Gasol has been huge all tournament, and he put up 27 points and nine rebounds while shooting 10-of-18 from the field in the victory over Greece.
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The former double National Basketball Association champion with the Los Angeles Lakers kept Spain afloat throughout three patchy quarters before their ironclad defence forced the final twist in the last 10 minutes. Gasol made one free throw on the next possession, Calathes hit a 3 but then fouled out and Rodriguez made two free throws to make it 72-68 with 13 seconds left. Kostas Sloukas knocked down another three-pointer to pull within one point, while Gasol split his free throws again.
“With so many of our great players out, reaching the semifinals is a great, great accomplishment”, said Spain coach Sergio Scariolo, whose team absorbed two defeats during the preliminary round. Spain advance to the semifinals for the ninth consecutive EuroBasket despite playing without most of their superstars this year like Ricky Rubio and Marc Gasol.
Parker finished with a game-high 18 points but missed 12 of 17 shots.
Les Bleus trailed for much of the first before Tony Parker, who otherwise struggled, scored nine points in less than two minutes to give them a two-point lead at the break.
In the second game, France handled Latvia by a final score of 84-70.
Greece still has something to play for though, as it will strive to snatch one of the top seven spots in the tournament, either by beating Latvia in its next game on Thursday or by winning in the match for the seventh spot on Friday.
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The game was tight from start to finish, as two of Europe’s best teams duked it out.
