GRANADA (FIBA Basketball World Cup) - Iran shooting guard Mahdi Kamrani silenced, for a little while, the sellout crowd at Palacio Municipal de Deportes in Granada, but the host nation Spain opened their 2014 FIBA Basketball World Cup campaign with a comprehensive 90-60 on Saturday.

Seven years after missing a free-throw in the dying seconds of the EuroBasket 2007 Final against Russia on home soil, Pau Gasol opened the score on Saturday with a pair of points from the foul line, before Kamradi put the 2013 FIBA Asia champions in front with a tree-pointer.

Throughout the game, the 32-year-old Iranian performed comfortably as if he were playing in front of his home fans, but, in fact, he was just trying to enjoy the moment of playing against a renowned opposition.

He hit three of his six three-point attempts, leaving the hosts wondering how to improve their perimeter defense for the remainder of the tournament.

Kamrani attributed his eye-catching performance to a team effort.

"My team-mates executed the pick-and-roll perfectly well, leaving me wide open for shooting opportunities," Kamrani said afterwards.

"I think I did well, even though I lost focus in the final minutes of the game."

He kept Iran in the game with a number of made shots, before Juan Orenga's men took control for good.

"European teams are simply too tough to play against," said Kamrani after the game.

"They have an excellent team consisting of NBA players, plus (there is) the home crowd factor."

Kamrani and Hamed Haddadi were Iran's only players to score in double digits, combining for 34 points - more than half of their team's total.

"Spain, Brazil and the USA are the best teams in the whole tournament to battle for the title," Kamrani offered.

While they are competing to achieve the best possible result in the Group Phase at FIBA's flagship tournament, Iran - who have dominated the game in Asia over the past decade - also have their sights elsewhere.

"We are trying to keep our players healthy as our main focus is the Asian Games coming up next month in Korea. That is an incredibly important tournament for us," said Kamrani who poured in a team-high 18 points.

"It is not a personal goal, but winning the gold medal at the Asian Games is extremely important for Iran.

"Honestly, we don't have big chances in this World Cup, but I still believe that we can beat Egypt and play good games against Brazil, Serbia and France," he pointed out.

Despite winning three of the past four FIBA Asia Championships, Kamran insists there is still a long way to go, although there is growing optimism in the country with regards to basketball.

"The feeling is that Iran basketball will be better in years to come, and compete to qualify for the next round in the World Cup tournaments."

Having played four years ago in Turkey, the 1.82 guard believes that "the tournament is comparatively more competitive" in Spain.

In Sunday's Day 2 action, Iran will take on Brazil.

FIBA