2014 FIBA World Cup: 10 major takeaways
By Bryce Olin
Spain wasn’t as good as we all thought
Before the tournament, I was legitimately worried Spain was going to beat Team USA, not because I don’t think the US players are good, but because everything was stacked against Team USA and broke Spain’s way:
- Blake Griffin and Kevin Love withdrew from consideration
- Paul George broke his leg
- Kevin Durant bailed
- The tournament was in Spain, which meant major home court advantage and major home cooking by the refs.
Then, France eliminated Spain in the quarterfinals, and none of the 6.2 billion columns and articles written about a Spain-USA final were relevant. It wasn’t that Spain wasn’t as good as we thought, necessarily, but everyone overrated their chemistry and cockiness confidence.
In some games, like against Brazil and France in group play, the Spanish offense was surgical. They were just carving up the opposing defense with an inside-out offense that featured a lot of high-low post action. In the quarterfinals, that offense disappeared. Instead, Spain’s guards jacked up three after three while they never got Marc Gasol or Serge Ibaka involved in the offense.
Combined, Marc and Ibaka finished with 5 points on 2-of-14 shooting. In part that was due to France’s aggressive post defense, but Spain’s guards weren’t getting them the ball in positions to score either. In the game, Spain also finished 2-of-22 from three-point range. All in all, it was the perfect storm of bad offense, selfish play, and an epic choke that allowed France to score 23 fourth quarter points compared to Spain’s nine points.
If Spain would have continued to feed the bigs, like they had all tournament, there’s no way Spain loses that game. France played really well defensively and have a perfect game plan, but Spain was also to blame for wasting possessions with long jump shots. Based on Spain’s performance against France’s aggressive defense, similar to what the USA would have done to Spain, I don’t think there’s any way Spain could have beaten the USA. The length and quickness of Team USA would have bother Spain more than people were expecting it to. In hindsight, it’s easy to see that now.