ZARAGOZA (Spain) - The FIBA Basketball World Cup 2019 winners let their guard down for two quarters, and Poland were ready to take full advantage. They handed Spain an 80-69 loss, putting both teams at identical 1-1 records after the February window. 

Poland bounced back from an unexpected defeat to Israel at home to avoid an 0-2 hole to start their FIBA EuroBasket 2021 Qualifiers campaign. Spain defeated Romania on Gameday 1, but could not join Hungary, Georgia and Italy, as the only teams at 2-0 after Sunday's program.

Turning Point: The second and third quarter. Not a lot of teams can say they scored 50 points against a Sergio Scariolo-coached Spanish team, which is exactly what Poland did in the middle two quarters, while allowing only 36 points at the other end.

Game Hero: A.J. Slaughter did A.J. Slaughter things. The Polish guard exploded for 26 points on 10-of-20 shooting, and had two sidekicks providing the help in Aaron Cel (17 points) and Michal Sokolowski (13 points). Poland were a +13 team with Slaughter on the floor and a massive +18 while Sokolowski was in the lineup.

Stats Don't Lie: Turnovers were a major issue for Spain. They had 20 of them in the first three quarters, finishing with 23 when all was said and done. That was 10 more than what Poland had in this game.

Bottom Line: The group of upsets continues in the same rhythm set on Thursday. Israel stunned Poland, Poland did the same to Spain, and it seems that every point could count at the end of the run in 2021. Spain had additional trouble as Iberostar Tenerife's forward Santi Yusta got injured in the second half, leaving the court straight to the locker room.

FIBA