Durant Shines in United States Win Over Spain

Kevin Durant shines in United States win over Spain

It was an exhibition basketball game between the United States and Spain ahead of the World Basketball Championships in Turkey but the game was intense during the first rematch between Spain and the USA since the 2008 Olympics.

Not exactly known for defense than his prolific offense, Kevin Durant made two huge defensive plays down the stretch to preserve his team's lead of one point.

Durant blocked Ricky Rubio's shot at the basket and the ball was taken by Rudy Fernandez whose three-point attempt was also blocked by Durant as the buzzer sounded.

The Oklahoma City Thunder star added 25 points and 10 rebounds.

The US team was coming off a poor game against Lithuania when they had a dismal shooting performance. However, in the game against Spain, the Americans converted 7 of their first 10 shots to build a 16-3 lead, while Spain made just one of their first ten shots.

But Spain rallied behind Juan Carlos Navarro, Marc Gasol, and Ricky Rubio to overcome an eleven point deficit heading into the last quarter.

Navarro, former guard of the Memphis Grizzlies, led Spain with 20 points and gave his team the lead with 27 seconds to go with a three-point play.

Derrick Rose of the Chicago Bulls made the last four points for the Americans and finished with 13 points.

The US team has one more exhibition game against Greece before going against Croatia in Saturday's start of the World Championship of Basketball in Turkey.

Posted by Andre Monohan on Monday August 23 2010, 9:10 AM EST. All trademarks acknowledged. Filed under Featured News. Comments and Trackbacks closed. Follow responses: RSS 2.0