Men's Olympic Basketball Tuesday Roundup: Brazil Puts Spain on the Ropes
Pau Gasol and Spain were not supposed to be a powerhouse entering the 2016 Olympics. They are, however, supposed to be much better than this.
Spain's chances of advancing out of the preliminary round took a gigantic hit Tuesday with a 66-65 loss to Brazil.
The final score was kinder to the Spaniards than the game itself. The team started flat, over-dribbling and forcing the issue when getting Gasol involved. It fell behind from the jump, scoring just 13 first-quarter points, and never truly recovered.
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Sergio Llull, Sergio Rodriguez and Gasol were left to carry Spain's offense. Gasol faced swarms of double-teams, and he shot just 4-of-11 from the floor while compiling 13 points, 10 rebounds and four blocks.
Ricky Rubio's Olympic struggles continued. After Croatia held him scoreless in Sunday's loss, he mustered three points, no assists and two turnovers before fouling out in under 17 minutes of action.
With most of Spain's backcourt contributors laying eggs, Rodriguez shouldered the playmaking burden. He dished out five assists and pumped in 10 points on a tidy 3-of-6 shooting.
Spain couldn't get into any sustainable rhythm thanks to Brazil's smothering pick-and-roll defense. It couldn't make Brazil pay with the long ball—Nikola Mirotic bricked all four of his three-point attempts.
Even with an underwhelming performance through three quarters, Spain put itself in position to win with a 20-point effort in the final frame. The team was up 65-64 inside 25 seconds to play when Gasol stepped to the line for two free throws. He missed them both.
Marcelo Huertas (11 points, seven assists) botched a shot at the other end for Brazil, but Marcus Vinicius Marquinhos (10 points, five rebounds) beat Mirotic to the boards for the go-ahead putback. Though Spain had nearly six seconds to respond, its final set was uninspired and ineffective to say the least, per Bleacher Report's Andy Bailey:
Just like that, instead of owning the Olympic tier just below Team USA, Spain is 0-2 with its medal hopes ostensibly on life support.
For what it's worth, CBS Sports' Zach Harper tried to put a positive spin on the situation:
Spain must win each of its final three games to reach the quarterfinals. It will no doubt be favored over Nigeria (Thursday), Lithuania (Saturday) and Argentina (Monday), but it was expected to beat both Croatia and Brazil. Nothing will be easy for this team.
Any hope of a turnaround starts with the offense, because Spain's defense won't get much better, as Bourbon Street Shots' Mason Ginsberg and the Orlando Magic Daily's Philip Rossman-Reich pointed out:
The absences of Marc Gasol and Serge Ibaka were never more evident than against Brazil. Huertas forced Gasol into unsuccessful high pick-and-rolls, throwing Spain's coverage off and opening clear paths into the paint.
In light of Rubio's offensive slump, the Llull-Rodriguez combo will need to see more court time. Opposing defenses can't go under screens on Spain's pick-and-rolls with one of them handling the ball, and that should make life easier on Gasol.
Brazil, meanwhile, now moves to 1-1 in Group B play and enters the quarterfinal conversation—a discussion it was not supposed to join. The roster lacks big-time performers and is headlined by the aging Leandro Barbosa, Huertas and Nene, each of whom is 33. But what Brazil, which hasn't medaled in the Olympics since 1964, lacks in international star power, it makes up for with energy.
Youngsters Cristiano Felicio (seven points, two rebounds) and Augusto Lima (nine points, 10 rebounds), both 24, served as fire-starters against Spain. Felicio didn't dominate, but he forced Spain's bigs to move around on defense. Lima was absolutely huge, taking over the offensive glass (four offensive boards) and exploding up and down the floor.
Brazil must have at least one more upset in it if the team plans to make anything substantial of this upset over Spain. It holds a decided edge over Nigeria (Monday), but the team won't be favored in either of its next two tilts against Croatia (Thursday) or Argentina (Sunday) and already lost to Lithuania.
This victory bodes well for Brazil's chances if Spain is unable to win out. The bottom two teams from each group get ditched, and the only Group B squads yet to record a win are Spain and Nigeria. That puts Brazil in the driver's seat for now, with an opportunity to show the world this upset says more about its Cinderella status than Spain's apparent fall from silver-medal contention.
Lithuania Survives Tough Test from Nigeria
On Sunday, Lithuania opened its Olympic experience with an 82-76 victory over the team that just completed its Tuesday surprise against Spain. By the transitive property, you could argue it immediately became one of Team USA's primary challengers since Spain was hailed by so many as one of the Americans' toughest roadblocks in the gold-medal quest.
On the flip side, Nigeria had begun its time in Rio in embarrassing fashion, dropping the opening contest to Argentina by a whopping 28-point margin that same day.
Surely, this was going to be another blowout. But led by 19 points, seven rebounds, three steals, an assist, a block and plenty of inspired defense from Ike Diogu, Nigeria wouldn't roll over for its heavily favored opponent, even if it eventually succumbed with an 89-80 loss.
