An Early Clásico

For those looking for a basketball fix tomorrow, you may want to check out the final of Spain's "Supercopa", a preseason competition which will see Barcelona and Real Madrid face each other for the first time with their new look squads. Even though it's not a greatly meaningful trophy, these teams will be looking to make a statement as the ACB/Euroleague season is about to get underway. These look to be two of the four or five strongest teams outside the NBA (better than a few NBA teams, I'd say), and it should be a rather exciting matchup, with plenty of interesting subplots (if the "Madrid-Barcelona" thing isn't enough for you).

23-0, and a possible Spanish resurgence

So, wow. After continuing to sort of wallow in the mire of mediocre play for the majority of this tournament, and going down early to Lithuania, Spain managed to pull off a 23-0 run that put them into the lead for good. The 84-70 win sees them go to a 2-2 record in the qualifying round, and leaves them in pretty good position going into their final game of this round. They were sparked by the creative play of Ricky Rubio, who had just 5 points but managed 9 assists and 3 steals, as well as the somewhat dominant presence of Pau Gasol, who finished with 19 points and 8 boards, continually providing an option the Lithuanians just weren't able to stop. It looked like a Spanish team back to something resembling their best, and if that's the case it will be a scary proposition going forward, as this tournament reaches its latter stages.