Scouting the Medal Round

The Argentinians are led by San Antonio Spurs swingman, Manu Ginobili, who made his presence felt in the first game of the first round. With only 3.8 seconds to play and his club trailing Serbia-Montenegro by a point, Ginobili raced the length of the floor and threw up a layup that rattled in just as the buzzer sounded to give Argentina an 83-83 win. Ginobili scored 25 points. Andres Nocioni, who recently signed with the Chicago Bulls, added 12 points in the victory.

Argentina then dropped their next game to the Spanish squad, which trailed throughout the game, but still bounced back to take an 87-76 win from the South Americans. Five Spaniards scored in double-figures. Argentina was led by the Spurs' Luis Scola, who tallied 28 points. Ginobili added 17 points of his own, Nocioni pitched in a dozen points and Fabricio Oberto, 10.

In Argentina's only easy game (win or lose) they dropped Yao Ming and the Chinese club by 25 points, 82-57. The quicker Argentinians cut and passed around Ming to shoot 66 percent from the floor. Nocioni led the squad with 17 points, Scola added 15 and Ginobili, 14. Using full-court pressure, Argentina forced 15 turnovers and held the Chinese without a hoop for eight minutes in the second quarter.

It was back to the pressure cooker as New Zealand took the favored Argentinians to the brink before falling, 98-94. Argentina got 65 points from their front line, including 25 from Scola and 19 from Ginobili. They shot 60 percent overall and 68 percent (30-for-44) against the Kiwis.

In their final game against co-quarterfinalists Itay, Argentina once again went to the final buzzer, but the results were different than in the opener. Detroit Pistons guard, Carlo Delfino missed a layup at the buzzer after Argentina had made a furious comeback in the final minutes of the game to send the South Americans to their second defeat in preliminary play, 76-75.

CHINA
China, hoping to improve on their Olympic record in hoops, in which they've never finished higher than 10th, got off to a rough start against Spain. The quicker Spanish guards ran circles around China and Pau Gasol set the tone early when he dunked in Yao Ming's grill. Yao had only 12 points and eight boards in the loss.

"I feel so disappointed," Yao said, following the loss. "I lost all of my hope for this team. I didn't expect to play so bad. We changed our skin but we are the same, just like the World Championships in Indianapolis two years ago."

The frustrated center, who even threatened to retire from competing with the Chinese team in international play, bounced back with a vengeance. The 7-5 star of the Houston Rockets was a one-man wrecking crew, scoring 39 points on 15-of-20 shooting against the Kiwis in a 69-62 win over New Zealand.

But just when things were starting to look up for Del Harris' Chinese squad, they faced an angry Argentinian club that showed them no mercy. Trailing by only eight in the first quarter, China went ice cold and were looking at a 41-21 deficit at the break. Yao Ming finished with 15 points -- many scored during garbage time -- and teammate Liu Wei added 10 as Argentina handed China their second loss, 82-57.

As bad as the loss to the Argentinians was, China was due for an even worse beating at the hands of the Italians. Yao Mind and Li Nan led the Chinese squad with a nine points apiece as Italy handed China their second straight blowout, 89-52.

In their final game, the schizophrenic Chinese team bounced back to register an even bigger upset than Puerto Rico topping the USA when they topped two-time world champions, Serbia & Montenegro, 67-66, to qualify (barely) for the medal round. Yao Ming buried four free throws in the final two minutes and teammate Du Feng sank the go-ahead shots from the stripe. In the two teams' only other Olympic matchup, Serbia and Montenegro (then Yugoslavia) won by 67 points, 128-61.

GREECE
Host Greece jumped out of the gate in style, crushing the Australian team, 76-54. Four Greeks scored in double figures, led by Lazaros Papadopoulos' 21 points.

The Greek squad faced Team USA in their second game of the preliminary round and gave the Americans all they could handle. Trailing by only two in the second quarter, LeBron James turned up the defensive intensity and propelled the U.S. to a 12-point lead. The Greek squad again cut the lead to four with 28 seconds to go, but behind Lamar Odom, the Americans put it away.

The Greeks' journey to the medal round didn't get any easier after that. They faced the undefeated Lithuanian squad and were greeted by a three-point barrage from Lithuania's Ramunas Siskauskas, who finished with 25 points. Greece was led by Nikos Zizis, who scored 18 points and Papadopoulos had 13 in the 98-76 loss.

Greece got well against the Angolan squad one game later, blasting the hapless squad 88-56 to the delight of the hometown crowd. Greece's bench scored 49 of their 88 points and their defense held Angola to 6-for-24 shooting from behind the arc.

Their confidence going into the medal round was buoyed by a 78-58 win over Puerto Rico. Michail Kakiouzis came off the bench to hit four treys among his 16 points to fire up the sellout crowd at Helliniko Indoor Arena. Papadopoulos added 13 points and Fragkiskos Alvertis 12 in the win.

Puerto Rico actually led the game, 16-3, in the early going, but Greece turned up the defense and challenged every shot from the high-powered Puerto Rican squad.

ITALY
In their opener, the heavily-favored Italian club -- which trounced Team USA in exhibition play -- led New Zealand by 19 points midway through the third period. But the Kiwis climbed back into the game and got it to within two points with 42 seconds to play. Italy's Massimo Buleri missed two free throws (the second on purpose to kill the clock) with 2.5 seconds remaining, but Italy still won the game, 71-69.

Gianluca Basile led Italy with 16 points, Giacomo Galanda added 15 points and six boards and Bulleri chipped in with a dozen.

