Bob Donnan-US PRESSWIRE

The United States will take on Spain in the gold medal game at 10 a.m. EST this morning. The U.S. and Spain are meeting in the Olympic gold medal game for the second straight Olympics with the U.S. winning in 2008 118-107.

Team USA and Spain were the two favorites in these Olympics and were expected to meet in this game. The United States rolled through their competition winning all seven games by an average of 35.7 points per game.

Things didn’t go quite as planned for Spain who lost twice in group play to Russia then intentionally to Brazil so as to avoid the United States until the gold medal game. That worked out well for Spain who beat France 66-59 in the quarterfinals then knocked off Russia 67-59 in the semis.

Spain is considered the greatest test for Team USA so far. They may not have looked their best so far in the Olympics but we can expect to see them play their best basketball today.

Pau Gasol is averaging 18.4 points per game to lead Spain while brother Marc is second on the team scoring 12.0 points per game.

Spain will have a significant size advantage vs. the U.S. as they also bring Serge Ibaka off the bench, who is only playing 14.1 minutes per game and averaging 7.4 points and 3.7 rebounds per game.

Team USA’s lack of size was supposed to be a big weakness for them entering the Olympics but they have made up for it with great 3-point shooting. As a team, the U.S. is shooting .445 percent from three in the Olympics and taking 36.6 threes per game.

Kevin Durant is leading the team averaging 18.0 points and shooting .558 percent from deep. Carmelo Anthony is second on the team at 17.4 points per game while shooting .525 percent from three.

LeBron James has also come on of late for the U.S. notching the first ever triple-double in U.S. Olympic history in the quarterfinals vs. Australia. He’s averaging 12.4 points, 5.4 rebounds and is leading the team with 5.9 assists per game.

Two big factors will decide this game: 3-point shooting and size. Spain is fully capable of outplaying the U.S. in both areas and will need to, to have a chance at winning.

We know they will have the size advantage but they will need to take advantage of it scoring from the post. That will open up the 3-point shot which Spain has struggled with these Olympics shooting it at just .328 percent.

They have some players who can heat up from deep though, most notably Rudy Fernandez and Juan Carlos Navarro. Spain should be able to nullify Team USA’s excellent ball pressure defense with their experienced guards, Jose Calderon and Sergio Rodriguez.

This is the game we have all been waiting for. It’s the only right way to decide the gold medal in basketball, having these two teams play a 40-minute game. The U.S. will be favored and rightfully so but Spain has as good a chance as anyone to pull off the upset.

This will also be the final game as head coach of Team USA for Mike Krzyzewski. Krzyzewski has led the United States to a 61-1 record under him since he took over in 2006 and was there when they won gold in Beijing four years ago. 61-2 would be considered a failure for Coach K.

USA vs. Spain is the gold medal matchup everyone wanted to see. The United States are of course the favorites to bring home gold while Spain has always been considered their greatest competition.

Team USA has won all seven of its games in the Olympics so far by an average margin of 35.7 points per game. Spain has been far less impressive losing twice in pool play and looking weak in each of their last two games in the medal round.

The United States has passed some tests so far, beating Argentina twice and surviving a close scare vs. Lithuania but Spain should still be their toughest battle yet.

Here are five reasons why Spain might upset the United States in the gold medal game.

Spain is bigger

Let’s start with the most obvious one here. Spain has a significant size advantage over the U.S. and they intend to take advantage of it as much as possible. Spain starts the Gasol brothers and then brings Serge Ibaka and Felipe Reyes off the bench.

The U.S. will start Tyson Chandler as their only big and use Kevin Love too but mostly plays LeBron James, Kevin Durant and Carmelo Anthony at power forward. The U.S. has outrebounded their opponents by over 10 boards per game in the Olympics but that is mostly because they are shooting a far higher percentage.

The U.S. is definitely weak inside as we saw in their games vs. Lithuania and Argentina, when they play without a rim protector their opponent will get a lot of relatively easy looks at the rim.

