Mark Maloney on sports

From semifinals of the Beijing Olympics men’s basketball tournament Wukesong Olympic Basketball Gymnasium …

The Redeem Team is in the gold-medal game.

Team USA dispatched defending champion Argentina 101-81 Friday night

So it’s USA vs. world-champion Spain for the gold, Sunday at 2:30 p.m. (a.m. EDT).

Carmelo Anthony, 13-for-13 at the free-throw line, led the U.S. with 21 points. LeBron James added 15. Dwyane Wade, Kobe Bryant and Chris Paul each scored 12. Chris Bosh added 11 and Dwight Howard 10.

Tayshaun Prince, the former Kentucky standout, played only 3:52 and grabbed one rebound.

Luis Scola of the Houston Rockets led Argentina with 26 points and 11 rebounds. Carlos Delfino scored 19, Paolo Quinteros 12 and Andres Nocioni 10.

* Team USA leads 78-64 through three quarters. Up nine at the half, the Americans matched their largest first-half lead of 21 points at 76-55. Argentina, with Manu Ginobili sidelined by injury, closed the quarter with a 9-2 run.

Carmelo Anthony had eight third-quarter points for the U.S. Dwight Howard had seven.

* Team USA leads Argentina 49-40 at halftime.

Argentina got only two points from Manu Ginobili, who left the game midway through the first quarter due to a leg injury and has not returned.

The U.S. used an 18-0 run to take a 21-4 lead and built the margin to 21 points a couple of times, the last at 34-13.

The Argentines outscored the U.S. 27-12 to pull to within six points, 46-40. Carmelo Anthony’s three free throws gave the U.S. a 49-46 lead.

Anthony leads U.S. scorers with 13. Kobe Bryant has 12 and Chris Paul has 11.

Luis Scola paces Argentina with 12 points and seven rebounds. Andres Nocioni has eight points.

* Argentina is on an 11-0 run midway through the second quarter, cutting the U.S. lead to 37-29.

The U.S. has led by as many as 21.

* An 18-0 run carried Team USA from a 4-3 deficit to a 21-4 lead over Argentina. Through one quarter, the U.S. leads 30-11.

Kobe Bryant led the 18-point surge by scoring seven. Chris Paul had five. Chris Bosh, Jason Kidd and LeBron James had two points each.

* Team USA leads Argentina 9-4 with 4:47 left in the first quarter. Kobe Bryant has four points.

* Pau Gasol scored 19 points and Rudy Fernandez had 18 as Spain rallied to defeat Lithuania 91-86 Friday night (a.m. in the U.S.).

Spain will face the winner of the U.S.-Argentina game for the gold medal Sunday. Lithuania will play the bronze-medal game for a fifth consecutive Olympics.

Spain trailed by as many as six points and was down 74-73 when it fired the decisive volley, an 8-0 run.

The Spaniards made 35 of 44 free throws. Lithuania was 22-for-26.

Felipe Reyes added 13 points for Spain. Carlos Jiminez had 11 points and seven rebounds.

Simas Jasaitis and Sarunas Jasikevicius had 19 points each for Lithuania. Robertas Javtokas added 15, Ksistof Lavrinovic 13 and Rimantas Kaukenas 11.

This entry was posted on August 22, 2008 at 10:19 am and is filed under Basketball, Carlos Boozer, Carmelo Anthony, Chris Bosh, Chris Paul, Deron Williams, Detroit Pistons, Dwight Howard, Dwyane Wade, Jason Kidd, Kobe Bryant, LeBron James, Mike Krzyzewski, Olympics, Tayshaun Prince, University of Kentucky. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.