Spain Defeated China Despite Yi Jianlian's 30 Points and 12 Rebounds In The 2012 London Olympics

I've been aching to see how Team China will fare against the number 2 ranked basketball team in the world, Team Spain. Lo and behold, the game that I've been waiting for happened last August 29 2012, when Team China took on Team Spain in the 2012 London Olympics Men's Basketball.

It was a tough game for China, but still, they showed a valiant effort to at least narrow the score gap between them and Spain in the latter part of the game, leading to the final score 97-81 in favor of the Mighty Spaniards. This is Spain's first win in the 2012 London Olympics.

Prior to the game, I was expecting a big time showdown between China's Yi Jianlian and Spain's Pau Gasol. Indeed, they were the ones who led their respective teams in scoring.

Yi had a game high 30 points and 12 rebounds. A big double-double game for him. Pau Gasol on the other hand had 21 points and 11 rebounds. They showed their versatility in this game- scoring and rebounding the ball very well.

Team Spain started the game on a low note, leading only by 2 points, 19-17 at the end of the 1st Quarter.

In the 2nd Quarter, Spain had a critical 7-0 run anchored on the 2 consecutive three pointers coming from "La Bamba" Juan Carlos Navarro and Fernando San Emeterio. Since then they never looked back to Team China up to the final buzzer. The 3rd quarter ended with Spain having a 12 point lead, 53-41.

In the 3rd Quarter, China tried to trim down Spain's lead via the efforts of Yi and Wang Zhizhi, but Spain was just too much for them. The 3rd Quarter ended with Spain still on top, 69-60.

Team Spain run like a well oiled machine in the 4th and Final Quarter. Serge Ibaka, who came off the bench started to pitch in some points for Spain in the last Quarter. He was unstoppable. He led Spain to a 7-1 run in the 4th leading to the final score, 97-81 in favor of Team Spain.


Notable scorers for both teams:

Team Spain: P. Gasol 21 points and S. Ibaka 17 points

China: Yi Jianlian 30 points and Wang Zhizhi 15 points