Spain will pound it inside on offense and pack in their zone on defense. This is closer to the international style and they will have an advantage. Mismatches do go both ways though and Team USA will have to make sure they take advantage by featuring their more skilled forwards in positions where they can be effective against slower, bigger defenders.

3-point shooting

Team USA has lived by the three and they’ve won by it so far in the Olympics. They are attempting 36.6 threes per game and making .445 percent of them. That’s off the charts but there is always a chance even for Team USA to go cold from behind the line tomorrow morning.

Durant and Anthony become very important in this regard as they have led Team USA in 3-point shooting. Durant is shooting .558 percent from three in the Olympics and Anthony .525. They are Team USA’s two leading scorers as well.

Spain has been on the opposite end in terms of 3-point shooting success in the Olympics. They’re shooting just .328 percent as a team with some of their best guys really struggling.

Rudy Fernandez is third on the team in scoring and shooting .367 percent. Juan Carlos Navarro is shooting .333 percent and Jose Calderon .348 percent. Even Pau Gasol has been shooting the three for them, making just 5-for-15 in total.

Spain is fully capable though of heating up from three in any game as they showed in the second half of their semifinal game vs. Russia. They will need to do that and pray that Team USA has an off shooting night to pull off the upset.

40-minute game

The games in these Olympics are eight minutes shorter than NBA games. That means there is greater chance for an upset and less time to erase mistakes made early in the game. Spain is more experience playing this style and will surely try and take advantage of it to the fullest mostly by controlling the pace of the game.

Fortunately for Team USA, Spain hasn’t been getting off to great starts lately and will definitely need to if they plan to win the gold medal. Spain should be up for this game more than any other though and we should see a more concentrated effort from them. Pau Gasol admitted himself that Spain has been looking ahead too much in the Olympics so far. That won’t be the case tomorrow.

Team USA has consistently seen teams play their best games against them, at least for spurts. With the game obviously being close early, Spain should show us their best game from the start. We’ve seen Argentina unable to sustain this for 40 minutes but Spain may be able to.

Officiating

The officials haven’t exactly been on the side of Team USA in these Olympics as per usual. The rules are a little different and there are some things that Team USA will simply never get used to. We’ve seen a lot of Team USA players called for traveling or called for very questionable fouls.

You only get five fouls before fouling out in international play and that could play a huge factor. Chandler will be more important than ever in this matchup vs. Spain but he has in every game gotten into some sort of foul trouble. One would expect that to happen again vs. Spain and that could be very bad news for Team USA.

Team USA players don’t get star treatment either overseas. LeBron and Durant will be asked to defend Spain’s post players some and will be vulnerable to some easy foul calls. If one or both of them has to sit on the bench more than normal, Spain will have that much better of a chance to pull off the upset.

Kobe

Kobe is probably Spain’s best chance for beating Team USA. Kobe has been for the most part pretty horrible in the Olympics although he has been better in the last two games. We know that Kobe will be shooting in the gold medal game and if he’s not hitting, that will put Team USA in a tough spot.

Coach K will more than likely play Kobe at least half of the game and probably more and he will have him out there during crunch time, if there is one. Kobe has the potential to shoot Team USA out of the game or Spain into the game if he looks like the Kobe we saw in pool play.

The same goes for Anthony as well. Both he and Kobe are going to take shots, probably a lot of bad ones, and if they’re not falling, Spain will be that much closer to Team USA.

The margin for error will be the smallest for Team USA tomorrow morning. They’ve been able to overcome their imperfections so far but Spain is the real test.

The Spain-France quarterfinal meeting ended with a very dirty play by France’s Nicolas Batum. Batum was clearly frustrated and took out his anger on Spain’s Juan Carlos Navarro with this play with just seconds left in the game.

This is the kind of flagrant foul that would likely get you a 5-game suspension in the NBA. After the play, both teams had to be separated, Jose Calderon and Batum in particular got in each other’s faces.

It is kind of unclear why Batum acted this way. He normally has such a calm demeanor it’s hard to imagine him making a play like this. He did struggle from the field in the game going 3-for-12.

