.

The aforementioned younger Gasol has a nagging shoulder ailment that dates back to the NBA season, and team leaders Juan Carlos Navarro and Rudy Fernandez may see limited minutes after suffering injuries in pre-Olympic training.

That leads some, including Spain's point guard Jose Calderon, to wonder whether the hoopla surrounding the matchup is little more than a facade. 

Per Marc Stein's report:

"

"I think everybody understands as well. I think it's going to be fun, everybody's going to be crazy about it, and we're going to try to win for sure. But … you're going to try to send a message? I don't know if it's the best [idea], because it's not going to be 100 percent real."

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Essentially, this means that the Tuesday contest amounts to little more than the equivalent of the demo version video game companies send out to create hype for their product.

Spain will give their starting five 10-15 minutes together against the U.S. squad, giving them a feel for how to play but employing very little strategy. This will be sold as "resting injured players," but amounts to little more than a calculated ploy.

Which, considering this is an exhibition game, is exactly what Spain should do. Their largest advantage against the United States is team cohesion and chemistry. Giving a glimpse into how the team actually plans to play Team USA does nothing but give coach Mike Krzyzewski's staff an unnecessary advantage.

But don't think Team USA will be firing on all cylinders, either.

The U.S. squad has been together less than a month, and Coach K still hasn't found a rotation he's willing to stick with. Historically speaking, Team USA gets better as tournaments go along as the players learn to adjust and a pecking order becomes established.

Heck, it took until the fourth quarter of the gold-medal round in Beijing for Kobe Bryant to establish himself as 2008's alpha dog. LeBron James should have that role this time around, but we won't truly know until Team USA is against the wall.

So watch Tuesday's contest. Get excited. Just know it means about as much as an NFL preseason game.