USA thump Argentina to qualify for the final against Spain: Second Half Breakdown – London Olympics Basketball Semifinal
After facing stiff competition from the South Americans in the first half, team USA, behind a barrage of three pointers from Kevin Durant, Carmelo Anthony and Kobe Bryant, plus a splendid run from LeBron James, took over the game.
It took the Americans some time before they were able to pull away in the third quarter. Manu Ginobili opened up the scoring in the second half with a three pointer and after two points each from Chris Paul and Tyson Chandler,
the Argentinean followed it up with a three point play to make it a 5 point game.
That however was as close the South Americans managed to be for the rest of the game. From the 7:12 mark till the 6:28 mark, team USA put together an 8-0 run courtesy of two three pointers from Durant and a deuce from Paul.
Argentina tried their best to make their way back into the contest with a 5-0 response but James scored the next 5 points which included a splendid dunk that shifted the momentum completely in favour of the Americans.
"It definitely gave us some momentum, that dunk, and then he came back and had an offensive rebound and put-back," said Anthony, “Then he hit another shot. He got it going. So we fed off that energy."
After Argentina scored 2 points entering the last three minutes, USA followed that up with another 8-0 run as Durant hit back to back three pointers and James chipped in with a deuce. The strong run to end the third period allowed
team USA a comfortable 74-57 lead.
The Argentineans seemed desperate to make a comeback going into the final quarter, but any hopes of that were quickly dampened as USA opened up the final quarter with an 8-0 burst.
In the ensuing passage came the Carmelo Antony show. From the 7:16 mark till the 6:34 mark, Anthony made three treys to take his tally to 18 points for the game and with that he put the result of the game beyond any doubt.
To sum up the proceedings in a dominating second half, Deron Williams, Paul and Andre Iguodala combined to put together an 8-3 spurt to end the game, allowing team USA to cruise to an easy 26 point victory.
Team USA have been astounding from long range throughout the Olympics and they capped off the game against Argentina with another strong performance by converting 18 of 42 three pointers. They now take on Spain in what is being
billed as a classic.
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