USA vs. Spain Exhibition: Olympic Tune-Up

We already wrote about Team USA’s recent “struggles” in exhibition games against Brazil and Argentina. What about Spain?

Let’s skip over the fact it soundly beat Argentina by 20 last week.

When fully healthy, Spain has five starters who spent time in the NBA. Even with point guard Ricky Rubio out due to injury, Spain’s top seven players all have NBA experience. It will have a significant advantage inside with the Gasol Brothers and Serge Ibaka, and that’s kind of a big deal considering Team USA has been outscored 116-115 in four exhibition games without Tyson Chandler, Anthony Davis or Kevin Love on the floor.

There are rumblings Spain will sit Marc Gasol and Jose Calderon due to “injury” so as not to “show” too much of what it plans to do in the Olympics, but if Coach K were smart, he’d counter by giving big minutes to Kevin Love and Anthony Davis to see what they’re capable of. [UPDATE: Calderon is in the starting lineup. Marc Gasol is not due to his shoulder injury. But he’s dressed.]

I’m sure Team USA will be out to prove something and roll to a meaningless victory – they can’t win; a narrow triumph is unimpressive and a rout doesn’t mean much because it’s an exhibition – so I’ll plant this seed should there need to be a topic to discuss in the 2nd half: What if Coach K can’t get this team a Gold medal?