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Dream team meets its match |
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ARGENTINA beat the United States 87-80 Wednesday night in the
FIBA World Championships, the first loss ever for a U.S. team
using NBA players in international competition.Since the
original Dream Team took the floor in the 1992 Olympic
qualifying tournament, the United States was 58-0 with NBA
players in uniform.Argentina made that 58-1 and it was a
no-doubter.The United States never led in the game, trailed by
as many as 20 points and never got closer than seven
points.The win made Argentina (6-0) the champions of the
six-team group as the top four advanced to the quarterfinals.
The United States (5-1) was second, Germany (4-2) third and
New Zealand (3-3) fourth.Puerto Rico and Spain finished tied
atop the other group with 5-1 records, but Puerto Rico beat
Spain to take the No. 1 seed. Yugoslavia and Brazil were both
4-2 and Yugoslavia’s win in their game gave it the No. 3
spot.Thursday’s quarterfinal matchups are: Argentina-Brazil;
United States-Yugoslavia; Puerto Rico-New Zealand; and
Germany-Spain.The quarterfinals start the elimination stage of
the tournament, meaning one loss and a team is done.“It’s not
the medal round, and we’ll be back to win the gold,” said U.S.
guard Baron Davis, who earlier in the week predicted his team
wouldn’t lose a game.Emanuel Ginobili, who has signed with the
San Antonio Spurs, led Argentina with 15 points. It was his
layup with 1:14 left in the first half that made it 52-32.Paul
Pierce had 22 points to lead the United States, which shot
37.5 percent from the field (27-for-72), including 9-for-28
from 3-point range.China loses last gamePhil Jones scored 33
points, made six 3-pointers and rallied New Zealand from a
24-point deficit in a 94-88 win over China (1-5), who had been
virtually eliminated.Yao Ming, the NBA’s No. 1 draft pick by
the Houston Rockets, scored 27 points and did not miss a shot
for China. He was 8-for-8 from the field and made all 11 free
throws. Yao also was benched the entire second quarter by
coach Wang Fei.A 3-point play by Yao pulled China to 90-88 but
that was as close as it would get. Yao threw down some tape
and stormed off the court when the buzzer sounded.“My emotion
was on my face,” Yao said.Li Nan scored 33 points and went
8-for-12 from 3-point range. Nan made six straight 3’s in the
first half, helping China to a 24-point lead.Jones made five
3-pointers in the second quarter and Ed Book hit one right
before the buzzer to slice China’s lead to nine at the half.In
other games Wednesday, it was: Yugoslavia 110, Turkey 78;
Puerto Rico 89, Angola 87 in double overtime; Spain 84, Brazil
67; and Germany 103, Russia 85.(SD-Agencies)
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