Olympic basketball 2016: Croatia stuns Spain, Lithuania holds off Brazil, USA women cruise

A nation has never been so glad a man decided to freeze his sperm. For what seems like forever, Pau Gasol has been Spain’s hub offensively. Things were no different on Sunday, with the Spanish side going to Gasol early all over the floor. While losing position in the post at times made it clear Pau isn’t quite the player he once was, he’s still pretty damn good. The 36-year-old seven-footer dropped 26 points on 17 shots in Spain’s 72-70 loss to Croatia, and his whole menu of moves was on display.

There were the classic spin moves, nifty off-the-dribble runners, and even dunks out of pick-and-rolls. Plus, Gasol’s (slightly) declining effectiveness down low also left him on the perimeter more often, where he went 3-4 on threes. This was especially good news because it means we got the rarely seen PAU GASOL THREE-POINT CELEBRATION:

Monday night’s game will be a rematch of USA’s second-to-last game on their pre-Olympic tour, an 80-45 victory that should serve as a reminder of how large the talent gap is. The red, white and blue shot just 42.4 percent from the field en route to the 35-point victory, but it was the first game in the exhibition slate in which they failed to score 100 points or more.

If we’re nitpicking, the only area USA really needs to improve upon is from the perimeter. 10-for-27 from deep is a respectable figure for a normal NBA team, but the expectations here are a bit higher. The bench went 0-8 from downtown against China, a feat they’ll be hoping not to repeat. Aside from that, building on what’s already working should be the primary objective.