Spain Olympic Basketball: Why Pau Gasol Must Be Focus of Attack for Spaniards

As Spain's Olympic basketball team embarks on its quest to unseat Team USA's world No. 1 squad, there is no more important player for that effort than forward Pau Gasol.

Coming into the London Games, there were questions about whether the elder Gasol still had the chops to compete at an elite level.

The Spanish big man came into the Summer Olympics fresh off a sinfully poor performance in the NBA playoffs with the Los Angeles Lakers. Gasol averaged a career playoff-low 12.5 points per game on just 43.4 percent shooting.

But lucky for Spain's gold medal hopes, Gasol seemingly came to London motivated to atone for his playoff sins.

Through two Olympic contests, Gasol has come out on fire. The 32-year-old power forward is shooting at a 60.7 percent clip and scoring 20.5 points in just 23.0 minutes a night. Gasol is also not shying away from the boards, leading Spain with 7.5 rebounds per game so far.

More importantly for the Spanish cause, the team is cruising through Group B. The Spaniards beat China 97-81 behind a dominant performance from Gasol and Serge Ibaka on Sunday and followed it up with an 82-70 drubbing of Australia Tuesday morning.

Unfortunately, it wasn't all roses and beatdowns in Spain's opening two games. Team captain Juan Carlos Navarro sat out of the Spaniards' game against Australia and according to coach Sergio Scariolo, it may not be a short-term injury.

Via BasketSession.com (translated using Google):

"

He was injured in the match against China. He suddenly felt a strong pain in his foot that had nothing to do with his previous problem. It's always at the foot arch, but at another location of the foot. This is a new injury. If he did not play today is that he was not capable and I do not know yet how many games he might miss.

"

Navarro's injury places an inordinate amount of pressure on Gasol to takeover a leadership role for Spain, who came into London second in the FIBA rankings and Team USA's biggest gold-medal threat.

For Gasol, that means being aggressive and attacking the weakened U.S. frontcourt in a hypothetical matchup. After clogging the defensive middle with Dwight Howard in Beijing, injuries have forced Team USA to rely on foul-prone Tyson Chandler and an out-of-position LeBron James at the center spot.

An aggressive Gasol would make Spain an even bigger threat to Team USA than in 2008, where the U.S. needed a late-game scoring barrage from Kobe Bryant to come away with a 118-107 victory.

Scariolo undoubtedly knows that the middle is the United States' soft spot and should make Gasol and his other big men the focal point of the Spanish offense.

But this is entirely contingent on Gasol staying at a high-level of play. If Gasol stays on pace with Spain's first two games, there is no more dangerous team in the world. If not, the Spaniards—like Gasol's Lakers—could be headed home early.