Basketball Blog

Behind a USA Olympic qualifying record 31 points from LeBron James (Cleveland Cavaliers), the USA Men’s Senior National Team (10-0) opened and closed this afternoon’s FIBA Americas Championship 2007 gold medal contest to chants of U-S-A from the crowd after putting on a dazzling, 40-minute display that earned the USA a dominating 118-81 win over rival Argentina (8-2) in Las Vegas, Nev. The USA, which qualified for the 2008 Olympics with its win in Saturday night’s semifinals, extended its unbeaten streak in Olympic qualifying play to 36 consecutive wins, a run that dates back to the 1992 Tournament of the Americas.

“We are proud of the effort our guys gave,” said USA and Duke University head coach Mike Krzyzewski. “I thought the two best teams in the tournament played today against one another. It is always an honor for us to play against Argentina. They play well as a team against anyone in the world. Our guys also played well as a team today. Even though I do not like to single guys out, LeBron’s performance today was probably one of the best ones in an international game that an American player has had. He had a big time performance today.”

James lit it up early and nailed three of four 3-point shots to score 12 points in the first quarter alone. He went on to finish with a USA record 31 points on 11-of-15 shooting from the field and 8-of-11 shooting from 3-point. James not only set the U.S. single game scoring record in Olympic qualifying action, but also established new marks for 3-pointers made and attempted and equaled the mark for field goals made.

“For me, I’m not the kind of guy who goes looking for shots,” James said. “I just took the opportunity and it felt pretty good. You keep making shots, and you feel like it’s going to go in every time. I definitely fell into a comfort zone and kept on taking (the shots).”

The first 15 points for the USA were scored in 3-point increments, with Carmelo Anthony (Denver Nuggets) and James each hitting two 3-pointers and Dwight Howard (Orlando Magic) earning his the old fashioned way, slipping off a screen to get to the rim and finish. Argentina’s first three points also came from a 3-pointer by Federic Kammerichs, while Luis Scola and Javier Gonzalez helped with points from the inside, and the U.S. lead was 15-11 at 5:40.

Then came the breaking point, a Kobe Bryant (Los Angeles Lakers) finish at 5:00 launched the USA on a monster run to close the quarter up 35-14. The USA allowed Argentina just one more basket in the first period, a Carlos Delfino 3-pointer at 4:00, while the red, white and blue raced to 20 more points. The spectacular run, which included six points from James and five from Bryant, was enough to bring the crowd to its feet and put the game out of Argentina’s reach.

“We thought about it yesterday and we wanted to close it out on a good note,” Anthony said. ” We didn’t want to qualify yesterday and then come out and here and lose. Tonight, we had our focus; our focus that we should have. We came in and took care of things like we wanted.”

Chauncey Billups (Detroit Pistons) opened the second quarter with a 3-pointer that ignited a second U.S. run., this time a 16-7 highlight reel that featured three spectacular dunks from Howard and two rim-rattling jams from James. The USA recorded eight assists in the second quarter on 10 made baskets, with Bryant credited for three of those. A television timeout at 4:58 apparently gave Argentina time to recover, as the USA’s South American rival responded with a 13-8 run to close the first half and cut the U.S. lead to 59-34 at the intermission.

From there the U.S. machine was in cruise control, outscoring Argentina 34-27 in the third and 25-20 in the fourth to reach the game’s final tally of 118-81. Eleven of the USA’s 12 players scored in the contest, with Jason Kidd (New Jersey Nets) once again running the USA offense to perfection, never attempting a shot but recording six rebounds and five assists.

Howard contributed 20 points on 7-of-7 shooting from the field and 6-of-8 from the free throw line to add to his five rebounds and four blocked shots; Anthony scored 16 points and collected eight rebounds; Tayshaun Prince (Detroit Pistons) recorded 13 points and four rebounds; Bryant dished eight assists; and Deron Williams (Utah Jazz) recorded five.

The USA continued two familiar patterns, namely solid shooting and pressure defense. The Americans made 42-of-73 attempts from the field (58.0 percent) and 20-of-41 tries from 3-point (49.0 percent), while blocking seven shot attempts on the other end and holding Argentina to 33.0 percent (9-27 3-pt FGs) shooting from deep.

In today’s earlier contest, Puerto Rico (5-5) withstood a late surge from Brazil (5-5) to secure the bronze medal and a 111-107 victory. Both teams, along with fifth place Canada (4-4), qualified to compete in the 2008 FIBA World Olympic Qualifying Tournament, which will reward the top three finishers with a berth into the 2008 Olympics.

The 2008 Olympic Games in Beijing, China, are being held Aug. 8-24, 2008. Twelve teams will compete for the Olympic men’s basketball gold medal. The United States and Argentina qualified from the FIBA Americas zone, while other qualified countries include host China; 2006 World Champion Spain; Angola from the Africa Zone; Iran from the Asian Zone; Australia from Oceania Zone. Two additional teams will be qualified at the European Zone Olympic qualifying championship that takes place Sept. 3-16 in Spain, and the final three teams will be determined through the FIBA World Olympic Qualifying Tournament that will be held July 7-13, 2008, at a site to be determined.