The lead was 18 points at halftime and 27 after three quarters.
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Team USA and Argentina each look to keep their bids for Olympic gold alive when they clash in quarterfinal action as part of the Summer Games on Wednesday in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. They also swept two games against the French at EuroBasket 2011, including in the Final, while Les Bleus beat Spain in the EuroBasket 2013 Semi-Finals before stunning them in the Quarter-Finals of the 2014 FIBA Basketball World Cup in Madrid.
“We’ve got to build on it”, Durant said, “but we’re not satisfied at all”. “We were confident shooting, we were aggressive, we kept our poise”.
It’s a far cry from last month, when the USA beat Argentina 111-74 in an exhibition game in Las Vegas, back when even rival teams seemed to be conceding gold to the Americans. “And as fierce a competitor that as a coach I’ve had to face in my entire time in worldwide basketball”, Krzyzewski said. “We know how tough it’s going to be”. The other semis match-up will feature Australia and the victor of the Serbia-Croatia match-up.
“We have set the goal of winning the gold medal”. Gasol’s ex-Bulls teammate Nikola Mirotic had a game high 23, and new Knick Willie Hernangomez shot 8/11 from the floor for Spain. “We tend to think it’s going to be easier than we thought”. “We’ve got to be prepared for a grind-out game”. The Americans settled for outside jumpers, passed rarely and were outplayed before a timeout. The forward played 13 minutes off the bench. Coach K moved DeAndre Jordan into the starting line up and that seemed to stimulate DeMarcus Cousins, who lost his spot. We played as a team.
“I’ve never been in a crowd like this before …”
George added: “This is really top 5”. However, at the same time they have played quality basketball for four matches with the likes of Luis Scola and Facundo Campazzo playing great basketball.
George had 17 points and Cousins 15. The Argentines made nine of their first 10 shots inside the arc and led 19-9 when Nocioni drilled a 3-pointer.
That is just the beginning of the challenges Team USA will have to face if it wants to repeat as gold medal winners as it did back in 2012. “It was our fifth game, we played 48 hours ago, two overtimes. These guys are determined to change that”, Australia coach Andrej Lemanis said.
Argentina battled into the Rio quarters led by four veterans from that “golden generation” squad, including four-time National Basketball Association champ Manu Ginobili of the San Antonia Spurs.
“We came out and threw the first punch”, Mills said. These problems looked like they started to find answers as this game went on.
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Here are the five biggest events to check out at the Rio Olympics on Wednesday. Dellavedova will probably be trusted to try and slow up Lithuania PG Mantas Kalnietis.
