Kevin Durant scored 27 points for the Americans, who had played three straight close games for the first time under Mike Krzyzewki, setting off a round of questions at home and in Brazil about what was wrong with them.
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On Friday, Aug. 19, the United States will go up against Spain in the semifinals. He pulled down seven rebounds, made a steal and dished out six assists in the game. Paul George added 17 points and 8 rebounds and DeMarcus Cousins scored 15 points.
The US-Spain victor will book a date in Sunday’s gold-medal final against the victor of Friday’s other semi-final between Serbia and Australia.
“This isn’t a tournament that we’re going to just dominate”, George said, according to The Associated Press. The lead grew to 25 in the second quarter before Argentina closed the first half with a small flurry to cut the margin to “only” 16 points at the break. The United States’ superior depth began to show as the Americans pushed the lead to 36-21, to complete an overall 27-2 run. The Americans, who extended their winning streak in global play to 51 games (23 in Olympic play) against Argentina, looked more formidable than they have since coming together for training camp in Las Vegas two months ago. The Americans led 56-40 at halftime. “We understood that and we understand that we have to play our best games now. And once we did that, we were able to play well on the offensive end and move the ball, and on defense cover for each other”.
Australia, which has five National Basketball Association players on its roster and four who have won championships, will play the Serbia-Croatia victor in the semifinals on Friday.
“Argentina has some great fans, dedicated fans who stuck throughout the game until the final buzzer”, Jordan said. “I thought we did”, USA coach Mike Krzyzewski said. “It was a wake-up call for us”.
“You know, when I get the ball, look to be aggressive whether that’s to score or pass”. “I just try to play and be free out there, not worry about anything”.
Those questions were answered in the form of a 105-78 rout against Argentina as the USA extended their Olympic winning streak to 23 games. In pool play, Green only averaged 11.1 minutes per game, the second fewest on this 12-man team, ahead of only Harrison Barnes.
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The otherwise powerful Argentine men’s basketball team featured four NBA veterans in their lineup – guards Manu Ginobili and Carlos Delfino and forwards Andres Nocioni and Luis Scola – but even that wasn’t enough to remotely threaten Team USA during and after their big run.
