USA vs. Argentina Basketball: Momentum on Team USA's Side After Key Victory

Any win against Manu Ginobili and company is a good win.

Team USA defeated Argentina on Sunday in a pre-Summer Olympics exhibition contest by the score of 86-80. Fans shouldn’t be alarmed by the close call like they were when the Americans struggled to beat Brazil. Against the Argentines, a victory by any means is a cause for celebration.

Remember, this is an older version of the club that won gold in the Athens Olympics back in 2004. Ginobili, Luis Scola, Carlos Delfino and Andres Nocioni are all back. Argentina is one of the few teams, on paper, that look capable of defeating the U.S., but the red, white and blue took care of business.

The Associated Press reported that Team USA was well aware of the feat that it had accomplished. LeBron James was actually pumped about the challenge that the Argentines presented. He said following the triumph (via ESPN):

"

I love it. You hate to breeze through exhibition games and then you get into London, and then you start getting competitive. So we have a very good team. It doesn't matter about how many points you win by, you just want to play well and get better that night, and I feel like we got better tonight.

"

Kobe Bryant was a little less enthusiastic. He said after the contest (via ESPN):

“It's tough. Argentina's a very good team, very tough-minded. They continue to play hard and for us it was a big challenge to try to put the game away, we could just never do it.”

The U.S. will get another chance to blow Argentina out on Aug. 6. Both teams are in the same group in London so they’re guaranteed to see each other again. And considering that they’ll face off in the final game of the group stage, the stakes will definitely be high.

There, the world will witness if this year’s squad is closer to the original Dream Team or the 2004 version.

David Daniels is a featured columnist at Bleacher Report and a syndicated writer.

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