Men's Final, the remake

PARIS (George Eddy's International Show) - I guess another shootout was possible. In the end, Spain DID have four quarters of top notch offensive basketball in them and the 2012 Men's Olympic Final DID live up to the incredible level of the 2008 Final opposing the same two teams.

Just think, to build an eight-point lead at the end of the first quarter, Team USA had to make seven of 10 three-point shots (!) because Juan Carlos Navarro re-became the ruthless scorer he was as the MVP of the last Eurobasket, too quick for Kobe Bryant to catch on his way to 14 points in the first seven minutes.

Unfortunately for Spain, Navarro had to nurse a foot injury all season and lacked game conditioning from there on. As predicted, Spain played a lot of zone defense but at the start of the second quarter they came out in a man-to-man and regained the lead behind Marc Gasol and Sergio Rodriguez.

Coach Sergio Scariolo was slow to pull Marc after his third foul and he immediately picked up his fourth which glued him to the bench until the fourth quarter. This could have really hurt them, but Spain held strong thanks to Serge Ibaka and Rudy Fernandez to be only one point behind at halftime, 59-58, winning the second quarter 31-24, something Team USA was definitely not used to!

Spain scored 58 points in the first half against the USA's solid defense after only scoring 66 against France and 67 vs. Russia in the whole game! Coach K's team never panicked getting some timely baskets against the zone from Carmelo Anthony and Deron Williams in the first half and timely scores and assists from LeBron James, Chris Paul, Kobe Bryant and Kevin Durant throughout the game.

In the third quarter, Spain took back the lead when an excellent Pau Gasol (who finished not far from a triple-double) scored seven straight points. He and his teammates played good defense and controlled the boards as the Team USA shooters hit a cold stretch.

Ibaka finished strong making a lot of free-throws and two buckets to compensate for Marc Gasol's absence and Spain attacked the fourth quarter still behind by one point, 83-82, the ideal scenario for them because they played well in the fourth quarter in the quarters and semis.

On the other hand Team USA had seen enough and attacked the fourth quarter playing aggressive defense and LeBron and Paul took over the scoring load before KD shook Spain's box and one defense to increase the lead.

As usual, Fernandez got under the skin of a few guys with his flopping and hard fouls but overall, he had a pretty good game. With two minutes to go it was a two-possession game at 99-93 before LeBron and Paul closed it out 107-100.

Both teams scored a hundred, 22 three-pointers were made, turnovers were low with 11 for each team, the score was close throughout and some nice assists, dunks and blocks will fill up the highlights.

Spain once again started an international tournament slowly, losing to Russia and Brazil, but as the elimination games advanced, Spain looked better in each round.

In the Final we saw the culmination of all those years playing and winning together as their quality of play will attest to but this was still not enough to deny Team USA, a team with a good attitude, respect for the game and their opponents and more than anything, NBA All-Stars coming off the bench right up to the 11th man which is one heck of a lot of pure basketball talent.

Since the ensemble was also darn well coached, Spain and all the other beaten opponents could only accept defeat with dignity and tip their hats to James (what a summer for the King!), Durant et all. This final was once again a wonderful promotion for the game and the good news is that all the NBA stars will be back in Rio in four years for another turn on the Olympic merry-go-round!    

George Eddy

FIBA

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