USA cruise past Argentina to set up a finals rematch with Spain: First Half Breakdown – London Olympics Basketball Semifinal
On a Friday night, team USA pulled up a strong performance in the second half to get past Argentina and set up a re-match from four years ago against Spain in the Basketball Final on August 12th.
Kevin Durant led the way with 19 points which included 5 three pointers made on 10 attempts. LeBron James came alive in the second half before finishing the game with 18 points, 7 assists and 7 rebounds.
With some anger still lingering from the preliminary round meeting against Argentina because of the low blow by Facundo Campazzo, Carmelo Anthony came off the bench with a strong performance of 18 points. He shot the ball 4 of
8 from beyond the arc.
Kobe Bryant scored 13 points and Chris Paul chipped in with 10 points. Both combined to shoot the ball 5 of 9 from beyond the arc to cap of a masterful performance by team USA.
"You got three scorers in this team that get blistering hot," said Kobe Bryant after the game."Melo made three shots in a row. I’ve never seen anything like it. Me, KD and Melo made three 3s in a row and all of a sudden, the floodgates
opened. Suddenly a 10-point lead turned into a 20-point lead very, very quickly.”
On the other hand, Manu Ginobili led the South Americans with 18 points in the game. Luis Scola and Carlos Delfino provided a helping hand by adding15 points each but their best efforts were of no use against a strong second half
push by the Americans.
Team USA got off to a good start in the game as they held an early 15-4 lead behind a flurry of three pointers from Bryant. However the Argentineans came back with a strong response.
From 4:33 to the 1:52 mark of the first quarter, they put together a 9-0 run to cut the American lead down to only three points. But, by the close of the first quarter were trailing by 19-24.
The proceedings in the second quarter saw things get close as Delfino stepped up midway during the period to knock down back to back three pointers. However team USA had James to answer the call as he scored the next 7 points of
the ball game to seize the initiative again.
With 2:08 remaining in the first half, the Americans prolonged their advantage into double figures courtesy of a deuce from Anthony, and led by the same margin with just 7 second remaining in the second stanza, 47-37.
However Ginobili fired from the long range on an assist from Campazzo to make the score 40-47 before heading into the interval.
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