USA/ESP – Defense rules again as USA dominate in win over Spain

BEIJING (Olympics) – The United States underlined their status as gold medal favourites with a 119-82 destruction of world champions Spain on Saturday.

Looking to make amends for missing out on gold at the last two FIBA World Championships and the Athens Olympics, Mike Krzyzewski’s men brushed aside a team that is loaded with NBA players and top European talent.

Just as they have done in all of their other games this summer, the Americans tore an opponent to shreds with ferocious intensity on defense, forcing 28 turnovers – 17 in the first half when they opened up a 61-45 advantage.

“I was really proud of how we came into this game – focused, from the beginning to the end, especially on the defensive end,” USA’s Carmelo Anthony said.

“We put pressure on the ball and everything worked out better than the previous two games. I think we got a lot better today.

“Obviously this wasn’t a good game for us,” said Spain’s Pau Gasol.

“I don’t feel happy at all with how we played tonight. They played with much more intensity and we weren’t able to start with that intensity and we weren’t able to keep up the whole game.

“Twenty-eight turnovers is a staggering number, and it’s a number that you can’t have a chance in a basketball game if you do that.”


While Dwyane Wade led the defensive effort with six steals in the rout of Germany, LeBron James came up with four against Spain.

James scored 18 points while Anthony, who was four of six from three-point range, and Wade finished with 16 apiece.

“They were just going in tonight,” Anthony said of his shooting stroke.

Eight players ended up in double figures, including point guard Chris Paul (14 pts, six assists).

The Americans were 12 of 25, including seven of 11 in the first half, compared to Spain’s six of 28 from long range on the night.

With their fourth straight win, Team USA clinched first place in Group B. They will wrap up their preliminary round on Monday against Dirk Nowitzki and Germany, who were eliminated from quarter-final contention earlier in the evening in a close loss to China.

Spain will take on Angola.

For the first five minutes of the game, Spain looked comfortable and the game was knotted at 11-11.

But James popped a three-pointer and added two free throws for a 16-11 lead and the USA had the lead for good.

Felipe Reyes, who had a game-high 19 points and eight rebounds, scored down low for Spain.

But Wade picked Berni Rodriguez’s pocket and scored before Chris Paul made two free throws.

The Americans gradually pulled away and opened a 31-22 advantage by the end of the first quarter.

Spain briefly closed the gap to seven points in the second quarter but the Americans played faster, shot better and showed more determination in building a 61-45 lead by half-time.

The crowd did erupt with applause late in the first half for Spain when Ricky Rubio connected with Rudy Fernandez on an alley-oop pass that Fernandez dunked to pull Spain to within 57-43, but the Americans were never under serious threat.

Overall, the Americans shot 44 of 76 (58%) from the floor compared to Spain’s 28 of 71 (39%).

“I think this is a good lesson for us to know what we need to do to play at the highest level and to compete,” Gasol said.

“Hopefully we’ll learn and we’ll move on from this result and leave it behind us.

“Hopefully we’ll meet Team USA again if we earn that opportunity.

“Team USA wanted to make a statement in this game and they did. They wanted to send a message to everybody in the tournament.

“They didn’t do it before, but now everybody knows they are for real. It’s very hard to keep up with that pace. Hopefully we’ll learn the lesson and be ready for next time.”

When asked to expand on Team USA’s strengths, Gasol said: “They are playing with a purpose and that’s to win and to show everyone else that they are superior. And I think that’s the bottom line.

“It’s not that they are better individually than two years ago, they are better as a team. They have a better mentality.”

FIBA