Basketball: Spain beat Argentina to end Brazil medal hopes

The last day of the preliiminaries began with all six Group B teams Croatia, Spain, Lithuania, Argentina, Brazil and Nigeria with their hopes alive for a slot in the quarterfinals.

It has a Hall of Fame coach and bring stars off the bench.

TNT’s David Aldridge reports on the U.S. Men’s National Team and dishes on how they can improve going into the medal rounds in the 2016 Olympics.

We got to get back to what the previous teams were about.

Same with the Argentines, who may have to readjust their goals for their final run – unless this really isn’t the end.

“We heard many times in the village, ‘Hey guys, we’re going to be cheering for you today'”.

This is as close to a toss-up game as you’re going to get, as both clubs are deep, have National Basketball Association talent and can downright put the ball through the hoop. On the flip side, if there is any team that the USA should be wary of overlooking in worldwide play, it’s the immortal Argentinian Golden Generation who upset them in Athens 12 years ago. “But at the end of the day, it’s about us”, USA forward Kevin Durant said. While he’s looked a little stale in some areas (defense most notably) he still hasn’t passed the proverbial “sell by” date and looks primed to power the Spanish in the elimination round. They are getting beat on backdoor cuts.

“I still think they are the favorites for sure, but after what happened in the last two or three games, yes, there are some doubts”, Ginobili said.

Together, they helped shove the US from the top of the world in men’s basketball.

And they are struggling, in relative terms, against teams that were not supposed to be in their league. “They’ve got a team full of talent and I think they were, we all were expecting them to fight for medals, which I think that they can still do”. (Leandro) Barbosa played with him in Phoenix, and he say only good things about him. Australia was not considered a strong contender but has played a passionate, physical style highlighted by lovely passing. Its margins of victory have been 57, 44, 10, three and three.

Bojan Bogdanovic led Croatia with 22 points.

Most in the Argentina roster have already faced the Americans in previous global tournaments and have the experience not to be distracted by the star power of Team USA.

In that scenario, the 4 teams tied are Team Spain, Team Argentina, Team Lithuania, and Team Croatia. “But I don’t see it happening now”. With Nic Batum and Juan Carlos Navarro both still on the roster for both teams, this game may get a bit chippy. The only player left from that 2004 debacle is Carmelo Anthony, who goes to great lengths to avoid addressing his first Olympic experience.