Durant, Americans cruise into semis

U.S. overcomes 1st-quarter deficit

RIO DE JANEIRO — The nail-biters ended for the U.S. Olympic men's basketball team.

So did a golden era of international basketball.

Emphatically ending a stretch of three straight close games, the Americans advanced to the semifinals by sprinting past Manu Ginobili and Argentina, 105-78 on Wednesday night.

In front of a chanting, flagwaving crowd of Argentines who came to throw a raucous farewell party for their Golden Generation, the Americans delivered their most complete performance in Rio.

“What a remarkable run by Argentina and so we knew we had to match that energy tonight. I thought we did,” U.S. coach Mike Krzyzewski said.

Turning a slow start into an early ending with a 27-2 run in the first half, the Americans put away one old rival and set up a meeting with another. They will play Spain on Friday in a rematch of the last two gold-medal games.

Kevin Durant scored 27 points for the Americans, who had played three straight close games for the first time under Krzyzewski, setting off a round of questions at home and in Rio de Janeiro about what was wrong with them.

The answer might be nothing. At least there wasn't against Argentina.

“We wanted to come out and our whole thing was dominating,” forward Carmelo Anthony said.

The Americans eliminated Argentina for

the third straight Olympics, this time ending not only a tournament run for the Argentines but also a couple careers.

Ginobili, 39, and longtime 36-year-old teammate Andres Nocioni retired from international competition after the game, 12 years after winning gold in Athens.

“We had a chance to grow up together and do some good things, win some games together. It was fun. It's a lot of years,” said Luis Scola, who is also 36 but plans to keep playing. “We formed part of something unique we did for our country and it's going to be there. Sometimes we're not going to win, like today, sometimes we won but we fought together for many years.”

The Americans have won 23 straight in the Olympics since Argentina beat them in the 2004 semifinals, and this was how they usually do it: too much firepower, too much defense, and way too much talent.