I asked Nicolas Batum why he hit Juan-Carlos Navarro in the groin. “I wanted to give him a good reason to flop,” Batum said.

— Adrian Wojnarowski (@WojYahooNBA) August 8, 2012

France in particular really struggled especially in the fourth quarter as they were held to just six points. The tougher, more physical team was going to come out on top in this one and Spain proved to be just that down the stretch.

Spain has not been playing their best as of late, losing two games in pool play to Russia and Brazil but perhaps have found their swagger with this win over France.

Spain will advance to the semifinal round where they will have their rematch vs. Russia who beat Lithuania in their quarterfinal matchup earlier today.

Told Batum some won’t think groin shot is in Olympic spirit. Batum: “Do you think if you lost a game on purpose, that’s the Olympic spirit?”

— Adrian Wojnarowski (@WojYahooNBA) August 8, 2012

Spain trailed by two points heading into the fourth quarter before holding France to just six points in the final period as they came away with the win 66-59.

Marc Gasol led Spain with 14 points and nine rebounds while Pau had 10 points and 10 rebounds. Serge Ibaka had four points and five rebounds in limited time, but made an important impact on defense in the fourth.

Boris Diaw was magnificent for France with 15 points, five assists and eight rebounds while Tony Parker scored 15 points but on 6-of-20 shooting.

The game ended in chippy fashion with an uncharacteristic dirty foul laid on Juan Carlos Navarro by Nicolas Batum. With the game essentially in hand, Batum went at Navarro for an intentional foul and crossed the line, balling his fist and swinging below the belt on Navarro.

Batum was not tossed from the game and in fact remained on the floor. He likely would have received a 5-game suspension in the NBA. Batum was clearly frustrated but the move was very unexpected.

Spain shot 37.5 percent from the field while France was at just 33.8 percent. Spain again struggled from deep shooting 4-for-20. France made 4-of-8 threes to start the game but then made just 3-of-13 to end the game.

Spain has not been sharp in their last few games but rose to the occasion in the fourth really upping their defensive intensity to pull out the gritty win. They’ll take on Russia, who beat them in pool play, in the semifinal on Friday.

Geoff Burke-US PRESSWIRE

Who wants to lose more?

Spain and Brazil will play today at 3 p.m. EST and neither team will be better off winning the game.

The winner of the game will come out of Pool B as the 2-seed in the same bracket where Team USA will likely be the 1-seed and Argentina the 3-seed. The loser will get to be in the bracket where Russia and France are the top seeds.

This game will be very interesting and don’t be surprised if players like Pau Gasol or Leandro Barbosa aren’t playing as many minutes as they could.

Spain and Brazil are both 3-1 in pool play so far with both losing close games to Russia. Spain and Brazil are two of the biggest threats to the United States in these Olympics and would both love to not see the mighty U.S. until a potential gold medal game.

A big reason why these teams matchup so well with Team USA is that they both have NBA size. Spain featured the Gasol brothers as well as Serge Ibaka and Felipe Reyes. Brazil has Nene, Anderson Varejao and Tiago Splitter in their corner.

The point guard position is a strength for both Spain and Brazil as well. Spain starts Jose Calderon and brings Juan Carlos Navarro off the bench. Brazil has maybe the best point guard not in the NBA in Marcelinho Huertas who is averaging 11.0 points and 6.2 assists per game in the Olympics.

This matchup is a very close one that is only hard to predict today because both teams could very well be trying to lose. If they both were trying to win however, Spain has to have the slight edge but it is real close.

Pau Gasol is averaging 19.5 points per game so far in the Olympics and looks very comfortable in his clear alpha dog role with Spain. Rudy Fernandez has played pretty well too averaging 10.8 points per game and Spain is just a little more balanced and experienced than Brazil.

Barbosa is leading Brazil averaging 13.0 points per game while Splitter is averaging 12.0. They don’t have quite the same outside shooting ability that Spain does which could very well be the difference in this matchup.

