Spain coach Moncho Lopez believes the pieces of the jigsaw are beginning to fit together after watching his side continue their preparations for the European Championships with a
convincing win over Lithuania.

Spain, having beaten Japan and Greece in previous preparation matches, on Friday in front of a packed house in Salamanca overcame a poor start to destroy the much-fancied Baltic side 97-81.

After going down 21-18 in the first quarter, Spain, led by a brilliant Pau Gasol (25 points) and Alberto Herreros (19 points), outscored their opponents 29-20 in the second quarter to lead at the break.

"I think the fans enjoyed themselves and although every win increases the expectation around us, I think that is positive,'' said Lopez.

Lopez admitted that Lithuania, like Spain, were also in a period of preparation but felt that should take nothing away from his side's efforts.

He said: "We are starting to feel comfortable, we made some mistakes, but we will be working on them in the next few days.''

Spain received a further boost with the return of Estudiantes power forward Felipe Reyes, who played 18 minutes after spending the past three weeks recovering from an ankle injury.

"You could see he had not played until now, but everyone did their best to help him,'' Lopez said.

Meanwhile, Juan Carlos Navarro was also pleased with both the performance and the result.

He said: "These are only friendlies, but it is always better to win them.

"When you win, the atmosphere surrounding your work is much better,'' he said, admitting there was still some room for improvement.

"We know we have things to work on, we made mistakes in blocking and they caught us on the break too often, but that's why we are playing these games and in general I think we played well,'' he concluded.