Bronze as motivation

So, we witnessed two well-played games on the last day of the tournament.

Prior to the Russia-Argentina bronze-medal clash it was obvious Argentinians were mentally fresher, having been prepared to lose from the start of their semifinal match-up with USA.

That makes Russia’s victory even more outstanding to me. In the first half, they did a terrific job putting bodies around Scola every time he got the ball. Time after time, Russia’s big defenders managed to prevent Luis from rolling into his favorite position down low after screens. There was always a defender between him and the basket and help from the weak side was always on time, which made it equally difficult for Scola to put the ball on the floor for a drive or kick it out to the wing for a shot. Russia really took a lot of offensive spacing away from the Argentinians.

Also, it was a smart idea to put an extra effort into attacking Prigioni. Pablo wasn’t in his best shape, especially after his kidney problems, so Aleksey Shved attacked him at each and every opportunity.By the way, it was a nice turnaround game for Shved after his mid-tournament cool-down. I’m really happy for him. He embraced the responsibility, made several tough decisions and came through for his team when it mattered the most.

Generally speaking, Russia controlled the rhythm of the game. Argentina would not go down without a fight, naturally, but they kept within striking distance in no small part because of several lucky bounces. Let’s just name that three-pointer by Facundo Campazzo.

So, it was a well-deserved bronze, even if it made me somewhat sad for my great friend Manu Ginobili, whose career I’ve been following closely since its start. I haven’t had a chance to talk to him in person, we just exchanged e-mails and connected via Hugo Sconochini, a former NT player who worked in London for an Argentinian TV station.

At the same time, I’m naturally happy for my players on the NT of Russia and for all the coaching staff members who are also my friends – David Blatt, Dima Shakulin, Gosha Artemiev, team doctors and obviously Deda. Hopefully, for CSKA players it’ll be an extra motivation for the coming season that’ll start very soon.

As for the final, it was a fantastic game by Spain, who shot the ball extraordinarily well. And their plan of feeding Pau Gasolin the post worked like a charm throughout the game. Pau was just unstoppable. It came to a point when Mike Krzyzewski actually gave up trying to defend him with Tyson Chandler and went with Kevin Love at for the rest of the game, essentially opting to play without a center.

Spain really rose to the occasion on Sunday. For them playing USA was the biggest possible source of motivation. Like, you know, in the NBA, where there are lots of rivalries that bring the best out of everybody involved. This is why Spain looked great in the final after having had hard time putting away other teams. It was the first game of the Olympics they weren’t actually expected to win. I believe it helped them relax and contributed to the hot shooting. They kept it close until the very end, but eventually, just like it’s always the case, the team that made fewer mistakes down the stretch emerged victorious.