USA 126, Argentina 97

Argentina is considered one of the major threats to US dominance in this tournament. And they backed it up for most of this game. Just not in the third quarter, when, behind a Kevin Durant explosion (capped with a heat check three that may or may not have been launched from the European mainland), Team USA absolutely destroyed Argentina, outscoring them 42-17.

It was a somewhat frightening example of exactly how good Team USA can be when it gets locked in. Argentina, a very good FIBA team, got absolutely run off the floor. That’s not to say that Team USA can’t lose — Lithuania would like a word with you if you believe that — but you’re going to have to get supremely lucky and basically not suck at all for any period of time. Let’s just say I don’t see it happening.

Great Britain 90, China 58

Congratulations to Great Britain for snagging their first Olympic basketball win since 1948, also known as the last time the Brits hosted. Admittedly, it was against China, but still. A win’s a win.

On the bright side for Bulls fans, this means Luol Deng can stop killing himself for a little while. Of course, he says he doesn’t want to get surgery now, so…yeah.

Australia 82, Russia 80

That sound you just heard was me diving off the ‘Russia is a legit medal contender’ bandwagon. Not to say that they won’t medal, just that I’m going to need to see more from them against Lithuania, who, you may remember, just gave the US a run for their money. My suspicion is that Russia just didn’t have much to play for (they’d locked up the top spot in their pool already) and people — including yours truly — sleep on Australia. So they’ll be much better against Lithuania. Or so I hope.

Lithuania 76, Tunisia 63

Tunisia gave a surprisingly good account of itself in this tournament. They just didn’t have the sheer talent necessary to put together some wins. Meanwhile, as I’ve now said in three of the four sub-entries on the page, Lithuania is solid. Russia-Lithuania should be fascinating. Especially given the regional rivalry involved.

France 73, Nigeria 69

Once again, I assume this to be a product mostly of France not having much of anything to play for and Nigeria not being nearly as bad as their 83 point loss (that phrase looks even more ridiculous every time I type it) to Team USA might indicate. France-Spain is another fascinating, regional rivalry game coming up.

Brazil 88, Spain 82

Speaking of Spain, you could actually consider this loss a win for them. By losing, they slide over to the other side of the bracket and wouldn’t face Team USA until the gold medal game. Of course, they blew a double-digit fourth quarter lead along the way, so that wasn’t good, but still. On the other side, Brazil redeems itself a bit and looks more like the legitimate contender they were supposed to be.

Then again, they now get to face Team USA earlier than they would have otherwise. So…yeah.

USA 156, Nigeria 73

That’s not a typo, by the way. The US just opened a super-sized can of whoop-ass on Nigeria. You can get all the gory details here.

Spain 79, Great Britain 78

What’s sad about this — aside from the fact that I’m still not sure how Spain was even in this position in the first place — is that Great Britain, after Luol Deng hit a three to cut the lead to 1 with 7 seconds left, apparently forgot to foul. Nobody fouled Spain and they dribbled out the clock. Not to say that they would have won if they had fouled, but you never know. More details can be found here.

Russia 75, Brazil 74

This was just an excellent game. Russia, down three with less than a minute left, sent Alexy Shved to the free throw line, who promptly bricked both free throws. But then Marcelihno Huertas was called for traveling and Shved proceeded to calmly drain a stepback three to tie the game. Huertas came back with a spectacular layup to give Brazil the lead, but Russia came right back with an excellent sideline out of bounds play to free up Vitaliy Fridzon in the corner, who nailed a three. Leandro Barbosa’s running three at the buzzer was no good, and Russia walked away with the win.

Russia has been really impressive in London so far. They’ve got some elite talent; Shved, Andrei Kirilenko and Timofey Mozgov were all impressive in this game. Don’t sleep on them going forward, even against the US.

Australia 81, China 61

Look, I don’t care who you are, you really shouldn’t be getting blown out by Australia. Australia won the second and fourth quarters by a combined score of 48-20. Yikes.

France 82, Lithuania 74

Don’t sleep on France. I know they probably don’t have the horses to stay with the US, or maybe even Russia or Spain, but still. They can cause trouble for the other teams. When Tony Parker puts up 27 and Nicolas Batum adds 21, as was the case in this game, they’re tough to beat.

Argentina 92, Tunisia 69

Ho hum. An elite team blew out a not all that impressive team. I’m shocked. Manu Ginobili led all scorers with 24, Carlos Delfino had 21 and Luis Scola chipped in 20 points and 10 rebounds. When Argentina is rolling, as they were here, they absolutely look like they can challenge for the gold.