The quarterfinal round of EuroBasket ’13 began Wednesday.
With only six available spaces for the 2014 World Cup, seven of the remaining eight teams are battling it out to make it to the Spain next year.
The Spanish national team, being the host country, is excluded from the six spots available to European. Even so, they are as determined as ever to defend their back-to-back titles as EuroBasket champions.
Spain opened the quarterfinals by crushing Serbia 90-60.
Dallas Mavericks point guard Jose Calderon scored a three-pointer, his only points, in the opening minutes to contribute to an 8-0 run to start the game.
Sergio Rodriguez led all scorers with 22. His Real Madrid teammate, Rudy Fernandez, added 19 points.
Minnesota Timberwolves point guard Ricky Rubio added five points, six assists and a team-high six rebounds. Memphis Grizzlies center Marc Gasol added seven points, six assists and five rebounds.
Pau Gasol, who was unable to participate due to having had knee surgeries this summer, made sure to Tweet about it.
I’m very proud of our TEAM’s performance against Serbia. They need to keep up the concentration & intensity for the rest of #EuroBasket2013!
— Pau Gasol (@paugasol) September 18, 2013
We will play France at the #EuroBasket2013 semis on Friday! A tough team that we know well. It’s going to be a fun game to watch @FIBAEurope
— Pau Gasol (@paugasol) September 18, 2013
On the other half of their side of the bracket, France fought off the scrappy efforts of Slovenia.
San Antonio point guard Tony Parker led all scorers with 27 points. His Spurs teammates Boris Diaw (10 points, six rebounds) and Nando de Colo (four points) also contributed to the French victory.
Congrats to teammates @TonyParker, @theborisdiaw & @NandoDeColo on qualifying to Spain’14! Great job guys!
— Manu Ginobili (@manuginobili) September 18, 2013
Portland Trail Blazers shooting guard Nicolas Batum added 14 points, five rebounds and two blocked shots for the French.
Slovenia was led by Phoenix Suns point guard Goran Dragic, who scored 18 points and led all players with six assists.
Rad bi se iskreno zahvalil celi sLOVEniji za podporo,hvala!To so bili moji najleši trenutki v karieri.Bilo je lepo igrati pred vami #junaki
— Goran Dragic (@Goran_Dragic) September 18, 2013
“I would like to sincerely thank all of Slovenia for the support, thank you! These were my Lesia moments in his career. It was nice to play in front of you #Heroes” [Translation by Google]
Spain and France will tip off at 9:00PM (GMT+2) on Friday, September 20.
As well as these two teams know each other, this should be well worth watching.
Previous Tweet Posts:
Tweet of the Day: DeAndre Jordan Making Followers Laugh With Social Media Antics
Tweet of the Night: Royce White setting goals after seeing himself ranked No. 500 on ESPN
_______
Michael writes the Tweet of the Day for SheridanHoops.com and is the Atlanta Hawks NBA Featured Columnist for BleacherReport.com. Follow @MBrumagin