U.S. men beat Argentina to reach Olympic basketball final

If something is familiar about the U.S. meeting Spain in Sunday's Olympic basketball final, it's because they played last Sunday . . . and Spain lost by 37.

Not that it's been a long dry spell, but the U.S. made the finals of an international tournament for the first time in eight years Friday night, beating the hard-nosed Argentines, who gave the Americans their toughest game but fell, 101-81.

Spain gained the finals by beating Lithuania, 91-86.

Last Sunday the U.S. bombed the Spaniards, 119-82, but they promised to show up.

"It will be a nice game," said guard Raul Lopez. "It's time to enjoy our moment. We [played] a really bad game [against the U.S.], you know, but now we learn a lot from that experience and we want to try to win the finals. . . .

"We are going to be ready for sure. We are going to play better than the other game, that is no question. . . . We are in the finals for something and we are going to try to win."

Argentina slowed the Americans down with a zone defense for the last 25 minutes -- raising the question of why it didn't start out with it -- even with Manu Ginobili playing only seven minutes and scoring two points before twisting an ankle.

In a compliment for the Argentines, they were not the only team left in the tournament the U.S. hadn't already flattened but the one it respected most.

After the Americans' quarterfinal win over Australia, Kobe Bryant committed what would be a breach of etiquette in the NBA, saying he hoped to go against Argentina -- which had yet to get past Greece -- in the semifinals.

"You want to play the best," said Bryant.

That turned out to be the Argentines, after all, although they were in no doubt as to whom the underdog would be.

"We know they're by far the best team," Ginobili said before the game. "We know we'll have to play a perfect game, and that's probably not enough. They'll have to play badly."

Ginobili left with a sprained ankle 6:31 into the game with the U.S. up, 14-3, on its way to a 21-point first-quarter lead and the Argentines came back without him.

It was down to 46-40 before Carmelo Anthony, fouled on a three-pointer, closed the first half hitting three free-throws to make it 49-40.

Then the U.S. started the second half with the usual run, 12-4 this time, and the lead was back up to 17 points.

Anthony led the team with 21 points.

mark.heisler@latimes.com