The Los Angeles Lakers forward and Spanish captain is confident about his team’s chances for the London Olympics but has warned them to be prepared for the Chinese in their first game of the tournament, due to take place
on July 29
Pau Gasol arrived in London on Thursday along with the Spanish contingent, ready to go one up on their performance from four years ago in Beijing.
The Spanish will start off their Olympics campaign on July 29th and even though they are confident of making it to the final, Gasol wants them to be cautious in their opening game against China.
"We want to start off playing well," Gasol said. "It's not always the best or easiest game to play. Everything is so emotional to start off. We are going to have to play very well and be very focused to start the way we want.”
The Spanish contingent took a 22 point beating at the hands of team USA in their last warm up game in Barcelona, and now can only seek vengeance if they qualify for the final of the mega event. They are the two time defending Euro
champions and barring a major upset, are billed to do that.
In the last game, the US team was full of NBA super-stars like Kobe Bryant, LeBron James, Carmelo Anthony and Kevin Durant, but on Sunday night that will not be the case.
After the departure of Yao Ming, the Chinese team relies mainly on Yi Jianlian and has no other major names. Also with Marc Gasol returning to the line up during the games, the Spaniards are going to get even stronger, especially
in the front court. Pau Gasol and Serge Ibaka are already present there to defend the paint and even on the wings, Spain boasts of players like Juan Carlos Navarro and Rudy Fernandez.
However head coach Sergio Scariolo still doesn’t count China out. He expects the Chinese team to be very organized behind their leader Yi Jianlian;
"Of course it's a different time but a lot of our guys remember when Spain struggled against China. We are aware it's going to be a very tough game," said Scariolo.
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