Despite Ricky Rubio's best efforts, The U.s. Men's Basketball team crushed Spain's dream of capturing the gold medal at the Tokyo Olympics.
Team USA Defeated Spain 95-81 in the quarterfinals that ended Spain's fifth consecutive try at winning the competition.
Here's how it all went down.
The game had just begun and the score was 4-2, and Damian Lillard was already doing what he does best, getting into the rhythm and dropping shots from the arc.
USA was leading the way but Spain was good with keeping it close. Especially thanks to Ricky Rubio who had 13 of his team's 17 points in the first quarter. The first ended with 21-19.
There was also an impressive block by Usman Garuba on Jayson Tatum. He is the rookie the Houston Rockets picked in Thursday's Draft. On the other hand, the USA's offensive was poor. They missed 12 of their first 15 three-pointers.
With less than 5 minutes left in the second quarter, Spain had a 35-29 lead. Sergio Rodriquez was cooking. He had 10 points on 4-of-5 shooting.
Team USA was a bucket away from tying the game before halftime comes knocking. And then came Zach LaVine's hammer and the second quarter ended with 42 each. USA had made a comeback from a 10 point deficit.
Minutes into the third quarter, we saw Ricky Rubio's defense come into the limelight as he rejected Bam Adebayo at the rim.
It was finally falling into place for Team USA, who won back the lead they had lost in the first quarter. Kevin Durant, usual was their lead scorer. The third quarter ended with 69-63, in favour of the Americans.
Both the teams' superstars, KD and Ricky Rubio were benched when the fourth quarter began. So, Jayson Tatum stepped up in place of Durant and had some big buckets down the stretch.
This seemed like Ricky Rubio's best game of his career. After this scoop layup, he had a whopping 34 points and finished with 38.
Team USA defeated Spain 95-81 in the quarterfinals and advanced to the semifinals where Australia is waiting for them. Kevin Durant was their lead scorer with 29 points.