Fiba World Cup favourites US and Spain in no hurry to square off

Dark horses Greece and Lithuania still lurking with intent to spoil tournament's dream final

US forward Kenneth Faried attacks the basket during the 2014 Fiba Basketball World Cup Group C game against Ukraine at the Bizkaia Arena in Bilbao, Spain, on September 4, 2014. Rafa Rivas / AFP

They set out in different directions, with every reason to believe they are headed for the same ­destination.

The United States and Spain, who have met in the last two Olympic gold-medal games, have been the class of the basketball World Cup.

A match-up that was an expectation coming into the tournament seems closer to a guarantee when watching them now.

Both had 100 per cent records and were hardly challenged in group play, Spain powering past what was considered a difficult pool and the US sweeping through the weakest. They look so good that it is hard to envision anyone beating one of them except the other.

“They are playing well, but we can’t think about games that could come in the future,” Spain guard Ricky Rubio of the Minnesota Timberwolves said. “We have to concentrate on the game at hand.”

Besides, they are still a long way from seeing each other – on the calendar and the map.

The round of 16 starts on Saturday with a new format that has the teams divided between two sites. The US are back in Barcelona, where they take on Mexico today, while Spain face Senegal in Madrid.

If the Americans reach the final, they would then travel to Madrid, perhaps with Spain waiting for them. If so, only then would US coach Mike Krzyzewski start watching the Spanish.

“Because you may never play those teams,” Krzyzewski said. “We’re not a fan, we’re coaches, and if I was a fan I would watch every game. I’m a coach and I watch my next opponent and the team I’m responsible for.

“I’ve done that for 40 years, so we’ve been pretty successful doing it that way.”

Greece were unbeaten in the group stage, while Lithuania won a tiebreaker over Slovenia to win Group D after both went 4-1.

Both still could potentially wreck a US-Spain final next Saturday, which is why Krzyzewski’s players have repeatedly said they are not thinking about the team that the Americans edged in the 2008 and 2012 Olympic finals.

“I don’t pay attention to Spain,” US forward Kenneth Faried said this week.

But those who do have seen a team that easily handled medal contender Brazil and European champion France in the first round, with chemistry from playing together for years and an international stalwart in Chicago Bulls forward Pau Gasol, the MVP of Spain’s 2006 world title run, who is having another strong tournament.

“Spain is a very, very good team. They’re very good,” said Ukraine coach Mike Fratello, whose team lost to the US on Thursday.

“They’re big, they’ve played together for so long, the majority of the team, and they do things that you have to do.

“They pass well, they’re skilled. To play the US you have to be skilled, otherwise you have too many turnovers from not being able to pass and catch. Small things. They don’t do that.

“They have size to go on the glass and I’m sure in their minds, playing in their home country they feel they have a very, very good chance to play against them.”

Fratello’s team was one of three in the group stage who hung with the Americans for more than a quarter, which rarely happens against truly dominant US teams.

This one is not, partly because it is so young. A group whose average age of about 24 makes it the youngest from America since pros were first used in the 1992 Olympics.

Yet Fratello, a former NBA coach and current TV analyst, says the Americans will start playing better when better teams are in front of them.

“But don’t count the US out, because they have resiliency, they have toughness about them, they have a great coaching staff,” he said, “and when they get to a point where they’re playing teams that they know are a major challenge, they’re going to raise their game a little bit and get after it.”

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