Age had set in for the Golden Generation and even Scola believed the Argentines’ time had passed after they went out weakly in the 2014 Basketball World Cup. Thomas Heurtel led the way with 18 points and nine assists while Nando De Colo had 18 points and four rebounds.
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Josh Akognon led Nigeria with 16 points.
Nigeria’s unexpected tournament run came to an end at 1-4 – but it was nothing to be ashamed of by any stretch.
Spain, who started our slowly, and Argentina, who started out fast, finished the group phase at 3-2 and automatically qualified for the knock-out round, which starts Wednesday in Rio. If you recall, it was Argentina who last beat the Americans in Olympic play back in 2004. Fortunately for Croatia, they’re running into a Lithuania squad that’s reeling from a massive defeat to Spain. Fernandez scored a game-high 23 points. With Nic Batum and Juan Carlos Navarro both still on the roster for both teams, this game may get a bit chippy.
Brooklyn Nets guard Bojan Bogdanovic took things from there, exploding for 14 of his 22 points in the third quarter, knocking down all three of his attempts from behind the arc. It wasn’t a pretty start, but they now appear to be one of the best teams in the field, which was expectation all along.
Nor do the Americans, still thinking of what Argentina used to be, instead of the team it is now.
The winners of USA-Argentina and Spain-France will play in one semifinal on Friday Aug. 19, and the winners of Serbia-Croatia and Australia-Lithuania will play also on Friday.
But forward Rudy Fernandez scored 13 first-half points to stake Spain to a 16-point second-quarter advantage, and the risky Argentines were never able to mount a sustained fight-back.
Croatia entered the fourth leading by 20 points, a seemingly insurmountable hill for Lithuania.
Spain’s Pau Gasol, who plays for the San Antonio Spurs, scored 19 points in the third quarter.
And now they’re chasing one last medal: the 36-year old Scola, 39-year-old Ginobili, 36-year-old Nocioni and the pup Delfino, 33.
But at times it seemed Argentina, already guaranteed a top four spot in Group B, were not particularly interested in helping.
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With a loss, Croatia will finish with the same record as Brazil but would get the nod to the knockout round for beating the host nation earlier in the tournament.