An inspired run at the end of the first 10 minutes gave the 2015 Afrobasket champions a three-point lead, capped off by a thunderous and punctuating follow-up dunk from Ekene Ibekwe, who charged in from beyond the three-point arc to slam home Josh Akognon's missed runner. It was a perfect demonstration of the athleticism discussed by the Lawton Constitution's Andrew Kennedy:
The second quarter brought more of the same fire and intensity from the Nigerians. No doubt aided by Lithuania's inexplicably poor shooting on open jumpers, they contested everything on the interior and stuffed numerous attempts.
Offensively, Nigeria pounded the ball into the paint and started raining in threes like it had signed Stephen Curry after the first frame. Diogu hit his first two triples. So too did Michael Umeh, and the underdogs left for halftime with a 41-36 advantage.
But the second half told a different story as Nigeria's energy fizzled in the face of Lithuania's execution.
As Jonas Maciulis (21 points, four rebounds) punished an undersized front line near the basket and dropped in some perimeter looks, Mantas Kalnietis (21 points, 12 assists) dissected the defense that was so eager to send an extra help defender. Everything seemed to click, and the expected version of Lithuania emerged—the version that can generate open looks with an extra pass and create plenty of easy opportunities in the restricted area.
Based solely on the second half, you're doing it wrong if you aren't following in Sam Vecenie's footsteps:
Hoop's Josh Eberley found a different way to praise the point guard, and it's no less accurate:
Impressive and spirited as Nigeria may have been, it's now dug itself an 0-2 hole in group play with matchups looming against Spain (Thursday), Croatia (Saturday) and Brazil (Monday). A winless experience could very well be in the cards as the three-point shooting regresses, though even that shouldn't prevent the country from feeling like it accomplished something in the Olympics.
Lithuania, on the other hand, is still poised to put itself in prime position for a medal. It needs more out of Jonas Valanciunas (10 points and five rebounds) and can't afford to come out of the gates in lackluster fashion against premier opponents, but a 2-0 start is just what it needed heading into the murderers' row of the schedule—Argentina (Thursday), Spain (Saturday) and Croatia (Monday).
Who Says the Golden Generation Is Done?
Croatia put together a spirited comeback against Argentina throughout the fourth quarter, but it could never shrink the gap to anything fewer than four points. In the end, Argentina staved off the charge and finished with a 90-82 victory over its tough competition, thereby ending Croatia's hopes of successfully following up an Olympics-opening win over Spain.
Argentina is now 2-0, and each of the outings was rather impressive.
First came the 28-point blowout of a Nigeria squad that showed how tough it could be Tuesday night. Now comes a dominant performance through three quarters, one that somehow also showcased just how tough the Argentines could be when faced with adversity in the final period.
Not too shabby for a roster featuring so few faces from the country's Golden Generation. Lest we forget, this is what Alejandro Perez wrote for ESPN Argentina back in 2015:
"Recent history would practically guarantee Argentina would take part in the 2016 Olympic Games basketball competition, as has happened in the last three Games. But at the same time, reality would dictate otherwise. This national team is quite different from years past in which the Golden Generation won gold in Greece 2004, bronze in Beijing 2008 and a respectable fourth place in London 2012. Those accomplishments are but a fleeting memory.
And the same goes for the Golden Generation itself.
"
Reality now has Argentina not only in the Olympic field, but undefeated with three group-stage games remaining against Lithuania (Thursday), Brazil (Saturday) and Spain (Monday).
It has Luis Scola turning back the clocks to record 23 points, nine rebounds and a block against the Croatians. It has Manu Ginobili remaining effective on a night with relatively limited involvement by constantly working his way to the charity stripe. It has Andres Nocioni nailing a pair of triples as his country began to pull away.
Scola, in particular, is basically a FIBA immortal, as SportsNet New York's Josh Newman pointed out:
Of course, it's too soon to say Argentina has vaulted into the medal discussion. Impressive as it's been, the United States, Australia and Lithuania are still undefeated, and we can't count out France (1-1) or Spain (0-2).
But it would be just as foolish to look past this squad in the wake of its opening victories, especially as the young players continue to gain experience on the international stage.
Standings and Schedule
| A | 1:15 p.m. ET | Serbia | France | |
| A | 6 p.m. ET | Australia | USA | NBCSN |
| A | 9:30 p.m. ET | Venezuela | China |
| A | USA | 2-0 | 4 | 101 |
| A | Australia | 2-0 | 4 | 36 |
| A | Serbia | 1-1 | 3 | 9 |
| A | France | 1-1 | 3 | 7 |
| A | Venezuela | 0-2 | 2 | -68 |
| A | China | 0-2 | 2 | -85 |
| B | Argentina | 2-0 | 4 | 36 |
| B | Lithuania | 2-0 | 4 | 15 |
| B | Brazil | 1-1 | 3 | -5 |
| B | Croatia | 1-1 | 3 | -6 |
| B | Spain | 0-2 | 2 | -3 |
| B | Nigeria | 0-2 | 2 | -37 |
Full group listings and standings, as well as live streams of all the games, can be found at NBCOlympics.com.
Lithuania-Nigeria and Argentina-Croatia sections provided by Adam Fromal.
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