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Team USA rolls past Argentina, into final against Spain
By Pete Thamel
New York Times
Published on Saturday, Aug 23, 2008
With the U.S. men's basketball team rolling through this Olympic tournament as if it were the Harlem Globetrotters, it appeared that defending Olympic champion Argentina would be the only remaining test.
The Argentines forced the Americans to play under pressure for the first time in this Olympics, but the game ended in a comfortable 101-81 U.S. victory on Friday.
Even with the Argentine star Manu Ginobili leaving the game late in the first quarter with an apparent left ankle injury, Argentina played the United States closer than any team in this tournament.
The Americans will now play Spain (2:30 a.m. Sunday on WKYC, Channel 3), which they beat by 37 points during pool play, for the gold medal. Behind a scintillating fourth-quarter performance by the 17-year-old guard Ricky Rubio, Spain beat Lithuania, 91-86, in the other semifinal Friday.
''We played really bad that game,'' Spanish guard Raul Lopez said of the first game against the United States. ''It's really hard to play two bad games in one week.''
With soccer star Diego Maradona cheering in the stands, the salty veteran Argentine forward Luis Scola single-handedly kept his team in the game with 26 points. Scola cut the Americans' lead to six points in the final minute of the second quarter and kept Argentina close with crafty basket after crafty basket.
The Americans had seven players in double figures, led by Carmelo Anthony's 21 points.
But when the second half started and Team USA began to pull away, it
was center Dwight Howard who caused the separation. Howard dominated in the paint early in the third quarter, tipping in an Anthony miss, making a hook shot over Scola and forming a generally menacing presence inside.
Howard basically put the game out of reach with an authoritative slam on a crisp whip pass by Jason Kidd that took the Americans ahead by 17 with 6 minutes, 55 seconds, remaining in the third quarter. LeBron James scored the other five points in the 12-4 run that opened the third quarter and quelled Argentina's threat.
The United States welcomed the challenge of the Argentines, who have Ginobili at guard and a host of rugged, veteran players.
''If you want to be the best, you have to play the best,'' U.S. guard Kobe Bryant said.
It did not appear to be much of a test early, as Ginobili left the game amid an 18-0 American run in the first quarter.
The Americans had already appeared to take control of the game with 3:39 remaining in the first quarter, leading by 12-4, when Ginobili fell to the ground. He left the game, removed his left shoe and disappeared into the locker room during the second quarter.
With the United States leading by 18 points with eight minutes remaining in the second quarter, the Argentines made a feisty comeback without Ginobili.
Scola used his thick frame to push around Chris Bosh down on the block and did the same to Tayshaun Prince before his dominance forced coach Mike Krzyzewski to make his first significant adjustments of the Olympics.
Scola's 12 first-half points and seven rebounds showed that Argentina saw Team USA's weakness in the post and was able to exploit it. The biggest criticism of this American team was the lack of a bruising power forward to shore up the post defensively.
After Scola scored to cut the U.S. lead to 46-40 in the waning seconds of the first half, the United States grabbed the momentum off an inbounds play coming out of a timeout. Anthony got the ball on the pass outside the 3-point line, drew a foul on Llanas Gutierrez and made the three ensuing free throws to boost the halftime lead to 49-40.
The Americans were clearly being challenged, with Krzyzewski even inserting the little-used Michael Redd to try to spark the team late in the second quarter after it went cold from outside.
But Anthony's free throws at the end of the half gave the Americans enough momentum to carry over to the early part of the third quarter.
And after that early flurry by Howard and James to start the third, the test essentially ended for the Americans. They need one more victory for the gold medal, but this might have been the biggest test they will face.
Get the full article here.
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