Spain - Lithuania: schedule and where to watch on TV and Eurobasket quarter-finals

Spain has overcome the group stage with solvency, winning four of its five games and leaving quite positive feelings.

Thomas Osborne
Thomas Osborne
10 September 2022 Saturday 01:40
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Spain - Lithuania: schedule and where to watch on TV and Eurobasket quarter-finals

Spain has overcome the group stage with solvency, winning four of its five games and leaving quite positive feelings. The only defeat in this first phase has been strange, against a rival like Belgium, but it did not affect too much the team trained by Sergio Scariolo. Lacking individualities that make the difference, as is the case in many other teams aspiring to the title in this Eurobasket, Spain has needed to form a block and display a very choral style to counteract this absence of stars. It has worked, and in the last match prior to the qualifying rounds, the team has managed to get a victory against a rival like Turkey, the most difficult in the group and the other contender for the lead. With this victory, Spain avoids Slovenia and Germany in the round of 16, but meets Lithuania, another powerful team.

After the break on Friday, the first day without any games scheduled since the start of the championship, Spain and Lithuania will return to action this Saturday, September 10, at 8:45 p.m. (Spanish time). It will be the last meeting of a day full of great games. Turkey opens against France, Luka Doncic's Slovenia will face Belgium later and the hosts Germany will play the pass to the quarterfinals against Montenegro. All matches will be played, from now on, in Berlin. The confrontation between Spain and Lithuania can be seen live through Cuatro and its streaming platform, Mitele. You can also follow minute by minute on the La Vanguardia website.

Spain led their group and avoided crossing France or Germany, two of the main candidates for the title. This does not mean that their path to the final will be easy, since, without going any further, their first challenge will be overcoming Lithuania. A nation with a great tradition in the world of basketball and that currently has in its ranks a pair of high-level interior players, both in the NBA: Domantas Sabonis and Jonas Valanciunas.

Although the son of the legendary Arvydas Sabonis is not having all the prominence that his name and weight in the world's biggest league might suggest (he averages a PIR of 16 and 12 points per game, below center and shooting guard Marius Grigonis, from Panathinaikos ), it is still a very dangerous weapon and one of the main arguments of this selection in its candidacy for the title. Valanciunas is performing at a high level, averaging 18.4 points and 11.4 rebounds per game; like Grigonis, who was revealed as a great threat both as a scorer (15.8 points per game) and as an assistant (3.4 assists per game).

Spain, for its part, is a group in which the collective, the choral, prevails. No one stands out above the group. Willy Hernangómez is being the main figure, averaging a PIR of 19.2 and leading the team in points (15.4) and rebounds (7.4). However, Lorenzo Brown as organizer and Juancho Hernangómez and Usman Garuba as alternatives in the painting, together with the contributions of Xabier López-Aróstegui or Pradilla, among others, complete a harmonic selection. If they beat Lithuania, they would have to face the winner of Croatia-Finland. If they move on, they could find themselves up against one of the most feared players on the planet: Giannis Antetokounmpo.