TOKYO (Japan) - As Spain and Argentina rev the engines and get ready for Thursday's Group C showdown at the Olympics, it's worth remembering that these two great hoops nations often meet when the stakes are at their highest.

Luis Scola of Argentina and Spain's Pau Gasol, Marc Gasol, Rudy Fernandez and Sergio Rodriguez all played in the memorable FIBA Basketball World Cup 2006 Semi-Final in this very Super Saitama Arena. Spain survived that encounter, 75-74, and two days later beat Greece to capture their first world title.

Argentina and Spain traded blows yet again in a crucial World Cup clash, this time in the Final two years ago in China. Spain rolled to a 95-75 triumph. 

Rubio had one of the finest moments of his career at the FIBA Basketball World Cup 2019 MVP

Neither team has much room for error on Thursday as they set their sights on reaching the Quarter-Finals of the Tokyo Olympics.

Slovenia annihilated Argentina in their opener, 118-100, on Monday, so Sergio Hernandez's team must beat Spain if they want to have a chance of a top-two finish, which would assure them of advancing to the Quarter-Finals. The two best third-placed teams from the three groups will also advance to the knockout phase.

Spain, meanwhile,  won over Japan in their first game, an 88-77 triumph that was not as emphatic as the world champions had hoped it to be. A Spain win will punch their ticket to the Quarter-Finals. A Spain loss on Thursday would leave them, and Argentina, at 1-1 and with work still to do to reach the elite Olympic eight.

"It is going to be a game between two good teams, with a competitive tradition and a very healthy but at the same time very lively rivalry," Spain coach Sergio Scariolo said. "Obviously we have a difficult task, an (Argentina) team with highly talented players, with some international experience that play in a system that has been consolidated for a long time and has an important rhythm against which you have to play intelligently.

"It's true that we also like to play at a fast pace but at the same time, we have to be very smart and choose the right time when to pick up the pace and when to slow down."

"WE HAVE LOST OUR ESSENCE, OUR DNA, WHAT WE HAVE ALWAYS BEEN. BUT WE HAVE TIME, WE CAN RECOVER IT."- Argentina coach Sergio Hernandez

Argentina did not control the pace in their first game. They ran into a Luka Doncic-led Slovenia buzzsaw that no team has solved this summer. Doncic poured in 48 points - the most ever by a European player at the Olympics.

Argentina couldn't stop him. Doncic was so dominant with all aspects of his game that he finished with a sky-high +49 efficiency, which is unheard of in international basketball.

The South Americans never controlled the tempo, or the rhythm, of the game.

"We are not playing well," Argentina coach Sergio Hernandez said. "We have lost our essence, our DNA, what we have always been. But we have time, we can recover it. We must not fall into the same madness. We must be more precise and orderly, have balance without losing dynamics."

One head-to-head match-up that is sure to capture the imagination will pit Spain's point guard Ricky Rubio, who had 20 points and nine assists in the win over Japan, against Argentina playmaker Facundo Campazzo.

Rubio was the MVP of the World Cup in China while Campazzo might have earned a spot in the All-Star Five had Argentina won the Final. Both play in the NBA. Both are dazzling.

"We must go back to being ourselves, do what we do well: attack from our defense, play with our rhythm and in attack, pass the ball more to become a headache again for the rivals," said Campazzo, who statistically had a decent game against Slovenia. He finished with 21 points, eight rebounds, four assists and three steals. "We have to trust ourselves."

It's going to be a fascinating game.

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The encounter will put three international basketball greats on display with Spain's Pau Gasol and Fernandez and Argentina's Scola playing in their fifth Olympics.

Gasol is third on the all-time Olympics scoring charts while Scola is fourth.

Will Spain blow the game wide open as they did in the World Cup Final, and as Slovenia did against Argentina on Monday when they went in front by as many as 30 points? Or will Argentina discover much better form and claim a win that it simply must have?

"I'm sure they will be hurt by having lost the first game the way they lost it and that will make them doubly dangerous," said another of Spain's star guards, Sergio Llull.

"We'll have to be very focused from the first second, play a very serious and very complete game, being clear about what we must do. To have options to get that second victory, that is very important for us, too." 

FIBA