USA’s ‘Dream Team’ struggles to back up NBA pedigree

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Team USA is the only basketball team in Rio de Janerio – and probably the only group of athletes at the Olympics – where police and groupies show up in equal numbers to watch them get off their bus.

Several hours before the Americans were to take on Argentina in the quarter-final, the circus known as the Dream Team rolled up to the arena amid throngs of eager followers. Some Brazilian police were on hand to keep the fans back, but some were there like everybody else: to get as close to super stardom as possible.

That kind of glamour comes with a roster filled with the best players the National Basketball Association has to offer – outside of Steph Curry, LeBron James and a few others who skipped the tournament.

But this version of the Dream Team has struggled to back up its NBA pedigree in Rio. Sure, the Americans went 5-0 in the seeding round, and their first two games against China and Venezuela were won by a combined 101 points. But the next three were angst-inducing, confidence-shaking near-losses that raised serious questions about whether the United States was as dominant in Rio as people thought.

The Americans beat the Australians by an unexpectedly slim 10-point margin, then squeezed by Serbia and France by only three points each.

"There has been some teams that put them in trouble," Argentina's 39-year-old star Manu Ginobili said. "The tournament showed that they can be beaten – but it's not going to be easy."

Argentina fell short, falling 105-78 in a rout. But if anyone was up to the task of an upset, it should be the Argentines. Led by Ginobili, they won gold at the 2004 Olympics, shocking that year's version of the Dream Team 89-81 in the semi-final. In Rio, Argentina carried four players from that gold-medal team, all of them nearing the end of their careers.

Argentina came out fast, building a 19-9 lead in the first quarter. With defensive miscues and poor communication, the United States seemed out of sorts, struggling to build any offence beyond Kevin Durant, their best player at the tournament.

Then two things happened: The United States started sinking shots, and the aging Argentine team ran out of gas. Led by several Durant three-pointers, the United States began to look more and more invincible as the quarters ticked by.

Late in the second quarter, Paul George hit a three-point shot to put the United States up 45-27. George then spun around and walked away nodding his head at the crowd. It was exactly the kind of swagger you'd see him display in the NBA. And exactly the sort of thing Team USA seemed to be lacking in Rio until now.

But just when the games started to matter, with the onset of the elimination round, Team USA appears to have found another gear.

"We've got to work for it, we've got to earn it," George said afterward. "It's just about effort. We've got all the talent in the world."

The Americans had been criticized for their lack of effort in the seeding round. Wins were not enough, they must be decisive, authoritative and by a wide margin.

DeMar DeRozan, who was given most of the night off against Argentina – playing just over eight minutes, which was below the 11 minutes 39 seconds he has been averaging – said the United States were prepared for Argentina, knowing the country's history of upsets.

"That was our whole thought process: that they were going to be a tough team, we can't look at them lightly," DeRozan said. "They gave us a run for our money early on. They got us going."

The loss eliminates Argentina, which was serenaded by thousands of fans in attendance, easily drowning out American backers and the stadium's sound system. For Ginobili, who walked off the court with the game ball, it is his last game in the Olympics. It could be the last shot for other key players, such as Luis Scola, as well.

"People keep talking about the end of a generation," the 36-year-old Scola said. "The truth is, this generation was over years ago." He figures another so-called golden generation of Argentinian basketball players will emerge, but he's not sure when. "We'll see," Scola said.

The Dream Team showed it could pull its game together when necessary, while Argentina realized it didn't have another historic upset to offer. But the way Ginobili sees it, the Americans will not have it easy going forward, particularly facing other teams with NBA stars, such as Spain, led by Pau Gasol.

"We were not the team to match them up. But there are some teams that are," Ginobili said.