The Baltics face Spain in the round of 16 of the EuroBasket, coming off a two-game winning streak in the demanding group B
Round of 16 of the EuroBasket and a Spain-Lithuania on the table. In another time, this would have been the final of a EuroBasket -it already was in 2003-, but we do not find ourselves in an alley from which the winner will emerge stronger and the defeated will return home humiliated without having met expectations.
Spain he didn’t want Lithuania and most likely the Balts didn’t want us for this game either. The capricious group B that framed France, Slovenia, Germany, Lithuania, Bosnia and Hungary has provided this team as the fourth best classified after beating Hungary and Bosnia in their last two games.
The selection of Scariolo also comes with two wins in a row after knocking down Montenegro and Turkey, although against this combined with many difficulties. It is clear that the bar is raised against a Lithuania that has a quintet that would win the Euroleague on the street.
Jokubaitis (Barça), Grigonis (Panathinaikos), Kuzminskas (Zenit), Sabonisthey form a starting five that is very scary and that has everything. Speed, pass, outside shot and above all muscle. Both Sabonis and Valanciunas are annual NBA All-Star contenders.
Our best player of the tournament, Willy Hernangómez is Valanciunas’ backup on the Pelicans. And of the rest of the components of the best selection we do not compare. Lithuania have everything in their favour, especially considering that in preparation for the EuroBasket they beat us in both games we played.
they lack depth
The good news for Spain is that we know them very well and that the depth of their bench is nil. When the substitutes come out, Lithuania lose a lot of points and our team will have to try to screw them up with fouls with a specialist in this kind of luck like Rudy Fernández on the field.
Spain should feel offended because of what happened on the last day of EuroBasket with Bogdanovic -the Croatian- missing a free kick on purpose to try to find ourselves in the quarterfinals if we manage to get through this series against Lithuania.
The year after the withdrawal of the Gasols may come the debacle or the vindication of ours. Lithuania puts its history to the test after always reaching the semifinals of the EuroBasket since 1999Let’s trust that Scariolo pulls his last rabbit out of his hat.