Durant’s performance against Argentina pushed the USA a step closer to its third straight gold medal and set up a semifinal showdown on Friday with Spain, the two-time defending silver medalist hoping a third time is championship charmed against the Americans.
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Patty Mills scored 24 points and Aron Baynes added 16 to spark Australia over Lithuania 90-64 Wednesday, advancing the Boomers to the Olympic men’s basketball semi-finals. Spain coach Sergio Scariolo told Eurohoops.net that he is unsure whether Gasol can play or not in the semifinals.
So much is expected of them, mainly because there is so much talent.
After the first two games against the weakest team in Group A – Venezuela and China and both being blowouts to the effect of 50-odd points they have struggled to show any domination.
Almost written off after two losses to open the Rio Games, Spain is back in the men’s basketball semifinals for the third straight time following a 92-67 rout of Parker and France in the quarterfinals on Wednesday. Just under 10 percent of the USA’s plays have ended in isolation. They have made no secret they think they are capable of gold.
“We have a group that believes in ourselves, believes in one another”, said guard Patty Mills. Spain has now won four straight games since starting the tournament 0-2, and they’re a confident bunch given its scored no less than 92 points in those contests. Durant was on fire offensively, scoring 27 and hitting seven of nine three pointers, but he had his best game defensively as well, feeding off the energy from the wing defenders.
“It’s another challenging team”.
Or maybe this team just needed a good kick in the rear to finally get going. Green missed all five of his shots and is now 4-of-18 overall in the six Olympic games. “That’s really the key”.
United States of America vs. Spain has been the final for the past two Olympics with the Americans coming out on top both times. “‘You can’t worry about what other people say”. “This is one and done for real”.
Durant, who hit 7 of 9 three pointers to lead the USA, also added 7 rebounds and 6 assists. Paul George had 17 and 8 rebounds.
“We don’t like starting tournaments the way we did here, but along the way we normally start getting hot, and in those most important moments is when appears the character of this team”, Spanish forward Rudy Fernandez said.
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How desperately we may need him to walk through that door four years from now, we’ll begin to find out against Spain on Friday.
