Spain Gets Off the Schneid

After sleepwalking through the preliminary and qualifying rounds, Spain showed up to the knockout stage of Eurobasket '09 with a fury. The Painted Area has the full story of the Spaniards' win over France and Serbia's mild upset of Russia: Pau Gasol: 28 and 9 for Spain (Janek Skarzynski/AFP/Getty Image Spain 86, France 66 I guess Spain can flip the switch when they want. After appearing aimless in the first four games, Spain sent a message to the rest of the field with this thrashing of previously unbeaten France. Third game in a row where Spain has dominated their opponent. Spain's scrambling defense gave France major issues, forcing bad passes all over the court. Had little concern for France's perimeter shooting ability which led to unfettered help by Spain defenders. The Gasol Bros. paid very little attention to the French bigs. Spain never went with much straight zone, but Pau Gasol (also Marc Gasol) was basically playing a one-man zone by slo...