USA vs. Spain Basketball: Tyson Chandler's Poor Performance Bad News for America

If you didn’t watch the American’s 100-78 romp over Spain, odds are a huge smile went across your face upon seeing the score.

After all, beating the main competition by 22 points is exactly what the U.S. needed in their final tune up before the Olympics officially begin. They finished the exhibition season going 5-0 by outscoring opponents by 26.6 ppg.

Life is good right?

Not exactly.

It’s no secret the main weakness of the team is at center. With Dwight Howard out with his back surgery, Tyson Chandler has assumed the starting position. He’s a great talent, but certainly not on the same level as Howard.

His play against Pau Gasol on Tuesday was not good to put it bluntly. He picked up two quick fouls as he struggled to adjust to the finesse and power combo of Gasol. He ended up fouling out after scoring only two points and grabbing two rebounds in the game.

His last foul was roughly 40 feet from the basket in a bizarre attempt to swipe a steal. Serge Ibaka turned the game into a dunkfest by scoring 16 points in the first half without Chandler protecting the rim.

What makes matters worse is that Marc Gasol, who is arguably a better version of his brother at this point, didn’t even play. Spain wasn’t going hard for the win. This wasn’t an “A” effort on their part by any means.

Chandler is clearly not adjusting particularly well to the way FIBA referees are calling games and it's troubling news for the Americans.

For as great of a rebounder and scorer Kevin Love can be, defense is not exactly his forte. Anthony Davis had recently graduated from high school a year ago.

They need Chandler’s shot-blocking ability and his post defense against the likes of the Gasol brothers and Ibaka.  

With only five fouls before fouling out, the margin for error is not as large despite the game only lasting 40 minutes. The other problem is Chandler’s inability to adjust to the goaltending rules—if the ball doesn’t go into the cylinder then it's fair game to swat it away. Chandler’s NBA instincts have been prohibiting him from taking advantage of this.

The team doesn’t need him to score. When you have LeBron James, Kevin Durant, Kobe Bryant and Carmelo Anthony on your team, all you need to worry about is rebounding and defense.

Tuesday’s win was great, but that doesn’t mean there isn’t a big issue heading into the Olympics.

Chandler needs to adjust quickly or a one-game elimination scenario against Spain in the gold medal game could end up having a disastrous outcome. 

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