Team USA gets chance to send message to Argentina

LeBron James and Kobe Bryant celebrate during Team USA's 44-point win over Puerto Rico on Saturday. AP

RELATED • RECAP: U.S. 135, Puerto Rico 91

LAS VEGAS -- Riding on the elevator at the Palms Hotel, Carlos Arroyo was guardedly optimistic about Puerto Rico's chances against the United States in the semifinal game of the FIBA America's tournament on Saturday.

"It can be done," Arroyo said. "They can be beaten. You just have to believe."

Unfortunately for Arroyo, confidence is usually steamrolled when it stands in the way of sheer dominance.

Though slightly more competitive -- at least early -- than most of the U.S.' previous pastings (Puerto Rico trailed by just six at the end of the first and 15 at the half before the U.S. pulled away in the third with a ridiculous 14-for-16 shooting performance), Team USA racked up their ninth straight victory in Las Vegas and officially earned a spot in the 2008 Olympics (both finalists in the FIBA Americas automatically advance to Beijing).

In doing so, they used a formula that has become tried and true for the Americans. They shared the ball (31 assists to 13 for Puerto Rico), played defense (it has become clear Kobe Bryant is in the head of everyone he guards in this tournament), continued to shoot the ball at a blistering rate (76 percent on two-point attempts and 64 percent from three while racking up 100 points through three quarters) and survived another litany of horrible calls from FIBA officials who seem determined to give Mike Krzyzewski an aneurysm. They got another marksman performance from LeBron James (19 points, 9-for-9 from inside the three-point line), who is shooting the ball at an absurd 76 percent clip for the tournament.

"All of us were reading the print last summer, watching on TV, everyone saying we couldn't shoot," said Carmelo Anthony. "But we can score from out there. We can score in multiple ways."

"It was an A+ effort," said USA basketball director Jerry Colangelo. "The explosion that usually happens in the second quarter, this time it happened in the third."

Though inherently meaningless, the victory set up another showdown between the U.S and Argentina, who Team USA handily defeated 91-76 on Thursday.

"We want to finish this thing off really well," Krzyzewski said. "In the big scheme of things, it doesn't really matter but we are going to play as hard as we can to win."

Irrelevant or not, it would behoove the U.S. to bring its A game and squash Argentina on Sunday. Momentum is a dangerous thing; with a win, the U.S. can leave Las Vegas comforted by the fact that it has trumped its nemesis (albeit a weakened one) in the two games they played. A loss, however, can only bolster the confidence of Argentina and the rest of the world, which would see America's best beaten by another team's mediocre. It would be like this U.S. team dropping a game to the 1998 dirty dozen.

There will be no qualifying next summer -- the Americans have earned their tickets to China. But a win over Argentina would go a long way toward building their confidence before what will likely be the most important tournament in the recent history of USA basketball.