Olympic Basketball: Previewing USA vs. Argentina
By Danielle
At 5:15 PM Eastern Time on Saturday morning, Team USA will take on Argentina. The game will air on the NBC Sports Network (check your local provider for listings).
The US will resume action in men’s basketball in Pool A play this afternoon against Argentina at London’s Olympic Park Basketball Arena. Team USA has now defeated France, Tunisia, Nigeria, and Lithuania in Olympic Pool Play this summer. They have won 13 consecutive games in the Olympics now. In pool play, they are winning by an average margin of 40.5 points.
Entering the game, Argentina is 3-1 in pool play. They have beat Lithuania, Tunisia, and Nigeria. Their only loss was to France.
How they got here: Argentina was able to qualify for the Olympics by winning the Gold Medal game over Brazil as host at the 2011 FIBA Americas Championship.
Team USA is 4-1 all-time against Argentina in the Olympics. The teams have met in the semifinals three times. It was Argentina that prevented the USA team from taking home the Gold Medal by defeating Team USA in the semifinals. The last time that these two teams met was late last month in an exhibition in Barcelona, Spain. Team USA was able to hold off a late Argentina rally for and win 86-80.
Olympic Pool Play record: 77-2 (97.4%)
All-Time Olympic Record: 126-5 (96.1%)
All-Time National Team Record: 113-7
Team USA is winning by scoring an average of 115.8 points per game while holding opponents to 75.2 points per game.
In 4 Olympic games so far, former Kentucky Wildcats star Anthony Davis has played a total of 37 minutes, averaging 12.3 minutes a game. He’s scored 24 points, an average of 8 points per game. He’s picked up 12 rebounds, an average of 4 rebounds per game. In the 3 contests, Davis has only blocked 2 shots. Davis did not see any action on Saturday.
“Argentina’s a team, they are as experienced and veteran a team as there is in the Olympics,” said USA assistant coach Chris Collins. “They have two of the great players internationally in (Manu) Ginobili and (Luis) Scola. Two guys that especially in big games are always going to be at their best. When you play them, you’re always playing against a team – they have played together for so long – that no matter what you try to do, they make reads, they’re smart, they can feel the flow of the game and how to keep themselves in it … and that’s why we’re going to have to play well on both ends of the ball to be able to win.”
This is the final preliminary game. Next up for Team USA will be the quarterfinals on Wednesday. If all goes as planned and the USA keeps the #1 Group A seed, Team USA should play Australia in the quarterfinals. If the USA gets a 2 or 3 seed, the team would play Brazil or Spain.
Probable Starters
United States
F – Kevin Durant
F – LeBron James
C – Tyson Chandler
G – Kobe Bryant
G- Chris Paul
Argentina
F – Andres Nocioni
F – Carlos Delfino
C – Luis Scola
G – Manu Ginobili
G – Facundo Campazzo