The road to Olympics gold will always go through Team USA, and Spain will look to overcome that when it takes on the No. 1 team on the planet. Check out our preview of this game below.
Spain was supposed to finish group play with an unblemished record but it simply couldn’t pull that off. The Spaniards are coming off a loss to the Luka Doncic-led Slovenia to the tune of a 95-87 score. Ricky Rubio top-scored for Spain in that game with 18 points to go with nine assists. The Cleveland Cavaliers guard has been doing most of the heavy lifting on offense for Spain in the tournament. He is leading the team with 21.3 points and 7.3 assists per game. Rubio leading his team in points is both a good and a bad sign for Spain. For one, no one outside Rubio is making more than 9.0 points per game in the Tokyo 2020 Olympics, so there’s going to be pressure on the others to deliver the goods on offense against a talented Team USA unit. In terms of efficiency, though, Spain is looking decent with a 47 percent shooting from the field thus far.
Team USA was not going to be upset by Tomas Satoransky and the Czech Republic, as it finished group play with a resounding 119-84 win over the Czechs. After losing to France in the opener, Team USA has now gone 2-0, having defeated Iran also, 120-66. Team USA’s offense is firing on all cylinders heading to the Spain game. The Americans are shooting 51 percent from the field and 43.4 percent from behind the arc. A team this talented can do that. Kevin Durant, Damian Lillard, Jrue Holiday, Zach LaVine, and Jayson Tatum are leading the Americans’ balanced attack. Spain can’t just focus on a single player on defense. Conversely, Team USA might just have to slow down Rubio to cripple Spain’s defense. With a defensive menace like Holiday, Team USA has the perfect weapon to neutralize Spain’s guards.