In their second thriller in as many games, the Italian squad blew a pair of large second-half leads and succumbed to the Serbia & Montenegro nationals.

With the clock winding down, Basile raced up the court with Italy down by two points, couldn't find any open teammates and found himself on the right baseline with a shot. His 15-footer clanged off the rim, giving Serbia & Montenegro the 74-72 win.

Italy had a 10-point lead midway through the first half against Spain, but behind Jorge Garbajosa and Pau Gasol, the Spanish club climbed back into the game. Italy shot only three free throws compared to the 33 trips the Spaniards made. It was just the opposite from behind the arc, where the Italian squad took 24 more shots.

Alex Righetti led the Italians with 18 points. He was 5-of-9 from three-point range.

Italy advanced to the quarterfinals with a 89-52 win over China. Giacomo Galanda put on a shooting display with six three-pointers as part of his game-high 22 points.

In their preliminary round finale, the Italian team won a 76-75 nail-biter over Argentina to finish in second place in Group A. Righetti, just as he did against Serbia & Montenegro, was one of the keys for Italy. He tallied 14 points, including 2-of-3 from long distance.

LITHUANIA
The undersized Angola team held a lead over the European champs for 27 minutes before Lithuania's Darius Songaila drilled a pair of free throws to put his club ahead to stay, 46-45. The star of the game was once again Sarunas Jasikevicius, who netted 14 points, seven boards and six assists to lead his squad to a 78-73 win.

In Lithuania's next game, they faced a tired Puerto Rican team that just finished thumping Team USA on Sunday night. Puerto Rico has size, speed and great guard play, but couldn't match Lithuania's scorching perimeter shooting. Lithuania knocked down 16 of the 30 three-pointers they took en route to a 98-90 victory.

It was their three-point shooting that once again propelled Lithuania over their opponent; this time it was Greece that fell victim to their perimeter barrage. Ramunas Siskauskas led all scorers with 25 points, Saulius Stombergas was right behind with 22 points as Lithuania moved to 3-0 with a 98-76 drubbing of the host Greeks.

In a rematch of their classic matchup in the 2000 Olympics in Sydney, Lithuania and Team USA went at it for four quarters, but Lithuania used a 15-6 run in the closing minutes to send the U.S. to their unprecedented second defeat in the Games, 94-90.

Sarunas Jasikevicius was scorching hot, hitting for 12 of his game-high 28 points in a two-minute stretch. Lithuania moved to a perfect 4-0 and the loss dropped the USA to 2-2.

In the final game of the preliminary round, Lithuania dropped the Australian team. The Aussies led 19-17 in the second quarter, but Jasikevicius, Stombergas and Siskauskas sparked a gamebreaking 27-5 run that assured an undefeated opening round for the Lithuanians.

PUERTO RICO
Puerto Rico provided one of the biggest shocks in the Olympic tournament, and one of the biggest in Olympic history, when they dismantled the U.S. squad which had only lost two games coming into the preliminary round.

Poing guard Carlos Arroyo provided the punch, leading all scorers with 24 points. Team USA came out of the gate sluggish and Puerto Rico thoroughly outplayed them in the first half, using a 28-7 advantage in the second quarter en route to the 92-73 win.

For their troubles against the U.S., Puerto Rico got the Lithuanians next. Both teams were en fuego throughout. Carlos Arroyo and Larry Ayuso notched 25 points each, but Lithuania's blistering shooting from behind the arc sealed the Puerto Ricans fate, as they dropped a 98-90 decision to put them at 1-1 in the opening round.

Angola was Puerto Rico's next opponent and it wasn't as easy as the Puerto Ricans thought it might be. Four members of the squad scored in double-figures, led by Ayuso's 17 points as the Puerto Rican team escaped an embarassment at the hands of winless Angola, 83-80.

Puerto Rico then came back to win a hard-fought game against the Australians. Milwaukee Buck, Daniel Santiago tallied a team-high 20 points, Ayuso added 18 and Arroyo, 17 in the 87-82 victory.

Coming into the final game of the preliminary round at 3-1, the Puerto Rican team never knew what hit them as the Greek nationals skunked them by 20, 78-58. Every member of Greece's roster, save one, scored in the total team effort.

SPAIN
Spain began its run through the preliminary round of the Olympics by trouncing China, 83-58. Pau Gasol scored a game-high 21 points, including a massive dunk on Yao Ming. Juan Carlos Navarro added 16 points and Felipe Reyes pitched in with 15.

Gasol stayed hot with a game-high 26 points against Argentina in Spain's 87-76 win. Jose Manuel Calderon followed up with 17 points as the Spaniards doused Argentina's enthusiasm following their last-second win over Serbia & Montegnegro.

Against Italy, Spain was behind for the majority of the first three quarters. But behind Pau Gasol and Jorge Garbajosa, who scored 16 and 17 points respectively, Spain would remain undefeated, taking down the Italian squad, 71-63.

The Spanish juggernaut would keep rolling against Serbia & Montenegro, boasting five players in double-figures. Jose Manuel Calderon led Spain with 17 points, followed by Gasol's 14 and Navarro's 13. Serbia & Montenegro led after one period, but Spain chipped away to go to 4-0 in the preliminary round.

In their final matchup before drawing the U.S. in the medal round, Gasol and Co. overcame a 23-point effort from New Zealand's Phillip Jones to escape the first round undefeated. Garbajosa led the Spanish squad with 17 points and Gasol chipped in with 14 as Spain ran through a tough Group B that included Argentina, China and the two-time world champs, Serbia & Montenegro unscathed.