Pau Gasol Explodes In Loss To Croatia On Sunday Night

All of the San Antonio Spurs’ players at the Olympics in Rio started fast with double-figure scoring efforts in their first games over the weekend. Pau Gasol is the latest to join the group.

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In a duo against one another,

Patty Mills and Tony Parker led their teams in scoring

as Mills scored 21 for Australia and Parker 18 for France. The biggest scoring output though came from another San Antonio Spurs player, newly acquired power forward Gasol, who scored 26 points and grabbed nine rebounds in a 32-minute stint in Spain’s

72-70

loss to Croatia on Sunday.

This though is good for Spurs fans to see. Last week, Gasol mentioned that he did not feel he was in good basketball shape heading into the Olympics.

Via EuroHoops: “We would have liked to have all our players in every preparation game preparation, but for one reason or other we couldn’t. On Thursday we play against the Ivory Coast and that will be the first time that all the players have been practicing together for the past four days. This is a significant disadvantage, however we will try to do our best and use the opportunities to get into a pace and shape for the championship”.

Gasol later went on to speak on himself and how he is “not at 100 percent”. He though expects to improve during the training camp and will be able to compete at a high-level for his team when they begin their quest of Olympic Gold.

Training camp must of did Gasol good as he came out for Spain and dominated. Though it was in a losing effort, Gasol seemed to have found his ways against a Croatian team that everyone felt was overmatched against Spain.

Gasol was very efficient from the floor going 11-of-17 from the field. That also includes Gasol showing his stroke from beyond the 3-point line as he hit 3-of-4 attempts.

A shocking loss to say the least for Gasol and Spain. Gasol did have a chance to be the hero for Spain. Gasol with the ball in his hands, rose up for a potential game-tying shot, but it was blocked by Dario Saric just before time expired to seal the upset.

You hate to see a performance as good as Gasol’s go to waste. Again, for someone just a week ago saying they did not feel they were in the best basketball shape to come out and perform as well as he did should speak volumes of his work ethic.

Gasol and Spain find themselves in unchartered territory as they didn’t lose their opener during their 2008 and 2012 Olympic silver medal runs. They will look to bounce back against Brazil on Tuesday.

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