US advances to gold medal men’s basketball game

BEIJING (AP) — Argentine captain Luis Scola offered some advice for Spain as it tries to deprive the U.S. of its first Olympic gold medal since 2000.

“All you’ve got to do is play an unbelievable game and you’ve got a chance,” Scola said.

Even then, perhaps only a slim chance.

The Americans played their most uneven game of the Olympics and still whipped Argentina 101-81 in the semifinals on Friday night.

The U.S. ousted the defending Olympic gold medalists to set up a rematch with Spain, which the U.S. drubbed by 37 points in pool play. Spain advanced with a 91-86 victory against Lithuania earlier Friday night.

“Nobody’s unbeatable,” said Scola, who bedeviled the Americans with 28 points and 11 rebounds. “But you’ve got to beat them. It’s not easy.”

For one uncomfortable stretch on Friday night, the U.S. looked eminently beatable, frittering away most of a 21-point second-quarter lead.

The U.S. seemingly took command with a 34-13 lead early in the second quarter. It looked as if the Americans were on their way to another rout.

“I love the way we came out,” guard Dwyane Wade said. “No letdown early on.”

But then the Americans began jacking up 3-pointers and slacking off on defense. They conceded 29 points in the second quarter.

“Our worst defensive quarter,” U.S. coach Mike Krzyzewski said. “I don’t know why.”

The U.S. gave Argentina hope even after it lost leading scorer Manu Ginobili to an apparent left ankle injury late in the first quarter.

“Once we saw Ginobili go down, once we saw their best player go down, we started to relax a little bit,” U.S. forward Carmelo Anthony said.

Soon that 21-point bulge began to melt. Argentina went on an 11-0 run to pull within 39-29 midway though the second quarter.

The U.S. went scoreless from the floor for the final 3:43 of the first half.

When Anthony hit three free throws with 0.9 seconds to go, the Americans took a shaky 49-40 lead into the dressing room.

It was reminiscent of Deron Williams’ 3-pointer at the halftime horn against Australia, which also gave the U.S. all it could handle for two quarters.

“It was the same thing,” U.S. forward LeBron James said. “It’s a momentum thing.”

For much of this tournament, the Americans have been the darlings of the crowd. Not on this night.

Sensing a staggering upset, the crowd began to get behind the Argentines, whose supporters included soccer legend Diego Maradona.

But the U.S. regained its poise at halftime and won going away.

As did the semifinal slump that has plagued the U.S. in recent international tourneys. The Americans had lost to Argentina in the 2004 Olympics and to Greece in the 2006 world championship.

Argentina and Lithuania will battle for the bronze on Sunday. It’s merely the preliminary to the game the Americans have been waiting for since they made a three-year commitment to USA Basketball.

The U.S. vowed not to take a victory against Spain for granted, even after annihilating the Spaniards a week ago.

“That’s over and done with,” James said. “We’re not thinking about what we did to Spain last time. It’s a brand-new game. We want to approach it like it’s a brand-new game. We’re not an overconfident team, but we are confident in our abilities. We look forward to the challenge again.”

They’ll face a Spanish team that has played inconsistently in this tournament. Spain needed overtime to survive against overmatched China in pool play and lost to the U.S. by 37. But it has won three straight and showed a lot of resilience in beating the Lithuanians.

After the game ended, the Spaniards danced at center court.

Were they really that ecstatic about a possible rematch with the U.S.?

The last time the teams played, Spain had as many turnovers (28) as field goals and appeared incapable of handling the Americans’ withering defensive pressure.

“Indeed against the U.S. last time, we did a terrible job,” Spain coach Aito Garcia said. “We’ll see what happens.”

The U.S. played a nearly flawless game against Spain. The Americans showed plenty of flaws against Argentina.

Now the question is which team will show up on Sunday for the U.S.’ biggest game in eight years.

“We’ve got to play better than we did tonight,” Anthony said. “I’m not saying that we played bad. We just want to be better than we were tonight.”