Friday, August 22, 2008

Going For Gold

The face-off, the battle, the rematch for gold.

With Jose Calderon out-of-action because of injury, Raul Lopez jumped into the starting line-up for Spain and helped lead the Spaniards to a 91-86 victory over Lithuania. Lopez played 19 minutes for the Spanish team and provided 7 points, 3 assists, 2 steals and 2 rebounds, while also hitting clutch free throws at the end of the game to ensure a Gold Medal Match-up with the USA.

Deron Williams played a secondary role for the Redeem Team which beat the 2004 Olympic Gold Medalist Team, Argentina, 101-81 in the semifinal match-up. Deron Williams came off the bench to play 13 minutes, providing 6 points on 2-three pointers, 2 assists and 1 rebound.

The Americans continue their dominant play going into the Finals rematch against Spain. In their prior encounter, Team USA destroyed the Spaniards rather convincingly. Will the Spanish be out for revenge? Can they match-up with the strength, determination and star-power of the USA? If so, it'll have to be with Raul Lopez manning the point guard position, now that Calderon may not go for the Final.

2 comments:

Orlando said...

Good for Raul. He looked terrible against the U.S., but I'm glad to see that he "redeemed" himself against Lithuania.

Tucker McCann said...

The box score I saw had everyone playing "0" minutes, which I didn't think was possible.

I would love to see Raul have a MONSTER game, but still see the US get gold.