With the number of international friendlies being played increasing due to preparations being for EuroBasket at the end of the month, there are some interesting matchups and interesting finishes, I’ll be breaking those down.

The Spanish national team probably is the most talented team in this year’s EuroBasket field and on Sunday, they went up against another title contender, Lithuania.  This being just a preparation game for the tournament starting on August 31st, you wouldn’t expect to see Spain to breakout some of their best stuff.  However twice, they were able to get wide open alley oop dunks, using a ball screen to set up the defense.

In the first quarter, Spain was able to set up a lob for Rudy Fernandez, and even though the play wasn’t run crisply, it was still effective:

The play starts with Ricky Rubio bringing the basketball up and as that happens, Rudy Fernandez comes up to meet Rubio and get in position to set a ball screen.

However, Fernandez has no interest in setting a screen, and he quickly cuts after showing the screen, flashing around Serge Ibaka and cutting to the rim.

Even though Fernandez didn’t actually set a screen, the defender still had to react to it, and it put him in a trail position, chasing Fernandez.  Making things even more difficult, the defender had to deal with working around both Serge Ibaka (who is trying to set a screen for Fernandez) and his defender.

Again, an effective screen isn’t set here, but it is still effective enough and forces the defender to trail him even more.  This gives Rubio a slight window to throw the pass to Fernandez.

The pass was right on the money and Fernandez is able to catch the lob and throw it down for two points.  Here is the play in real time:

Once again, Spain doesn’t get a good screen set here, but the actual design of the play still forces the defense to react to and respect the screens, putting Fernandez’s defender in a trail position, and giving Rubio the space to throw a lob.

Later in the game (in the third quarter), Spain looked to run the same play with the same players involved (though with Ibaka’s and Fernandez’s roles flipped).  This time, it was ran better and even more effective:

This time, it is Serge Ibaka setting the screen for Rubio, and this time, he actually waits for Rubio to use his screen.  The effect this has is it forces his defender to jump out and hedge in an effort to keep Rubio from penetrating.

With Ibaka’s defender hedging, he is now in a more exaggerated trail position when compared to Spain’s lob in the first quarter.  This allows Ibaka to be patient and set up the screen that Rudy Fernandez is getting in position to set.

Fernandez’s man stays close to him because of his shooting ability and Ibaka’s man gets caught up in a screen, leaving Ibaka wide open with no defender coming over to help in the paint.

Ibaka catches the pass from Rubio and guides it into the basket for two points.  Here is the play in real time:

Notice how the defense reacts to this play when it is run correctly.  They respect Spain’s ball screen and hedge, and that puts them in a tough position to defend the backscreen and subsequent lob.

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Spain has a lot of talent at their disposal, and from the look of this set, the coaching staff is figuring out a way to use it effectively.