LILLE (France) - Oh, they had them right where they wanted them. Sure, Santi Aldama started the game strong, but all other Spanish starters scored a total of two points in the first quarter. Greece were surely on their way towards a double digit advantage.
The offense was flowing, everybody getting touches, serving as release valves to ease the pressure around Giannis Antetokounmpo, and the defense was fully concentrated.
Until one simple lapse late in the shot clock, when they were up 22-16.
Sergio Llull had the ball. Everybody knew, he's driving right. Everybody knew, he'll take a wild off balance shot. Everybody knew it would fly all the way up to the jumbotron at the top of the Pierre Mauroy Stadium.
And everybody knew that mandarina is gonna fly from the sky straight into the net, closing out a fruitful finish to the quarter by Llull, erasing that Greek advantage completely.
"I knew that s*** was going it, man," Dario Brizuela laughed out loud after the game.
"You can see it in his face when he shot the ball, he was already smiling."
Brizuela witnessed the inflated shot go in against his team so many times while playing for Estudiantes, Unicaja and Barcelona against Llull's Real Madrid. Now he finally gets to experience the shot as a teammate.
"He's a legend, man. Everybody knows him, and in this type of games, do or die situations, he'll always show up, and he's a legend for us," Brizuela added.
At 36, Llull scored 11 of his 13 points in the first half, while also dishing seven assists for Spain. He got them closer with points, he got them in front with assists, finding teammates like Santi Aldama in perfect positions.
"He keeps doing it. He's been doing it for 20 years, he just makes unreal shots," Aldama commented.
"He has that passion in him, the way he represents the country is unreal, man. Having a guy like him on the team makes it so much easier. Him and Rudy, for a young guy like me, having them on the team is just incredible."
Meanwhile, with the world stunned once more with Llull's longevity and shot making, Sergio is just unfazed as he's talking to media members in the tunnels of the Pierre Mauroy Stadium in Lille.
He's not out of breath, either, after that exhausting and dramatic finish to the game. No wonder, he's been in games like these a million times.
"I think we were calm, we trusted the teammates that we had next to each other. A lot of us have played a lot of games like this. Close game, very high level games, and at the end this experience plays in your favor. Today it went well, and now we have to rest and think about Canada," Llull said.
There are no calculations in his mind, no spreads or margins, because if Group A was considered the group of death, the main thing is just escaping it. In order to do so, they need wins or any kind.
"The most important was the win. Because if we lost today, we'd be on our way home, and this game wouldn't mean anything. But this win allows us to fight for our spot in Paris, and that was the goal. Then, we will see."
La Familia has been in situations like those plenty of times. They had group stage defeats, they had scary situations with potential eliminations, but somehow, whenever they got to the elimination rounds, the do-or-die games Brizuela mentioned, they find a way to win.
Sergio has a simple but effective explanation.
"We had amazing generations, players like Navarro, Gasol, Rudy, Felipe Reyes, with all these players it's easier to achieve your goal. We always try to compete and that's we did again," he said.
Even if this is his personal swansong, he's doing his best to make sure that national team culture carries on. That's why you can feel free to add his name right next to the greats he already mentioned.
FIBA