Spain vs. France: Narrow Win Proves Spanish Aren't Ready to Hang with Team USA

The main takeaway from Spain's 66-59 win over France was that Nicolas Batum likes to throw punches below the belt, but it should have been that the Spaniards are nowhere near ready to take on the American juggernaut.

If Spain gets passed Russia in the semifinals and sets up a date with Team USA in the gold-medal match, it won't give Mike Krzyzewski's squad much trouble at all.

If we didn't know it already, we learned that the United States is the strongest and most physical team in this entire tournament. Spain, along with Argentina, is known as one of the softest.

Even if you set each team's respective reputations aside, the Spanish don't have the personnel to compete with the Americans.

Coming into this tournament, a large portion of the American media had convinced itself that Pau and Marc Gasol would give the United States problems down low. The brothers combined for 24 points against France. That number will need to double if Spain is going to keep it close.

Teams haven't been giving the Americans problems in the paint because LeBron James and Co. are in transition just as much as they run the half-court offense. If the offense is constantly moving and attacking the defense, the opposing big men have much less of an impact on the game.

Even on defense, Team USA hasn't had all that much trouble protecting the paint. Tyson Chandler has gotten himself into foul trouble in almost every game without fail, and he'll need to be better against Spain, but he's not crucial to a U.S. win.

Juan Carlos Navarro, Rudy Fernandez and Serge Ibaka don't scare the United States because they aren't that good. They are quality basketball players, but nothing in comparison to the product that Jerry Colangelo and Coach K have at their disposal.

The United States beat France by 27 points when the two teams met in group play. Spain beat the French by just seven. There's no chance that Spain keeps it close once the third quarter rolls around.

That's exactly what happened when the U.S. and Spain played in an exhibition game before the Olympic Games began. It was an eight-point game at halftime, and the U.S. wound up winning by 22.

You can argue that it wasn't a real game and the Spanish weren't fully committed to winning, but the same argument can be made for the Americans.

The slow starts that once plagued the United States are now an afterthought. Both units—Chris Paul's starters and Deron Williams' second-stringers (if you can call them that)—are firing on all cylinders from the moment they step on the court.

Opposing teams are becoming demoralized earlier and earlier at the hands of the Americans, and Spain will suffer that same fate if the two teams wind up crossing paths in the gold-medal match.