“To be a part of the end of this generation is a privilege and today, minutes after we finished the game with the United States, the most important thing is we are saying good-bye to these Olympic Games and we are saying good-bye to part of the greatest team in worldwide basketball and I am thankful for this opportunity”.
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Spain, which won the 2006 FIBA World Cup and the European championship in 2009, 2011 and 2015, has never won gold at the Olympics. The United States had posted blowouts over China and Venezuela, but far from smoothly, and that led to three surprisingly tenuous wins to close out the group stage, raising questions about how the Americans would fare in the quarterfinals Wednesday that just hadn’t been asked at any point in 2008 or 2012.
They’re set to face Spain on Friday while Australia takes on Serbia in the other semifinal.
“We believe”, centre Andrew Bogut said. “We got all the talent in the world. They outworked us”, Page said.
From George to Jimmy Butler, Kyle Lowry, DeAndre Jordan and all the rest, they played the kind of defense that was nowhere to be found in recent games.
The 39-year-old Ginobili won’t play in the Olympics again, and after the final horn sounded, USA forward Carmelo Anthony wrapped his arms around a player who beat him in his first Olympics but also a man he has grown to respect. With those 5 on the floor the US went on relentless 28-2 run along with playing much better defense than they previously had. The gold medal game will be played on Sunday.
But that didn’t happen, so USA coach Mike Krzyzewski, apparently in his final Olympics, has had to make do with less than an overwhelming squad.
A US men’s basketball team with 10 first-time Olympians and six players in their first major worldwide tournament wobbled into the quarterfinal of the Rio Games.
The Americans couldn’t relax until the final minute of the last one, when Krzyzewski leaped triumphantly in front of the bench nothing approaching the Olympic high jump record, but the best he can do.
“He does care about winning and losing”, Krzyzewski said.
Age hasn’t slowed Spain down, either. It was fitting, then, that Spain dominated France on Wednesday afternoon to ensure its part in this hoops play.
As good as the Americans were against Argentina, their semifinal foe – Spain – looked nearly as sharp in its 92-67 quarterfinal rout of France.
“We’ve got to use this game and try to build on it”. “Sometimes it’s the pressure, sometimes it’s whatever it is, but we click again”.
The US NBA stars will play for the title on Sunday against the victor of a later semi-final between Australia and Serbia.
Spain reached the gold medal game despite not having center Sancho Lyttle, who also plays for the WNBA’s Atlanta Dream, due to broken bone in her right foot. So the Spanish arrived in Brazil a little more disjointed than precise, but that’s over with now.
“It wasn’t pretty and we didn’t want to play that game”, Spain guard Ricky Rubio said.
Emphatically stopping a stretch of three straight close games, the Americans advanced to the semifinals by sprinting past Manu Ginobili and Argentina, 105-78 on Wednesday night.
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Spain knocks out France, Parker for spot in semis.
