U.S. men's basketball team cruises to semis

Spain, Lithuania and Argentina also advance with wins

Last Updated: Thursday, August 21, 2008 | 4:18 AM ET

CBC Sports

Kobe Bryant, of the U.S., dunks during his team's men's quarter-final basketball match against Australia at the Beijing Games on Wednesday. (Filippo Monteforte/AFP/Getty Images)

It's one down, two to go for the men's basketball team from the United States.

The U.S. advanced to the semifinals at the Beijing Games with a 116-85 win Wednesday over Australia in a match that was close early, but ultimately decided by the Americans' superior defence and rebounding.

Kobe Bryant showed flashes of the form that won him the NBA's Most Valuable Player Award this season, pouring in 25 points to lead the Americans on Wednesday.

LeBron James added 16 points and nine rebounds, and Carmelo Anthony chipped in 15 points in the win.

The stage is now set for the Americans to avenge their most recent Olympic loss as they advance to face a familiar foe in Argentina, which defeated them in the semifinals at the 2004 Athens Games.

The reigning Olympic champions from Argentina advanced with a thrilling 80-78 win over Greece in Wednesday's final quarter-final matchup, with Bryant and the U.S. coaching staff watching from the baseline.

Spain and Lithuania will face off in the other semifinal after their respective quarter-final wins.

The Australians, who played the U.S. tough in an exhibition just before the Games, refused to be intimidated by star-laden American squad Wednesday as they went hard to the rim early and were equally aggressive with their fouls on defence.

The strategy seemed to pay off early as the Australians trailed by just a point after the first quarter and five points midway through the second.

"They've been the most difficult team for us to defend," U.S. coach Mike Krzyzewski said. "They're a force to be reckoned with. They caused us a lot of problems."

But Mark Worthington's hard foul on Anthony late in the second seemed to wake up the Americans, who finished the quarter on a 12-7 run to lead 55-43 at the half and never looked back.

The U.S. regained its focus in the locker-room and came out in the second half with 14 unanswered points — including nine from Bryant — to seize control of the game and was never challenged the rest of the way.

"Australia played extremely well for the first 20 minutes," James said. "In the third quarter, we said the first three or four minutes we need to pick it up a little bit defensively and make the extra pass offensively."

Point guard Patrick Mills paced the Australians with 20 points, while Milwaukee Bucks centre Andrew Bogut was limited to just four points in 11 minutes.

Bogut missed the earlier exhibition against the U.S. and was expected to give the team a big lift on Wednesday, but early foul trouble limited his time in the first half before an ankle injury kept him out of the second half entirely.

Argentina 80, Greece 78

Manu Ginobili and Carlos Delfino each had huge games for the Argentines to help them survive a slugfest with Greece.

Ginobili led the Argentines with 24 points, including seven in the fourth quarter. Delfino, formerly of the Toronto Raptors, added 23 points, 15 in the final 10 minutes of play.

The back-and-forth affair featured numerous lead changes that saw neither team lead by more than seven points.

Antonios Fotsis hit a 3-pointer with 1:36 in the first quarter to give the Greeks an early 23-19 lead, but Delfino responded with a long-distance dagger at the buzzer to trim the lead to 23-22.

The same scenario was duplicated in the second quarter as Nikolaos Zisis gave Greece a 40-36 advantage with just over a minute before halftime, before Leonardo Guitierrez drilled a late 3-pointer to keep Argentina to within a point.

The score stayed tight in the third, but the Argentines pulled ahead on a basket from Pablo Prigioni with 6:49 to play and the Greeks never regained the lead.

Fotsis led the Greeks with 17 points and 10 rebounds.

Spain 72, Croatia 59

Los Angeles Lakers power forward Pau Gasol was strong for the Spaniards in their win over Croatia, scoring 20 points on 73 per cent shooting from the field and pulling down 10 rebounds.

Swingman Felipe Reyes added 13 points for Spain, while Toronto Raptors point guard Jose Calderon added 10 points and two assists.

Calderon's participation the remainder of the tournament may be in question, however, as reports have said that he pulled his right groin in the final 10 minutes of the fourth quarter.

“He felt a pain,” Spain's head coach, Aito Garcia Reneses, told FIBA.com. “We don’t know his condition, but we hope to have him available for the semifinals.”

Power forward Marko Banic led Croatia in the loss with 15 points and guard Zoran Planinic added 12.

Point guard Roko Ukic, who will back up Calderon in Toronto this season, chipped in with seven for Croatia, which appears to have a bright future after a strong 3-2 showing in preliminary play.

Gasol strong from start

Gasol left his mark on the game early, winning the opening tip and then scoring nine points during Spain's 12-1 run to open the game. The versatile big man subbed out soon after that run, but Spain maintained its advantage and held a 22-11 lead after 10 minutes.

In the second quarter, guard Davos Kus was fouled on a three-point shot attempt and hit the three ensuing free throws to cut the deficit to 22-16, but Calderon replied with a three and Reyes followed with a jumper to restore the double-digit lead for Spain.

A basket from reserve guard Ricky Rubio gave Spain its biggest lead, 37-21, but Croatia scored five straight points to enter halftime trailing 37-26.

The teams continued to exchange runs in the second half, until Spain put the game away early in the fourth with 12 unanswered points.

Lithuania 94, China 68

The host Chinese team's hopes of clinching a basketball medal were dashed Wednesday, as it was drubbed 94-68 by Lithuania in the second quarter-final of the day.

Veteran point guard Sarunas Jasikevicius scored 23 points to lead Lithuania, which will meet Spain in the next round.

The Lithuanians elected to focus on China's Yao Ming, throwing double and triple coverage at the centre every time he received the ball in the post. The big man from the Houston Rockets finished with 19 points on the night, with 11 coming from the free-throw line.

With the focus on Yao, China's shooters couldn't deliver from long range, hitting just four of their 21, 3-point attempts for a paltry 19 per cent.

"I'm really happy, but also a little sad about our result," said Yao, who battled back from a season-ending foot injury in the spring to prepare for the home Games. "We were determined to fight, but were limited by our capabilities."