Kyrie Irving, USA basketball to face Argentina in quarterfinals of Rio Olympics 2016
CLEVELAND, Ohio — Team USA has advanced to the quarterfinals in the 2016 Rio Olympics where it will play Argentina on Wednesday evening.
Tipoff is slated for 5:45 p.m. ET.
The Americans, boasting Cleveland Cavaliers point guard Kyrie Irving, moved forward as the top seed out of Group A, going 5-0 in preliminary play despite a few scares from Australia, Serbia and France. Team USA also picked up blowout victories against China and Venezuela, both of which were eliminated from the tournament after combining for one win.
Based on the Olympics setup, the United States will play the Group B fourth seed. The top four teams from the group — Croatia, Spain, Lithuania and Argentina — all finished with a 3-2 record. Argentina slid to the fourth spot after Croatia topped Lithuania, 90-81, on Monday night while Spain cruised past the Argentines, 92-73, earlier in the day.
Manu Ginobili leads the way for Argentina, the last squad to beat the Americans in the Olympics. The stunning upset in the 2004 semifinals led to a Team USA reconstruction, with head coach Mike Krzyzewski and USA basketball chairman Jerry Colangelo at the center of the needed change. The team has won every game since.
Current NBA rotational big man Luis Scola and former NBA players Carlos Delfino and Andres Nocioni join Ginobili on a team that got crushed by Team USA, 111-74, during a five-city exhibition showcase last month.
But Team USA’s road has been much tougher than expected. Argentina has the experience to perhaps be the next test.
“At the end of the day, no one will ask you anything else except if you won,” Krzyzewski said of Team USA’s close games in the Olympics. “While you’re approaching that winning the whole thing, you’re asked a whole bunch of other things. I think we’re getting better offensively and we have to get better defensively. Just a succinct comment in that regard. But the fact that we’re getting better offensively is a huge plus, because I think we can make proper adjustments defensively to get better. And obviously we’re going to have to play better defense, there’s no question about that.”
Through five games, Kevin Durant leads the gold medal favorite in scoring, averaging 16.8 points. Carmelo Anthony (15.2 points), Irving (12.6) and Paul George (11.6) are also averaging double figures.
Irving leads Team USA in assists, averaging 6.0 per game.
The USA-Argentina winner will face the Spain-France winner in Friday’s semifinals. On the other side, Matthew Dellavedova-led Australia meets Lithuania in one quarterfinal and Group B top seed Croatia takes on rival Serbia in the other.
Kyrie Irving, USA basketball to face Argentina in quarterfinals of Rio Olympics 2016
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