OLYM - Argentina ‘try again’ against USA

LONDON (Olympics) – One of the greatest rivalries in international basketball will be renewed on Friday when Argentina meet the United States in the Olympic Semi-Finals.

It was at this very stage of the competition eight years ago when Argentina beat the USA in Athens, before going to win against Italy in the gold-medal game.

Manu Ginobili, Andres Nocioni, Luis Scola, Leo Gutierrez and Carlos Delfino all played for that Argentinian side and remain in the squad today.

LeBron James and Carmelo Anthony were competing in the first of their three Olympics with the United States.

Each of those players met again, two years later, at the FIBA World Championship in the bronze medal game and the Americans won that encounter.

In 2008, they were at it again in the Semi-Finals of the Beijing Games and Mike Krzyzewski's USA prevailed.

The United States are a talented group this summer, and they pulled away from Argentina in the third quarter of their Preliminary Round meeting in London, winning 126-97.

At half-time, Argentina had only trailed 60-59, but Kevin Durant erupted for 17 of his game-high 28 points in the third period for the United States.

Both teams were tested in their respective Quarter-Final clashes with the United States defeating Australia, 119-86 after Argentina dispatched Brazil, 82-77.

"Hopefully we can control Durant a little better," Ginobili said.

"He really went crazy in that third quarter but we know that if it's not Durant, it can be Kobe (Bryant) or LeBron (James).

"It can be anybody because they have that amount of talent.

"We have to be aware of that and protect every possession, don't turn the ball over, don't take bad shots and don't let them run.

"We kind of invited them to take those three-point shots and they made 20, so we're going to have to make some adjustments."

The Americans caught fire from long range, drilling 20 of 39 (51.3%).

Durant was an unworldly eight of 10 (80%).

To illustrate Ginobili's point that any of the other players can go off at any time, Anthony sank 10 of 12 three-balls in his 14 minutes of action in the United States’ history-making triumph over Nigeria.

The Americans scored an Olympic record 156 points that night.

The United States know exactly what is coming from Argentina.

In addition to meeting in the Preliminary Round, they played a pre-Olympic friendly in Spain and USA won, 66-60.

"Tough team," said Durant, the MVP of the 2010 FIBA World Championship.

"It’s going to be our third time playing them.

"It’s not going to be easy so we’ve got to come out there and play hard from the beginning to give ourselves a chance."

Chris Paul, the USA point guard, also looked ahead to the Semi-Final.

"We’ve got to get out to a good start," he said.

"They are going to have their crowd behind them and we’ve got to come out and impose our will."

The pressure is off Argentina in one sense because they travelled to London looking to reach the last four.

They have two chances, now, to win a medal.

Argentina captured bronze four years ago.

"The only thing we can do is try again," Argentina coach Julio Lamas said.

"We will have another shot at it."

A player that has the burden of challenging the Americans on the boards from start to finish is Argentina workhorse Luis Scola.

He stresses that Argentina have already accomplished what they set out to do and that now, any victory is the icing on the cake.

"To be in the Semi-Final stages of the Olympics can never be a minimal aim, but rather the maximum," he said.

"It's something great to reach the last four."

FIBA