Draymond Green (USA) of the USA (L), Jimmy Butler (USA) of the USA and Gabriel Deck (ARG) of Argentina compete.
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Kevin Durant scores 27 points as Americans reach semifinals, where they will play Spain. When your leading scorer is also your assists leader, criticism of too much one-on-one play should die quickly.
“We missed some shots early, we got down a little bit”, forward Carmelo Anthony said of his team’s early 19-9 deficit. “But we’re OK. We’re fine”. The Argentinians were clear and away the better team in that tournament.
Although their road in Rio hasn’t been a very big challenge, there’s still a lot of pressure riding on this U.S. team. They beat Argentina in the Olympic quarterfinals 105-78, playing their best game yet.
The Americans had gone on a 27-2 run, and it was Argentina back on its heels, allowing Team USA to shoot 62.9 percent following a 3-for-13 start, and going into the locker room with the US up 56-40 at the end of the half.
Kevin Durant and the USA have no problems whatsoever in their quarterfinal match.
Tony Parker, who is 34, played his last game with France on Wednesday, scoring 14 points. “That was the big difference”.
“It is very hard to analyze the game when you are defeated in such a blatant manner”, Argentina coach Sergio Hernandez said through an interpreter, noting the opponents’ completeness, aggressiveness and “totally committed players”.
With the way they played on Wednesday, there’s hope that the Americans have grown and improved, that they’ve gotten tougher. He tallied 17 points, nine rebounds, two steals and two blocks. Paul George added 17 points in 21 minutes off the bench. As has been the case, there was foul trouble, this time for Anthony, and turnovers from Irving and Klay Thompson. The win, the Americans 23rd straight at the Olympics, sets up a classic showdown on Friday against Pau Gasol and Spain, the team the USA defeated to capture gold four years ago in London. He shot 9-of-13, including 7-of-9 on 3s and added seven rebounds and seven assists.
Team USA is the only basketball team in Rio de Janerio – and probably the only group of athletes at the Olympics – where police and groupies show up in equal numbers to watch them get off their bus.
Kevin Durant leads the USA with 27 points as they advance to face Pau Gasol and Spain in the semifinals.
The game will feature a number of current or former National Basketball Association players from both sides including team leaders and past National Basketball Association champions Pau Gasol, Spain’s center, and French point guard Tony Parker.
“There’s a lot of movement”, Durant said of Spain. “They’ve got great guards that can penetrate shoot and pass so we’ve got our work cut out for us”. Then the US comeback arrived, starting at 3:48.
But the Americans finished the first quarter with a 16-2 run, getting the final six points from DeMarcus Cousins to take a 25-21 edge to the second. Team USA led by sixteen, 56-40 at halftime and 87-61 at the end of three quarters.
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As Argentina jumped out to a 10-point lead just past the midway point of the first quarter, it appeared that they may have one more medal run left in the tank.
