Álex Abrines’ fibrillar fracture marks the future of the convocation
MADRID, 27 Jun. (EUROPA PRESS) –
The Spanish men’s basketball team will face the Dominican Republic this Friday (7:00 p.m.) in their last preparation match before their Pre-Olympic Tournament, which will be held in Valencia from July 2 to 7, while the Caribbean team will face the same challenge and on identical dates in Piraeus (Greece).
The event for the Spanish team will take place at the Fuente de San Luis Pavilion, in Valencia, but 162 kilometers away they will make a stopover on their trip. It will be in the Pedro Ferrándiz Pavilion in Alicante, where those summoned will improve their options to be on the final list of coach Sergio Scariolo for this Pre-Olympic.
Álex Abrines, due to a recent fibrillar tear, has been the negative note in the hours prior to this duel against the Dominican Republic. Although his illness is “very minor”, in Scariolo’s own words, the FC Barcelona guard has a difficult time recovering in time and that has opened the door for other players to convince the coach.
There has also been concern within ‘La Familia’ that point guard Lorenzo Brown has joined training late, missing the friendly against Italy after exhausting his vacation with permission from the Spanish Basketball Federation (FEB) and having finalized his signing for the Panathinaikos BC for the next three seasons.
With these wicks, Scariolo will want to form a competitive team just four days before the Pre-Olympic, where in the initial group he will have as rivals first Lebanon and then Angola. A single ticket will be distributed in this competition at Fonteta, with the teams from Finland, Poland and the Bahamas making up the other group.
On their route to the tournament through Valencian lands, there were only two friendlies on ‘La Familia”s calendar. And in the first they suffered a defeat in overtime (84-87) against Italy, having wasted an advantage of up to nine points (48-39) midway through the third quarter. The good atmosphere at the WiZink Center in Madrid was not rewarded with a victory.
At the end of said match, Scariolo praised his pupils before the press for having come back on the scoreboard to force extra time and for having had one last shot, in the hands of Darío Brizuela, who was able to avoid defeat at the horn; However, that triple by the Barça guard crashed into the rim and gave Italy the victory.
With the aim of redeeming itself, Spain will play against a Dominican Republic coached by Argentine Néstor ‘Ché’ García. Under his command there are well-known players from the Endesa League, such as point guards Andrés Feliz (Joventut Badalona) and Jean Montero (MoraBanc Andorra), and the captain of the Caribbean squad is guard Víctor Liz.
DATASHEET.
–EQUIPMENT:
SPAIN: Lorenzo Brown, Santi Aldama, Darío Brizuela, Alberto Díaz, Rudy Fernández, Usman Garuba, Juancho Hernangómez, Willy Hernangómez, Sergio Llull, Xabi López-Arostegui, Juan Núñez, Joel Parra and Jaime Pradilla.
DOMINICAN REPUBLIC: Jean Montero, Chris Duarte, Andrés Feliz, Ángel Núñez, Luis Santos, Adris de León, Danny Carbuccia, Antonio Peña, Eddy Polanco, Yeikson Montero, Adonys Henríquez, Miguel Simón, Víctor Liz and Eloy Vargas.
–PAVILION: Pedro Ferrándiz from Alicante.
–TIME: 19.00/La 2.