USA brush aside Argentina 126-97 to stay undefeated in the London Olympics – Statistical Breakdown
In their last game of preliminary round, team USA used a strong second half to run riot over Argentina 126-97 on Monday.
The game was a tight affair till the first half, with the South Americans only trailing by a single point, but a brutal third quarter assault by the defending champions blew the Argentines away. By the end of the night, six players
for team USA had managed to cross the double scoring figures.
Kevin Durant led the way with 28 points, shooting the ball 9 of 12 from the field. NBA’s three time scoring champion was just sensational from the long range and connected on 8 of 10 triples with most of them coming in the third
quarter.
While Durant did his damage from long range, LeBron James put up 18 points to finish the group stage proceedings with a flurry. He shot the ball 7 of 12 from the field in just about 21 minutes of game time action. Nearly midway
through the third, he committed his fourth personal foul and Mike Krzyzewski benched him.
Chris Paul also came to life in the game. The point guard shot the ball 5 of 6 from beyond the arc and finished the game with 17 points to his name. Kevin Love and Andre Iguodala both chipped in with 13 points each, shooting the
ball a combined 11 of 16 from the field.
Kobe Bryant had an off night. He shot the ball 3 of 10 from the floor but went 4 of 4 from the charity stripe to add 11 points.
For the Argentineans, Manu Ginobili led the way with 16 points while Luis Scola and Leo Gutierrez chipped in with 11 each. Carlos Delfino had a shaky shooting night, but made his way to 13 points.
The hot American shooting, especially from the land of three, and the intensity were the deciding factors in the game.
They had a total of 20 three pointers on 39 attempts and a combined 51.1% shooting from the field.
Argentina also managed to convert 50.8% of their attempts, but they failed to find the inside of the cup on a regular basis after the interval and also committed 16 turnovers. USA, despite being undersized, also out rebounded Argentina
47-33, and simply seemed to have more desire to win.
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