When talking about playing his final game for Argentina, Manu Ginobili couldn’t help but get emotional. They began to hawk the ball and close up the paint on the defensive end. “They’ve got great guards that can penetrate shoot and pass so we’ve got our work cut out for us”. “I thought they played extremely well”.
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“An wonderful journey. I’ve been so lucky to have the opportunity to play four times in this type of event”, he said.
“RIO DE JANEIRO “ As Kevin Durant was alone in his room Wednesday, he chose to approach Team USA”s game against Argentina in an unorthodox way.
This isn’t the usual Tom Thibodeau, assistant coach for USMNT, suffocating defense from Olympics’ prior although they have lock-up defenders up and down the 12-man roster. Immediately after the game had ended, US’s Carmelo Anthony, who plays for the New York Knicks, gave the San Antonio all-star a hug as a display of utter respect.
In his first Olympic games, Garino (23 years old) finished with 6.3 points, 3.2 rebounds and 1.0 steals in 24.8 minutes through six games for Argentina. DeMarcus Cousins (15 points) and Kyrie Irving (11) also reached double figures. “We have to up our focus and our intensity level”.
Team USA revved up the defense, moved the ball while attacking as a unit and with some second-unit fire, unloaded a frightening 27-2 run, including 20 straight points, to seize control early in the second quarter. “You know how hot they can get”. He shot 9-of-13, including 7-of-9 on 3s and added seven rebounds and seven assists.
Much of the preparation will be on Krzyzewski and his staff, and the Duke coach did alter his starting lineup against Argentina. As their run continued, the Team USA bench that had been so placid in recent games was as raucous.”For us, it’s all about effort”, said George, who had 17 points on 8-for-14 shooting.
“We brought the energy and the passion tonight”, said Kevin Durant, who led all USA scorers with 27 points, including making 7 of 9 attempts beyond the 3-point line. After close calls with a Tony Parker-less France team and Serbia, they have to realize that talent won’t be enough. We battled them on the boards.
“We believe”, center Andrew Bogut said. “I think the stat sheet will really tell what we did well this game rather than the previous three games”.
He simply stopped caring whether the US won later that night.
Sure enough, the US was down 10 early, but in the end crushed Argentina 105-79, ensuring the Golden Generation would finish with just one gold. In addition to his Olympic gold in 2004, Ginobili won bronze four years later in Beijing.
With seven National Basketball Association standouts and three former National Basketball Association players, Spain knows well the superior skill and speed U.S. players bring but the Spaniards have been together for years while the Americans united only a month ago.
With the way they played on Wednesday, there’s hope that the Americans have grown and improved, that they’ve gotten tougher.
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Now they need to do it again to take the next step toward their goal.
