Spain scraped into the final of the world basketball
championship for the first time on Friday but look to have paid a
devastating price in the process.
Spain's star player Pau Gasol limped out late in the dramatic
75-74 semi-final win over Argentina and is a major doubt for
Sunday's gold medal game with Greece.
The Memphis Grizzlies forward scored 19 points before going down
heavily and watched the last moments clutching an ice pack to his
left foot.
"Gasol is a little down at the moment because he would love to
be with us on Sunday," Spanish guard Rudy Fernandez said. "We don't
know if he will make it."
Spain coach Pepu Hernandez said Gasol's involvement in Sunday's
final was "unlikely" after his go-to player left the arena in a
wheelchair.
However, Spain's players promised to step up and fill the void
against a Greece team who shocked tournament favourites the United
States 101-95 in Friday's first semi-final.
"We are ready to play with Pau or without him -- but we'd rather
play with him," Toronto Raptors guard Jose Calderon said. "We need
to stay relaxed...and hope for good news in the morning."
SQUEEZED HOME
Argentina raced to a 13-2 lead to start the game but Spain
stormed back to go into halftime with a 40-38 advantage.
Spain led by seven midway through the fourth quarter but
Argentina almost produced a stunning late comeback after two Luis
Scola free throws tied the game at 74-74 with 21.9 seconds
left.
However, Calderon made one of two from the foul line with 18.6
seconds remaining and Andres Nocioni missed from the corner just
before the final buzzer as Spain squeezed home.
"This is historic," said Calderon. "It is our best tournament
but we have worked hard to be here.
"It's great for us, it's great for Spain, it's great for
everybody.
"We have had a problem always at the Olympics and world
championships but we know we are a good team.
"Sometimes you need luck and today luck was with us."
Spain have never won a major international title, their best
achievement to date a silver medal at the 1984 Olympics.
They entered the championships as the hot-favourite to meet the
U.S. in the gold medal game and lived up to their part of the
bargain.
By reaching the final, Spain also cleared a psychological
hurdle; Their under-achieving footballers, who have not advanced
past the World Cup quarter-finals since 1950, had left an air of
scepticism around the basketball team.
"This is really important," said Garbajosa. "For years we have
done good but just missed the finals. Now we are here and this is
very important to everyone."
Greece shocks Team USA with 101-95 win
The European champions are playing for a much bigger prize. The
best the United States can hope for is yet another bronze
medal.
Greece used a sizzling stretch of shooting across the middle two
quarters to turn a 12-point deficit into a 14-point lead, and beat
the Americans 101-95 Friday in the semifinals of the world
championships.
The Greeks (8-0) can add a world title to the European
championship they won in 2005 with a victory over Spain in Sunday's
gold medal game.
The Greeks - with no current NBA players on their roster -
danced in a circle at halfcourt after their victory over an
American team put together after a series of recent failures.
Done in again by their inept 3-point shooting - and they weren't
much better from the foul line - the Americans will fall short of a
championship in a major international tournament for the third
straight time.
The US (7-1) will return to the court Saturday against the loser
of the Argentina-Spain game, hoping to match the bronze medal it
left Athens with in 2004.
Carmelo Anthony scored 27 points for the Americans, who couldn't
overcome their 32 percent shooting from 3-point range or 59 percent
from the foul line. Dwyane Wade added 19 and LeBron James had 17,
but the three US captains were unable to avenge their
disappointment from Athens.
Vassilis Spanoulis, bound for the Houston Rockets, scored 22
points for Greece. Mihalis Kakiouzis added 15 and 6-foot-10
Sofoklis Schortsianitis - nicknamed "Baby Shaq"?added 14,
shooting 6-of-7. The Greeks shot 63 percent (35-of-56) from the
field and made 31 of 44 shots across the final three periods.
The US hasn't even played for a world championship since winning
the last of its three titles in Toronto in 1994. Mike Krzyzewski -
who was looking for gold after winning bronze with the 1990 team -
and a few American players walked to midcourt to congratulate the
Greeks, while most of the U.S. quickly headed to the locker
room.
The Americans, who put together a national team program this
year for the first time after their recent failures, now will be
forced to qualify for the 2008 Olympics next summer in the FIBA
Americas tournament in Venezuela.
The US seemed in control after Joe Johnson's 3-pointer gave the
Americans a 33-21 lead with about 6 1/2 minutes left in the second
quarter. It was around then that James told his teammates on the
bench: "They don't know what to do."
Well, they figured it out in a hurry.
Greece scored nine straight points, pulling within three on
Theodoros Papaloukas' drive with 3:51 left and forcing Krzyzewski
to call timeout. Dwight Howard converted a three-point play, but
the Greeks answered with a 13-2 surge, featuring eight points from
Schortsianitis, to open a 43-38 advantage and force Krzyzewski to
call a second timeout.
Greece hit nine straight shots - its only miss in the last 5
minutes was a heave from halfcourt as time expired - and led 45-41
at halftime. The Greeks shot 56 percent (15-of-27) in the half.
The Americans were 2-of-10 from behind the arc - after going
10-for-40 in their quarterfinal victory over Germany - and trailed
at the break for only the second time in the tournament. Italy had
a nine-point cushion in a group play game.
The U.S. also had nine turnovers - about two below their
tournament average for a game ?a and was 11-of-17 (65 percent) at
the foul line.
Greece kept it up in the third quarter, hitting 14 of its 18
shots, including all four 3-pointers in the first 5 minutes. Kostas
Tsartsaris' 3-pointer with 5:45 left in the period gave the Greeks
a 65-51 lead - the biggest deficit the U.S. faced in the
tournament.
After shooting 4-of-12 in the first quarter, Greece was 25-of-33
(76 percent) in the second and third and led 77-65 heading to the
final period.
Anthony, Wade and James combined for the first 18 US points in
the quarter, and the Americans eventually got as close as 95-91 on
Kirk Hinrich's 3 with 36 seconds to play. But the US missed its
final two attempts from behind the arc, capping a 9-of-28
night.
(Reuters, AP September 2, 2006)