The cast of Sergio Hernández suffered an unmitigated defeat against a Nigeria who scored their second consecutive victory after their triumph against the United States.
After his historic triumph, Nigeria gave another demonstration of a certainty that within the Argentine squad they are very clear: that in an Olympic Game there are no simple rivals. The African team was an unsolvable enigma for Sergio Hernández’s team, who fell 94-71 in his second warm-up friendly Heading to the contest to be held in Tokyo.
The defeat fourteen days after the debut against Slovenia occurs in the context of a new test for a National Team that historically He has used these friendlies to experiment and adjust to reach the championship in question at his best. The fall will allow Oveja, his coaching staff and the players to draw conclusions that will boost the growth of the world runner-up towards his presentation in Japan.
After the agonizing fall in the debut against Australia, Sergio Hernández took advantage of his second performance in Las Vegas to film players who had added fewer minutes and he tested with an initial quintet made up of Luca Vildoza, Nicolás Brussino, Maximo Fjellerup, Luis Scola and Marcos Delía.
The national team came out determined to prevent the bombardment from the perimeter that tipped the balance against the United States in the surprising friendly between the Africans and the Dream Team. Argentina will be able to highlight its performance during that first quarter, in which it limited the spaces in attack with an intense defense that dismantled the offensive in transition of the Africans to force their errors, losses (11) and ineffectiveness of three without successes in five attempts against a team that had scored 20 triples in its preseason debut. Nigeria finally finished with 10 3-pointers in 30 attempts, hardly any consolation on an afternoon when nothing worked.
But despite the precision of its plan that allowed only 17 units, Argentina suffered its lack of skill in attack. That initial sample was sustained throughout the game in a national team that could not impose its conditions. If only Patricio Garino had stood out with two triples in the first quarter, the rest of the game was not much more accurate for an Argentina that was not on his day and will seek to quickly turn the page to continue building in the future.
Nigeria executed their plan to perfection, with a suffocating full-court defense that prevented an Argentina that feels comfortable running and attacking in the first seconds of possession from executing its style. With confidence through the roof after becoming the first African representative to have defeated the Dream Team, Los Tigres began to spin a web that trapped and frustrated El Alma. Unable to find spaces to shoot three, he modified his idea and showed off in the low post showing off his physical power.
His toughness, his rigor, his concentration and the athletic ability of the Nigerian team, who never let up, even winning by more than twenty points and defended until the last ball, was a differential factor for the final result. The Tigers will go to the Olympics with a roster made up mostly of players with current or past NBA in search of writing a golden page for their continent: they will seek to become the first African to overcome the first round of an Olympic Game.
While Jordan Nwora disputes the finals of the most powerful league in the world with the Milwaukee Bucks, seven other members of the teams of the American competition under the orders of a Mike Brown who was an assistant to Gregg Popovich in the San Antonio Spurs, who led the Cleveland Cavaliers and Los Angeles Lakers as main head coach, and since 2016 he is Steve Kerr’s right-hand man in the dynasty they forged in the Golden State Warriors.
Argentina showed inconveniences in an attack that could barely score 71 points. Only Leandro Bolmaro could exceed ten units in a game in which Hernández rotated more than necessary from the third set. Oveja looked for variants but Nigeria built an impregnable wall that cut their court percentage to 36%, allowed just 19% of three and forced 19 losses.
Jahlil Okafor was the leading scorer of the game with 15 points in 14 minutes, in addition to seven rebounds and a court efficiency of 87.5%. Precious Achiuwa, a Miami Heat intern, finished with 12 points and also NBA Chimezie Metu and Josh Okogie contributed ten points each. The last quarter was over in a process that will leave lessons for an Argentina that this Tuesday, at 19, will close the home run in the United States against the NBA that Gregg Popovich directs at the Michelob Ultra Arena. Then, on the 17th he will travel to Japan to enter the Olympic village, on the 18th.