USA Clocks Spain, Hurries Back to Water Cube

↵So Team USA beat vaunted Spain by almost twice as much as they beat unvaunted Angola. Myriad factors contributed: the Americans shot lights out (58%), Spain couldn’t hang onto the ball (a whopping 28 turnovers) and most of the Spanish guards shot at an awful clip (Rubio, Fernandez, Navarro and Calderon combined to go 7-for-31).
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↵There’s another question about Spain here: is their defense horrible? It looked so on Saturday, and the Spanish have already allowed China to have a very good offensive night. Spain will get Croatia in the quarterfinals, a team which has shot 44% from three on the tournament. Spain will be favored over Croatia and possibly Lithuania (the likely semifinal opponent). But the Spanish showed enough weaknesses to make a return match against the United States seem far less certain than everyone expected.
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↵And now for some second half highlights:
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↵* Dwyane Wade had more blocks in the third quarter than Eddy Curry has had in his career.
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↵* Also, Wade was the best player on the court, for like the fourth straight game. LeBron’s the best in the world ... but if Wade keeps up this production during the NBA season, you could make a case for him over Kobe. For a cat with no discernable ability to shoot, Dwyane’s an amazing, amazing talent.
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↵* Pau Gasol had more dunks in the fourth quarter (one) than he had in the entire NBA Finals.
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↵* After the fall of man (expected in 2020), Ricky Rubio and Portland point guard Petteri Koponen will compete for the nation of elves. Rubio is straight up spritely.↵