Rodriguez: Spain-Greece is the biggest clash

LILLE (EuroBasket 2015) - There is no reason why one should not watch all four EuroBasket 2015 Quarter-Finals but, if you absolutely need to pick only one, Sergio Rodriguez recommends unreservedly Tuesday's encounter between Spain and Greece. 

"It is the most difficult game of the Quarter-Finals and if it was up to me to choose one rival at this stage I would not have picked Greece," Spain's point guard told reporters from all over Europe in Lille on Monday.

Some of the best players in this tournament will take part in this game and each one of them wants to win. - Rodriguez

"But we are ready to play against a great team, one of the candidates for the championship.

Spain boss Sergio Scariolo is renowned for his meticulous scouting and has two Liga Endesa head coaches as his assistants in Jaume Ponsarnau and Jesus Vidorreta, so you can be certain that there is hardly a page of Greece's playbook they have not analysed in depth for the benefit of their players.

The same applies on the other side naturally as Greece head coach Fotis Katsikaris has spent a big part of his career in Spain and will assume the reins of UCAM Murcia after EuroBasket 2015.

Sergio Rodriguez (ESP)

Greece is a very compact team with talent at all positions, players who are used to play in this type of clash. - Rodriguez

Rodriguez however has the benefit of first-hand knowledge, having rubbed shoulders with several players on the Greek team in any possible competition over the years.

"Those of us who play at Real Madrid face several players on the Greek team frequently in extremely important games and we know how tough they are," Rodriguez said.

"We know [Vassilis] Spanoulis is their biggest talent, a player who can make the difference at any point in the game.

"They have players who have not played so much in the previous games, like [Kostas] Papanikolaou or [Kostas] Kaimakoglou, who are still able to step up and change the route of the game.

"Especially this year, and although Spanoulis is their most talented player, they have a wealth of options and an entire group of players we need to limit to win this."

There is a good reason that Rodriguez insists on the defensive side.

Spain lead all teams at EuroBasket 2015 in scoring with 88 points per game but have the fifth most-permissive defense in the competition, allowing 79.5 points on average.

That makes for a poorer defensive rating than several teams who did not even make it to the Round of 16 in Lille.

"We need to be solid at the back, defend with intensity, secure the rebounds and try to grab an advantage by playing in transition," the 29-year-old guard said.

"It will be a long game and the details will decide who wins.

"We hope that playing under so much pressure after losing the game against Serbia [in Group B], playing with no margin of error and coming close to elimination has prepared us even better for this tough game.

"We knew all along it was going to be difficult, we knew we would start off in the toughest group, that we had to go through the most twisty route.

"This is what we signed up for."

In this Quarter-Final clash which Rodriguez anticipates to be a treat for basketball fans, Spain will be able to count on two of their brightest stars and stalwarts of the phenomenal success the Iberian side experienced during the best part of the last decade.

Pau Gasol and Rudy Fernandez have both managed to shake off injuries that had troubled them during the last days and will step out on Tuesday.

"Everybody knows how important Pau and Rudy are to us," Rodriguez said.

"We didn't have Rudy in the Round of 16 game against Poland and it was an enormous absence for us, we hope that tomorrow [Tuesday] he will make the difference on both offence and defense.

"The team as a whole is ready for this, Spain has already played in six finals, every time under a lot of pressure.

"In these past years we have won the gold, we have won so many medals, we have almost always reached the semi-final of big tournaments.

"So this team understands only too well the importance of this game and we all know what we have to do.

"The goal is the same we set from the start of preparation for this EuroBasket, the primary objective is to qualify to Rio and then to try to win the trophy."

Go to eurobasket2015.org for complete coverage of EuroBasket 2015.

FIBA