Spain arrived on Saturday Orense with fear in the body for everything experienced in Bratislava. The calamitous match after the break, the two overtimes, the controversial way in which the first was reached, with which the second arrived, the two saving triples of Santi Yusta… the case and the most positive thing is that the new Spain of Scariolo face today the possibility of achieving qualification for next summer’s Eurobasketeither. The defeats against Belgium and Latvia turned the two duels with Slovakia into a kind of direct eliminator to achieve qualification. And the first game was resolved in favor, even if it was that way.
«It was an exciting match in which there were many good things and some bad things. On the good side I put the competitiveness of the team, the first half that was excellent, the ability to grab ten more rebounds than the rival despite the obvious physical inferiority in size, the basketball intelligence with which the players knew how to grasp the adjustment made in at a given moment in extra time putting in a defense that we had not worked on these days,” commented Scariolo. The one from Brescia preferred to stay with the little good that was witnessed at the Tipos Arena.
Because the match left too many gaps in a team in which the official match debut of Sergio De Larrea, Mario Saint-Supery and Izan Almansa. And the three rookies were not exactly the weakest against the spirited Slovaks. The coach pointed out in this direction: “It’s fantastic because there are many players on our team who have not been in a situation like this and I appreciate that they have had this experience.”
But the team’s lack of performance for too many minutes is worrying: “There were things that we didn’t like: a lot of mistakes near the basket, some in free throws and a lot of relaxation at the beginning of the third quarter. “These are things to reflect on and work on, but better after winning than after losing.”
To try to close the classification at the Paco Paz Palace in Orense, the coach will not be able to count on one of the leaders of the block, Xabi López-Arostegui. The Valencia forward is the captain of the group with his 50 caps, but he suffers from an overload in his left knee that will prevent him from being on the court. This means that the team is in the hands of Santi Yusta and Fran Guerra, the best in Friday’s game, and that others like Alocén, Salvó or Pradilla are forced to take several steps forward.
And the victory against Bratislava left several clues about the rival. Brodzianskyas expected, was their leader. But it is that fuses and his 2.22 were a nightmare with his half dozen blocks and Ihring and Krajcovic had too many minutes in which they took over the game.
