OLY - Men's Group B preview

LONDON (Olympics) - Extremely difficult games in Group B of the Olympic Men's Tournament await Spain, winners of the last two EuroBaskets and runners-up to Team USA at the last Olympics.

The Spaniards are supposed to be the biggest threats to the United States but Brazil have a squad capable of challenging any side in the world and both Russia and Australia are battle-hardened and sure to be formidable.

Great Britain boast not only the great talent of Luol Deng but have home-court advantage and China, while no longer having giant center Yao Ming are combative under boss Bob Donewald.

"China is a great team that plays for Yi Jianlian," Spain coach Sergio Scariolo said.

"But I am particularly worried about the exterior mobility of the Chinese centers."

Yi, China's flag bearer, can cause problems inside and outside and so can fellow big man Wang Zhizhi.

"They play outside the paint and they can create problems, especially when we have our big players on the court," Scariolo said.

One of those Spanish big men is Marc Gasol, who still hasn’t recovered from the shoulder injury he suffered in the preparations.

Scariolo says he will play with pain.

Juan Carlos Navarro continues to recover from his back injury that was brought about by plantar fasciitis and Rudy Fernandez is better, having battled back problems of his own.

Brazil appear to have no weaknesses.

Their trio of NBA big men Tiago Splitter, Nene Hilario and Anderson Varejao gives them a potent frontcourt while the backcourt of Marcelo Huertas and Leandro Barbosa is among the best, too.

Brazil’s first opponents are Australia, whose coach Brett Brown will rely heavily on Pat Mills and Matt Dellavedova. Without NBA center Andrew Bogut, the Boomers must get solid production from Aleks Maric, David Andersen and Aron Baynes in the low post.

Russia have a good shot of reaching the podium after playing so well at the FIBA Olympic Qualifying Tournament (OQT) in Caracas, with Andrey Kirilenko the best but certainly not the only outstanding player in that team.

Alexey Shved and big man Sasha Kaun were outstanding at the OQT.

Great Britain are blessed with excellent big men in Joel Freeland, Pops Mensah-Bonsu, Robert Archibald and Dan Clark to support their superstar Deng.

But questions remain about the British guards and how they will cope on one of the biggest stages in basketball.

Pivotal games for the Brits are their last two against Australia (4 August) and China (6 August).

A battle for Group B supremacy may be waged between Spain and Brazil on 6 August.

FIBA