There is nothing better than seeing a family honor one of its members and praise the memory and legacy of their elders. The Spanish basketball team honored Marc Gasol before withdrawing before starting his journey to the Olympics. The Catalan center, 191 international caps, two world gold medals and as many European ones, suffered like the rest of the WiZink Center from the defeat in the friendly match against Italy, another team that struggled to get one of the last four tickets to Paris to obtain. It was a first contact with the competition, after two weeks of testing and training, in which it became clear that Spain has too few film recordings and is fully looking forward to the pre-Olympic Games in Valencia. Scariolo distributed minutes among his men, in a kind of merit that earned good marks from Willy Hernangómez, Álex Abrines or Santi Aldama.
It took a while for Spain to get into the swing of things as they got in tow too quickly due to two almost consecutive triples from Melli. A single basket scored in the first seven minutes of play was an alarming statistic.
Without Lorenzo Brown, recently included in the team after signing with Panathinaikos, Juan Núñez was the team's main game director. The young point guard, also aware of his future, was the one who started to give light to the Spanish attack, with the Hernangómezs carrying the scoring weight and Garuba dominating the boards. Little by little, the team picked themselves up until a triple from Álex Abrines put them ahead for the first time as the second quarter came to an end.
Willy and Abrines were also the ones to consolidate the lead after the break (+9 was the biggest difference), although the transalpines did not completely retreat. Nico Mannion took command in the decisive quarter, so that Italy believed in victory again. That of Pozzecco They took the lead again with a minute to go, until a three-pointer from Llull took the game to extra time.
In extra time, Italy surprised again at the start, with seven points in a row. Not even the success of Aldama from the row of three this time was enough to avoid defeat.
The team will play again against the Dominican Republic next Friday, June 28, the last friendly match before facing Valencia in the pre-Olympic Games, which starts against Lebanon on July 2.
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