After over two weeks of top Basketball, twenty four participating teams has been reduced to two, with two of the greatest power houses in European basketball clash in the championship game. It’s Spain vs France in the final of EuroBasket 2022.
Despite having a less-talented roster compared to previous EuroBasket tournament the Spanish Basketball team (7-1) have come back from double digit deficits in all three of their knockout wins over Lithuania, Finland, and Germany. But things will surely get tougher in the finals as they face a France side that hammered Poland in the Semi Finals, after the latter dumped defending Champions Slovenia in the quarterfinals.
France (6-2) didn’t have much work in their semi final win over Poland, which they won in record fashion, but needed overtime to get past Turkey in the last 16 and Italy in the quarter finals.
Spain and France since the start of the championship did not over work their top stars or even over relied on them, while the likes of Serbia, Greece and Slovenia fell around them. The aforementioned finalists have shown that tournament play is about a mix of luck, roster management.
With Rudy Gobert, Moustapha Fall, and Vincent Poirier the three centre options for France, they could rotate to keep them aggressive for the entire duration.
The work rate of Evan Fournier Terry Tarpey and Thomas Heurtel cannot be underrated, because it’s been critical to France at both ends as well.
As stated earlier Spain have shown that, even with their weakest roster on paper in 20 years, they know what they are about. Alberto Diaz is anything but a superstar but Spain were +25 with him on the floor against Germany. That’s Scariolo’s brilliance, finding the right piece for the right job at the right time. He will have a plan for Gobert, likely involving a tweak in Willy Hernangomez’s usage, but crucially he will definitely be making adjustments as the game progresses and smart ones at that.
Time: 7:30 Nigerian time.
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