Basketball: Argentina to face U.S. in last eight
Send a link to a friend
[August 16, 2016]
By Steve Keating
RIO DE JANEIRO (Reuters) - Croatia beat
Lithuania 90-81 in the final preliminary round game of the Olympic
men's basketball tournament on Monday, vaulting from fifth to the
top of Group B and avoiding a nightmare quarter-final clash with the
unbeaten United States.
Instead, Argentina have drawn the short straw and will face the
daunting task of taking down a U.S. team riding a 22-game Olympic
win streak in their quest for a third straight Olympic gold medal.
The other quarter-finals, which will all be played on Wednesday,
feature a spicy matchup between Serbia and Croatia, a tip-off
between old foes Spain and France and a contest between Australia
and Lithuania.
While the U.S. (5-0) finished group play as the only unbeaten team,
their performances have, thus far, not won rave reviews.
After a pair of blowouts over China and Venezuela to open the
Olympic tournament, the U.S. received a wakeup call in the way of
narrow three-point wins over France and Serbia, followed by a
battling 10-point victory over Australia.
But for all their struggles, no one is ready to down grade the
Americans from their lofty position as gold medal favorites.
"I still think they are the favorites for sure to win gold," said
Argentina's veteran shooting guard Manu Ginobili. "But after what
happened the last two or three games, there are some doubts.
"We know that but we still don't want to play them, we prefer to
avoid them because of their athleticism, their talent.
"But the tournament looks closer than I thought and it looks like it
is not going to be easy for anybody. I was kind of surprised by a
couple of their games, they (the U.S.) were one shot away from going
to overtime."
BAD TASTE TO FINISH
Earlier, Brazilians swallowed their sporting pride and cheered for
Argentina but were left with a bad taste when their bitter rivals
lost 92-73 to Spain to end their own hopes of advancing.
Under normal circumstances a loss by any Argentine team would
send Brazilians singing and sambaing into the Rio streets, but on
Monday the host nation was grudgingly in the Albicelestes' corner,
needing a victory over Spain to reach the last eight.
[to top of second column] |
Alex Abrines (ESP) of Spain and Nicolas Jose Brussino (ARG) of
Argentina in action. REUTERS/Jim Young
Brazil did what they needed to do, beating Nigeria 86-69, but once
again their Argentine rivals had the last laugh.
At times it seemed Argentina, already guaranteed a top four spot in
Group B, were not particularly interested in helping.
The Argentines teased Brazilians by racing 8-0 ahead, but then sat
back and watched as Spain answered with a 22-3 run to take a lead
they would never surrender.
"I don't remember but maybe it happened before," said Ginobili, when
asked if he had ever heard Brazilians cheering for an Argentine
team. "I want to make clear we wanted to win too, it's not that we
didn't care.
"We heard many times in the village, 'Hey guys, we're going to be
cheering for you today.'
"It was kind of awkward but I am disappointed we couldn't help them
out and at the same time (help) us trying to finish one or two."
(Editing by Bill Rigby and Mark Lamport-Stokes)
[© 2016 Thomson Reuters. All rights
reserved.]
Copyright 2016 Reuters. All rights reserved. This material may not be published,
broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
|