It’s kind of hard to say what to expect with this game later today. The Olympics are all about competition but we might not see that exactly today with this game. Ultimately every team wants to win a gold medal and if losing first betters those chances than there really shouldn’t be anything wrong with that.

Navarro is a very key part of the Spanish team and has played very well against the United States in the past. He had a brief stint in the NBA with the Memphis Grizzlies and is known for his floater in the paint and quick release on his 3-point shot.

Spain is considered the greatest threat to the United States winning gold in these Olympics but is dealing with a lot of injuries that could hinder them. They are already without Ricky Rubio who tore his ACL last season in the NBA. Rudy Fernandez and Marc Gasol are each also playing through injuries right now.

Spain will be fine in pool play despite these injuries and should still advance to the medal round as the top seed from their group. They are definitely susceptible to an upset though especially if they are not at 100 percent.

Brazil will be the biggest competition for them in pool play and could steal the top seed from them. Russia also has looked very strong so far led by Andrei Kirilenko.

This is why the United States is the best team in the Olympics. They may have some of the top talent but it’s their depth that puts them ahead of any other country.

Spain will play Great Britain in their next game Thursday at 3:00 p.m. EST.

Jerry Lai-US PRESSWIRE

Spain comes into the 2012 London Olympics viewed as less of a threat to challenge the United States for the gold medal than they were four years ago.

In 2008, Spain was looked at as the team with the best shot to knock of the United States who were no longer unbeatable, winning bronze in the 2004 games. The U.S. Redeem Team would come out on top in the 2008 gold medal game beating Spain.

Spain played Team USA earlier this week in an exhibition game and lost 100-78. Spain treated the game as a friendly however and we can expect more competition from them in the Olympics.

Spain opens up the 2012 Olympic Basketball pool play against China today with the tip at 11:45 a.m. EST. Spain is considered the favorite in Pool B and is ranked 2nd in the world by FIBA. China is ranked 10th in the world but still not considered much of a threat against a team like Spain.

Spain brings an impressive cast to London in 2012 led of course by Pau Gasol. Pau will be joined by his brother Marc on the inside as well as Oklahoma City Thunder power forward Serge Ibaka.

Ibaka is able to play for Spain as their one naturalized player because although he was not born there, he became a citizen while playing in their professional league a few years back.

The inside is definitely the strength of this Spain team and the biggest thing that will give them an edge over the U.S. but they also have pretty good balance elsewhere.

In the backcourt they will start Jose Calderon at point guard who was fourth in the NBA last season in assists per game. Calderon will be joined by one of the all-time greats from the Euroleague, Juan Carlos Navarro.

A big loss for Spain in these Olympics is that they will not be playing with Ricky Rubio who suffered a torn ACL last season and is still rehabbing. Rubio first came onto the national scene back in 2008 in the Olympics for Spain when he was just 17 years old.

At the wing positions Spain is solid too led by Rudy Fernandez and Victor Claver. Fernandez has played in the NBA for the past few seasons and made a name for himself as a fearless shooter and scorer while Claver will join the Portland Trailblazers next season.

China meanwhile has much less NBA experience on their roster. They are led by Yi Jianlian who now plays for the Dallas Mavericks. Yi was a high lottery pick in the NBA once upon a time but has jumped from team to team in his short NBA career having a tough time finding a good fit.

Yi only played in 30 games for Dallas last season. His best season was in 2009-10 for New Jersey when he averaged 12.0 points and 7.2 rebounds per game for the Nets.

Yi doesn’t have a ton of help but NBA fans will recognize the starting center for China, Wang Zhizhi. Zhizhi is a stretch bit who played some in the NBA spending most of his time hoisting up threes.

Sun Yue will start in China’s backcourt and is one of their best guards. Yue played for the Los Angeles Lakers one season back in 2008-09 and won an NBA title with them but only played in 10 games.

China will be overmatched by Spain in just about every area on the floor. Spain is an experienced bunch confident that they can compete for a gold medal this year. China will not be a team capable of standing in their way.

