Canada Sports News

Spain and Argentina will clash to decide the best national team on the planet. The two countries have successfully overcome the respective opponents in the semifinals, and are now awaiting the final battle for the trophy.

The Spanish team had to go through two overtimes to defeat Australia 95-88, in a match which saw highly controversial decisions of the referees. It appears that the officials have made several mistakes which damaged the Australian team and eventually affected the final outcome. Following one of those decisions, the Warriors’ center and a three-time NBA champion Andrew Bogut mimicked towards the referees that they took the money from the Spanish side.

The regular part of the match ended 71-71, and after the first overtime, the result was 80-80. Matthew Delavedova had a chance to seal the win for the Boomers, but his shot was inaccurate.

The best player in the winning team was Toronto’s Marc Gasol who scored 33 points, had 6 boards and 4 assists. The Spanish team was behind all the time, at one point even by a double-digit margin. Still, Gasol and fantastic Ricky Rubio who had 19 buckets, 12 assists, 7 boards, and 4 steals pulled them together and brought down the Aussies.

“It’s been a really tough game…I always believe in our team, no matter what the score says, I always believe in your team and your teammates,” Gasol stated in the postgame interview.

Sergio Llull contributed with 17 points and 6 assists for the winning side.

On the other side, Patty Mills was instrumental, with 34 points and 3 boards, and the next best thing was Nick Kay with 16 points and 11 boards. Bogut finished the match with 12 points and 9 rebounds.

In the second semifinals, the Argentinian national team defeated the big favorites, France 80-66. After eliminating Team USA, France was the No.1 favorite to win the title. Like in the previous round, when eliminated Serbia, Argentina shock the world again.

The 39-year old Luis Scola, one of the legends of this game completely destroyed the back-to-back NBA Defensive Player of the Year, Rudy Gobert. In 34 minutes on the floor, the veteran had 28 points, 13 boards, and 3 assists, but his impact on the game was so much bigger than that. He was constantly making fantastic passes, fiding solutions which nobody could predict, and above all, pressured the French defense from the start until the end. His teammate and point guard Facundo Campazzo, had 12 points, 7 rebounds, and 6 assists.

Argentina was better throughout the entire clash, not allowing the French side to catch its rhythm and to make any runs which might endanger their lead. The words of Gobert at the press explained everything.

“They were just a better team tonight, from the first to the last minute,” Utah Jazz center stated.”

Among the losing side, Knicks’ Frank Ntilikina had 16 buckets, same as Orlando Magic’s Evan Fournier. Nando De Colo scored 11.

The finals between Argentina and Spain was widely unexpected, and the majority of projections saw Team USA and Serbia in the finals.

The match for the gold is scheduled for 8 AM EDT.