Olympic Basketball Quarterfinals: Spain Tops France For Semis Spot

When I was a youngster, I would sometimes get a little emotional. If things didn’t go my way, I might sometimes get a little upset. Oh heck, there’s no easy way to admit this: I was a crybaby. I would cry over the slightest injury or insult. This tended to frustrate my dad greatly, and consequently there’s a phrase I remember well from my early years: “I’ll give you something to cry about!”

(I’m realizing that neither I nor my father are coming off too well in this story, but it was a different era, and spanking was a mainstream form of discipline, so please don’t call the authorities or anything. And bear with me, because I do have a point.)

The South American quarterfinal of the 2012 Olympic men’s basketball tournament ended with an experienced Argentina team topping a bigger Brazil squad, 82-77, for a berth in the semifinals.

The win likely sets up a rematch between Argentina and the United States in the semifinals.

If not for the madness between Russia and Brazil in the pool play, France and Spain would be far and away the best basketball game of the Olympics so far. The game was close for virtually the entire time, and only in the final minute did Spain’s victory begin to look secure. And with the hard-fought game slipping out of reach, France’s Nicolas Batum lost with grace and dignit--just kidding! He sucker-punched Juan Carlos Navarro right in the nuts, setting off the scrum you see above.

A .gif of the cheap shot is below.

Here was Marc’s reaction.

For more on the Olympics, check out SB Nation’s London 2012 Olympics Hub. For more on Olympic Basketball, follow the 2012 Olympic Basketball section.

If that were the case, everyone would have probably picked up a letter after this circus shot.

For more on the Olympics, check out SB Nation’s London 2012 Olympics Hub. For more on Olympic Basketball, follow the 2012 Olympic Basketball section.

The first elimination game of the basketball tournament in the 2012 London Olympics was highly anticipated among hoop junkies and Eastern Bloc historians alike. The former Soviet Union (Russia) defeated the first country to declare its independence from the U.S.S.R. (Lithuania) 83-74 to advance to the semifinal against the winner of France-Spain, to be played later Wednesday.

Russia led by a healthy margin until late in the third quarter, when Lithuania cut a 12-point deficit to four in the last minutes of the third quarter, and the fourth and final period was marked with high intensity and lights-out shooting. The star was unquestionably Sergey Monya down the stretch, hitting big three after big three, making big plays with his court vision in the halfcourt and against a frenetic Lithuanian press.

There’s an odd dynamic about Team USA Basketball, and frankly there has been for the last 20 years. The original Dream Team was considered something like a marvel, one of the world’s great wonders. I was young when the Americans took Barcelona, but everything written since points to a sort of awe and appreciation of the dominant squad. Perhaps it was the newness and, well, awe of it all. That sentiment’s gone.

Gregg Doyel is never representative of the majority opinion, and one should never construe something that Doyel writes as a widely held belief simply because Doyel writes it. But I do think that a recent opinion Doyel dropped touches a taproot of current American sentiment about international basketball. The other day, Doyel tweeted:

The Olympic men’s basketball tournament moves into the knockout round on Wednesday with the quarterfinals. The eight qualifiers from group play have been seeded and will be paired off to halve the field. At this point, two wins will land your team a medal ... but one of those wins needs to be on Wednesday.

Here’s the schedule for Wednesday.