Team Argentina beat Team USA in the 2004 Athens Olympics, and the loss catalyzed a massive shift in USA basketball to where they now stand. But I still have faith. “I think everyone found that individually and as a team as well”.
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Team USA is getting ready for a showdown in the Olympic Men’s Basketball Quarterfinals against its old global nemesis in Argentina on Wednesday from Rio.
“I still think they are the favourites for sure, but after what happened in the last two or three games, yes, there are some doubts”, said Argentina’s Manu Ginobili, an National Basketball Association star guard for the San Antonio Spurs. The Americans were able to hold off the French, beating them by just three points. They were in big trouble because they were losing at the half vs. the Boomers. Getting to the semifinals guarantees the chance to play for a medal, whether it’s gold in the championship game or bronze in the consolation game. “When we had leads, our defense let up”. This tournament, and specifically this game against this opponent, can be a vindication of everything Jerry Colangelo and Mike Krzyzewski have worked for, or the exact opposite.
SB Nation’s Tom Ziller concurs with that.
In the lore of Team USA basketball, Team Argentina looms as perhaps the greatest and most influential villain. It really may be asking too much to keep the glory of 1992 or 1996 or 2008 or 2012 alive permanently. Anything less than a gold medal would be seen as a failure.
It’s worth tuning in to check out the Aussies’ leading scorer and rebounder, Elizabeth Cambage, one of the few players in the tournament with the size and skill to go toe-to-toe with USA’s frontline.
Carmelo Anthony is the only Team USA player still on the roster from 2004.
“You can’t panic against this team”, France forward Nicolas Batum said. Since then, an even-ing out of the talent worldwide vs. the U.S. has happened, and is continuing today.
“We just have to trust ourselves on both sides of the ball”, United States guard Klay Thompson added.
“We got complacent on defence, and teams like this that move a lot off the ball, you can’t get complacent”, Thompson said of France.
Okay, end of my thoughts. Spain without Marc Gasol is not the same team that challenged the U.S.in the past two Olympic gold medal games.
The group stage of the 2016 Olympics has finally finished, with DeMarcus Cousins and Team USA going 5-0, but not after facing three consecutive close calls against Australia, Serbia and France.
Tip-off: Coverage starts at 5:30 p.m. ET and the game begins at 5:45 p.m.
Both teams are equipped with familiar faces from both previous Olympics and the National Basketball Association. It will make up for one heck of a game.
“Everyone we see now is going to be explosive”, Thompson said. Expect Manu and the gang to roll out their “real game plan” and hopefully it’s a bit more competitive than the scrimmage last July. Serbia faces Croatia tomorrow at 6:15 p.m.
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However, it was his style of play and general attitude following each frustrating loss (or, in his case, frustrating win without minutes) that led many pundits to believe that the global game wasn’t the best platform for Anthony to display the gifts that came so naturally to him.
