MADRID (Spain) - In exactly one week, Spain will begin its official road to Paris 2024, hoping to qualify for its 7th straight Olympic Games. However, preparing for the main course in Valencia, they suffered a sour appetizer with an 87-84 home defeat to Italy in Madrid.
The story of the game
It was a game full of highlights at Madrid's WiZink Center. Even before the tip-off, the crowd paid tribute to Marc Gasol, who was surrounded by his national team trophies and cheered on by former teammates and current friends.
A classy gesture from Spain towards one of its basketball heroes, Gasol has won two silver medals at the Olympic Games (2008 and 2012), two gold medals at the World Cup (2006 and 2019), and five EuroBasket medals over his 15-year career with the senior national team.
From then on, it was madness. Italy approached the second friendly game of its summer with a dominant 10-1 start but started struggling from beyond the arc and gave Spain the opportunity to sneak back into the encounter.
Everything seemed to be going towards a comeback victory for the home side, capable of escaping even nine points ahead on multiple occasions during the third quarter, after being dragged here and there by Willy Hernangomez down low.
Marco Spissu and Stefano Tonut, however, didn't agree with that. In a matter of seconds, they converted consecutive three-pointers late into the game, turning the contention around. It was only with a few seconds left on the clock that Sergio Llull forced overtime. That's when Italy's pride fully emerged, heading to San Juan with back-to-back preparation wins.
The player of the game
Before Italy could get back in contention late in the fourth quarter, there was a clear MVP for Spain's cheerful night. In front of his mentor and idol Marc Gasol, Willy Hernangomez put on a dominant show both in the second quarter and at the beginning of the fourth.
However, Marco Spissu and Stefano Tonut, as mentioned earlier, had different plans. If there’s an exception to the rule, this must be the night of a duo of MVPs. Combining for 26 points, the decisive shots down the line came from their hands.
It wouldn’t be fair not to mention Alessandro Pajola too. He was everywhere for Italy, and it's always impressive to end with an 18-efficiency rating despite scoring only 7 points.
The stats of the game
Similar to what happened against Georgia, where Gianmarco Pozzecco's team shot 7/23 from beyond the arc and the opponents ended with 11/30, both teams struggled once again with three-point shooting—at least before the final madness.
Neither team shot better than 30.0% from the arc before the fourth quarter. However, things improved as the game progressed. Spain ended with an 11/30 (36.0%) performance, while the Azzurri finished with 12/36 (33.0%). Perhaps this is fewer than expected for two national teams that like to create space for open threes, but it was enough to put on a show late in the night.
Italy was shooting so poorly in the first half that they celebrated Marco Spissu's early three-pointer in the second half like Mattia Zaccagni's last-second equalizer at Euro 2024 against Croatia.
The takeaways from the game
There was continuity in the way Italy approached their second friendly game of the summer after beating Georgia in Trento, not just in terms of the final result.
Gianmarco Pozzecco indeed trusted the same five players (Marco Spissu, Stefano Tonut, John Petrucelli, Achille Polonara, and Nicolò Melli) to start the game. Rightfully so.
Nico Mannion and Alessandro Pajola also contributed intangibles and key plays off the bench. The versatility of the Italian backcourt will be beneficial in Puerto Rico, just as 35-year-old Danilo Gallinari, his team's leading scorer once again with 14 points, will be.
Talking about the losing end, what could Sergio Scariolo take away from this first game?
Well, the first promising answer could be that Spain didn't surrender early in the night despite entering the night down 10-1. And it didn't happen either until the very end when it became clear that Italy wasn't putting its foot off the gas.
Also, this was still a Lorenzo Brown-less version of the Spanish national team, and we know how crucial he was at FIBA EuroBasket 2022.
Finally, even though it's not really something we learned as breaking news tonight, this is still Rudy Fernandez and Sergio Llull's national team.
Heart and soul of a whole country basketball-wise, they're endless. Or at least let's keep thinking about it.
FIBA