Spain stopped Greece and remains alive in the Olympic men’s basketball competition

Spain, led by Santi Aldama’s 19 points, defeated Greece this Tuesday by 84-77 in the second day of the men’s Olympic basketball, in which Giannis Antetokounmpo’s 27 points were included in the statistics books for Paris 2024.

With this victory, Spain, which this time did win the battle for the rebound (39-31), and which will play its third game on Friday, against Canada, again at the Pierre Mauroy stadium in Villeneuve-d’Ascq, on the outskirts of Lille, keeps alive its hopes of being in the knockout stages of the championship, which, starting from the quarter-finals, will be decided in Paris.

Both teams, having lost their first match, were playing for survival in the Olympic tournament, where another defeat would begin to dangerously point the way to the French border.

Aldama, who scored ten of the first twelve Spanish points, could not prevent the first Greek takeoff (12-20), but the entry of the veterans, Rudy Fernández – in his sixth Games and who scored ten points in his 265th international match – and, above all, Llull, second captain, who immediately started his scoring machine, brought serenity to Spain.

And with four assists from Lorenzo Brown, the ‘Familia’ came close to 21-22 at the end of the first quarter.

Key shots

Sergio Scariolo’s men, good in defence, stretched themselves thanks to outside shooting, with an impressive second quarter. A three-pointer from Llull gave Spain its first lead of the game (24-22), which, with another from Rudy and another from a much more refined Lorenzo (36-29), increased the advantage.

What the Greeks were missing, the Spaniards made up for (11 of 17 three-pointers in the first half). Pradilla, Abrines and Brizuela elevated the team’s play; a three-pointer by the latter gave Spain the maximum advantage, fourteen points (46-32).

Antetokounmpo did not score a single point in the second quarter – a partial of 28 to 13 in favour of Spain – and went to the locker room with nine points after another exchange of three-pointers between Papanikolaou and de Abrines, which kept Spain ahead at half-time (49-35).

Willy increased the lead to sixteen at the start of the second half, but Spain was stuck. Without a clear leader in attack, two three-pointers from Walkup and Papanikolaou and a dunk from Anteto brought Vasilis Spanoulis’ men closer again (55-47).

Revelation

Santi Aldama confirmed himself as the great Spanish revelation of the tournament and, with another triple, the Grizzlies power forward provided a calm that vanished from then on with a 0-7 partial that left the Greeks only six points behind.

The decisive act began with 62-56, with Antetokounmpo confirming with five consecutive points that he was awake. Rudy and Juancho Hernangómez tried to plug the drain at a time when Toliopoulos supplied poison in the form of a 4 of 4 in triples that brought Greece back to within a single point (68-67).

Rudy’s greatness returned, but the Greeks did not want to die, and the Milwaukee Bucks star – who finished with the highest rating of the game (32) – took the team on his back, tying the game at 71 with four and a half minutes left.

Llull decisive

In the final stretch, Brown came close to being the ‘Don Lorenzo’ of the last European Championship; Sergio Llull showed that, at 36 years of age, he still has a lot of energy left; and Aldama made it clear that he is destined to be the leader of this team in just a couple of years.

Papanikolaou was once again the cause of fear, Willy converted his rebound into gold, but ‘Anteto’ was a wounded lion, raising his scoring tally to 27 to put Hellas just three points behind. Giannis’ response after a failed Spanish possession from the three-point line was fruitless; and Spain, who finished off on two moves by Willy and Alberto Díaz, showed that they are still very much alive.

Lille / EFE