By Gura Garcia
30 Jul 2024, 07:53 AM EDT
The Spanish national team achieved a very important victory against the Greek team, a very hard-fought game in which they were also able to defeat the Milwaukee Bucks star, NBA MVP Giannis Antetokounmpo. The final score was 84-77.
The triples were largely the key to the victory of the ‘La Roja’ team In the first half of the match, the great performance of NBA player Santi Aldama was also added, as well as the collaboration of the veterans of the team. The match had Spain dominating the actions at the half-time break with a total of 14 points (49-35), but even so, Greece was able to get back into the game for the second half of the match.
Giannis and Aldama in stellar form
Greece lost its chance to get a much-needed victory in the third quarter of the game, especially in the final part of it, when the percentages of the first minutes of the match dropped sharply (11 of 17 in long-distance shots) and the success of Toliopoulos, who was Giannis’ squire, who culminated the actions with a double-double in his pocket having managed to score 27 points and get 11 rebounds.
The last quarter of the match would arrive and this was defined by the little success that there was, but also the good defense of Spain against Greece, with Willy Hernángomez and Aldama as the main figures for this stage of the match.
Rudy and Llull, the old guard in power
The veterans were once again the protagonists of the match and thanks Spain was also able to get a much-needed victory. Sergio Llull’s entry into the game changed the face of the Spanish team completely, scoring 8 consecutive points, with a couple of three-pointers as well.
Santi Aldama faced the beast head to head Greek Giannis Antetokounmpo scored a total of 19 points and grabbed 12 rebounds, signing a key double-double to end up contributing to the victory. 11 triples in 20 minutes were part of Spain’s sentence against Greece, to which men like the former NBA player, Alex Abrines, added.
Rudy Fernández managed to score a pair of triples at key moments in the final period of the game, just when Spain was having a hard time and was defending as hard as possible to contain Giannis and his team. Moments later, former NBA player Rudy Fernández had to leave the game after suffering a strong blow while trying to block a Greek player.
One step away from the second round
Despite this, Greece managed to tie (71-71) but the Spanish team was able to recover from any offensive attack from the rival. Four points from Aldama, two from Llull and free throws from Brown and Willy closed the match and put Spain one victory away from the quarter-finals of the Paris 2024 Olympic Games.
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