The United States Olympic team tries to stay undefeated in Olympic pool play today as they face off with Argentina at 5:15pm eastern on the NBC Sports Channel.
In an exhibition in Barcelona, Spain on July 22, the U.S. held off a late Argentina rally for an 86-80 victory. The U.S. jumped to a 19-3 lead, but Argentina got the game within four points in the
final minutes.
Let’s take a look at the tale of the tape of today’s contest:
Playing in its sixth Olympic Games, Argentina cruised to a 102-79 victory over Lithuania in its opener behind 32 points from Luis Scola. Argentina dropped its next contest against France before winning two straight versus Tunisia and Nigeria.
The USA is 4-1 all-time against Argentina in the Olympics, with the teams meeting in the semifinals three times.
Argentina qualified for the Olympics by winning as host at the 2011 FIBA Americas Championship. They defeated Brazil 80-75 in the gold medal game to win its second Americas championship.
LeBron James scored 20 points in the USA ‘s 99-94 win over Lithuania on Aug. 4, including nine points in the final four minutes to allow the Americans to gain separation from Lithuania.
Luis Scola and Manu Ginobili are carrying much of the load for Argentina as they are the squad’s two leading scorers (22.5 per game for Scola, 21.0 per game for Ginobili) and two leading rebounders (6.3 for Ginobili and 5.8 for Scola). Scola and Ginobili are shooting over 50 percent from the field at 57.6 percent and 50.9 percent, respectively, while Ginobili has yet to miss from the charity stripe (19-of-19).
[B]TODAY’S PROBABLE STARTERS[/B]
[B][U]USA[/U][/B]
NO NAME POS HGT WGT PPG RPG APG
5 Kevin Durant F 6-8 250 16.3 .6.0 .3.8
6 LeBron James F 6-8 230 10.0 .3.5 .4.3
4 Tyson Chandler C 7-1 240 4.3 .5.3 .0.8
10 Kobe Bryant G 6-6 205 9.0 .1.8 .0.8
13 Chris Paul G 6-0 183 5.3 .2.8 .5.5
[U][B]ARGENTINA[/B][/U]
NO NAME POS HGT WGT PPG RPG APG
13 Andres Nocioni F 6-7 225 9.0 1 3.8 .1.5
10 Carlos Delfino F 6-7 247 15.8 .2.8 .1.5
4 Luis Scola C 6-8 238 22.5 .5.8 .3.5
5 Manu Ginobili G 6-6 201 21.0 .6.3 .4.5
7 Facundo CampazzoG 5-10 194 4.0 .2.8 .3.8