Spain will be very concerned with winning every game in pool play and winning by as big of a margin as possible. They want the 1-seed so they can avoid the United States until a potential gold medal game.

In Pool B, Spain has a little competition in Brazil and Russia for the top seed. If somehow there is a 3-way tie at the top of the pool, winning margin becomes the tie-breaker so expect to see Spain going all out to win every game starting today against China.

Bob Donnan-US PRESSWIRE

USA Basketball will play its final exhibition game in preparation for the London Olympics today at 4:30 p.m. EST on ESPN2 vs. Spain in Barcelona.

The United States are 4-0 so far in exhibition games beating the Dominican Republic, Brazil, Great Britain and most recently Argentina 86-80 last Sunday afternoon.

Spain is ranked 2nd in the world according to FIBA and will definitely be the biggest test for Team USA so far. Spain is considered maybe the only team with a chance to beat the United States in the coming Olympics and we will find out more about that this afternoon.

Spain beat Argentina by 20 points a few days ago before Argentina lost to the United States by six on Sunday. Spain consists of perhaps the most impressive cast of NBA players besides Team USA with Pau Gasol, Marc Gasol, Serge Ibaka, Jose Calderon and Rudy Fernandez.

The game will feature four Oklahoma City Thunder players in Ibaka, Kevin Durant, Russell Westbrook and James Harden. Last year’s rookie sensation Ricky Rubio will not be playing in this game or the Olympics as he is still recovering from a torn ACL suffered last season.

Spain and the United States played in the memorable 2008 Gold Medal game in Beijing four years ago with the United States coming out on top 118-107.

The balance on Spain’s roster is better than Team USA’s and their talent is high enough to compete as well. The United States are very small and it has been an issue so far in the exhibition games. Spain will do the best job of taking advantage of their inside strength with the Gasol brothers and Ibaka.

The lane to drive will be closed up more than normal for the United States and they will likely continue to settle for jumpers from the short 3-point line. The United States has attempted an average of 28.8 3-pointers in their four exhibition games while shooting .374 percent.

Kevin Durant has certainly led the way leading the team in scoring at 18.8 points per game and has gone 14-for-26 on threes. Durant scored 27 points and made seven threes against Argentina.

Two other gunners for Team USA, Kobe Bryant and Carmelo Anthony, have been less effective from beyond the arc. Kobe is shooting just .278 percent on threes and Anthony .250 percent. Kobe and Anthony will continue to look for their shots in general and take a lot of threes. One of the potential weaknesses of this team is Kobe and Anthony shooting them out of a game.

Team USA is at its best with Durant and LeBron James on the floor together. In the four exhibition games, they have each played 101 minutes leading the team. Durant started the last two games but did not in the first two as Anthony got the nod. Durant should continue to start though.

LeBron is second on the team averaging 17.0 points per game. His best game was against Brazil when the outcome was most closely in doubt and he took over scoring 30 points to lead the United States to victory.

LeBron’s role is most weighted on his versatility with Team USA especially because of how small they are. LeBron has basically been playing power forward at all times for the U.S., something that will become more challenging when he is matched up with Pau Gasol and Serge Ibaka.

LeBron has shown the capability to contend with the likes of a Gasol on the blocks but for an entire game it is not an ideal matchup for Team USA. LeBron expending that kind of energy on defense will maybe wear him down on offense too, although that shouldn’t be too big of a deal when Durant is on the floor.

The United States has been able to overcome a lack of size by being superior at the wing and guard positions. Their ball pressure on opposing guards is a huge strength although the experience of Spain’s guards, Calderon and Juan Carlos Navarro, should hinder that advantage.

The attention USA will have to pay to the interior on defense may open up more outside shooting looks for Spain too. Not many players are as prepared to pull the trigger on treys as Fernandez and Navarro and if they are hitting, Spain could pull off the upset.

We will learn a lot about Team USA today and see just how big of an issue their lack of size is. Spain will want to win but international teams understand that this is just an exhibition and they sometimes play accordingly, not going all out or showing their entire game plan.