Marc Gasol steps into his brother's shoes as Spain seek to defend world basketball crown
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The Spanish basketball team may be without NBA champions player Pau Gasol as they seek to defend their World Championship in Turkey at the end of August, but his brother Marc is ensuring that his brother's influence has so far gone unnoticed.
Physical problems have kept Paul out of the Spain squad, but Marc was in exceptional form as the Spanish maintained their 100 percent record in preparation matches over the weekend.
The Memphis Grizzly's power forward was only in action for 17 minutes of Spain's 88-68 win over Slovenia on Sunday, but he scored 18 points and provoked five fouls from his opponents.
Marc Gasol has played a total of 77 minutes in Spain's four preparation matches, scoring a total of 50 points. He has the best numbers of any member of the Spain squad and speaking in Diario AS on Monday, coach Sergio Scariolo praised his for his maturity and his performances.
"Marc has been able to assume and take onboard the responsibility and the solidity the role that we have given him."
"He is now a reference point for the team," he said.
As well as defeating Slovenia, Spain has previously beat Canada, Cote d'Ivoire and Lithuania in its warm-up matches.
Scariolo believed that his players were not at their best against Slovenia, but praised their effectiveness in danger areas.
"We gave the fans another good afternoon of basketball. We were not as brilliant as we have been, but we had a huge impact close to the hoop," he said.
Marc Gasol provided large part of that impact and his presence means that his brother, Pau has so far not been missed.
