Quick weekend thread for everyone.
U.S. vs. Spain
1:30 pm CDT
The women’s final is today at 1:30, with Spain (featuring Anna Cruz!) against a dominant U.S. squad that is looking for yet another Olympic gold medal. Anything but a U.S. win—and a comfortable one at that—would be a shock. As we know, four of our Lynx feature for the U.S. team, all of whom already have golds from previous Olympics. In fact, this U.S. team is incredibly experienced on this and other big stages in basketball, and supremely talent laden.
Following this, the Lynx will report back to work in the WNBA, with their first game in this sprint to the finish of the regular season on the road against the Connecticut Sun on Friday. Hopefully they won’t have a fatigue issue compared to other teams that didn’t have 4/5ths of their starting lineup playing in Rio.
The men got past Spain in the semi-finals yesterday in a competitive 82-76 win. Pau Gasol, who was questionable for the game with injury, indeed played and led Spain with 23 points, but it wasn’t enough in the end, as the U.S. dominated the glass and held Spain under 40% shooting. Klay Thompson led the U.S. with 22 points and four three pointers. Ricky Rubio was a disappointing non-factor, and frankly was mediocre this tournament.
In the other semi-final Serbia blew out Australia, who had looked terrific throughout until yesterday. Their shooting finally abandoned them to the tune of 4-31 from three, which they couldn’t overcome. The scored an incredible 14 points in the first half, and the game was effectively over. Serbia, as usual, was led by Milos Teodosic, who finished with 22.
That sets up a rematch of the 2014 World Cup final between the U.S. and Serbia. Frankly I didn’t expect to see Serbia get this far without Nemanja Bjelica, who was a huge part of their 2014 run, but they showed they are one of the top teams in the world. In that 2014 final, the U.S. rolled 129-92, but expect a closer game this time around. In the group stage, the U.S. got out early against Serbia, but couldn’t maintain it and wound up hanging on for a three point win when Serbia missed an open three at the buzzer that would have sent the game to overtime.
Enjoy your weekend everybody.