Olympic Basketball 2012: Argentina's Experience Gives Them the Edge over Brazil

Argentina's national basketball team comes into its first match of Olympic medal-round play against Brazil Wednesday as one of London's most disappointing teams.

After coming into these Olympic Games as an assumed gold-medal contender and Team USA's biggest threat in Group A, Argentina floundered in preliminary round action. Losers to both the United States and France, the Argentinians had to settle for a disappointing third place in their group.

The offense-heavy Argentine national team is led by Luis Scola, Manu Ginobili and Carlos Delfino, each of whom rank in the top 12 of Olympic scorers so far in London. But Argentina has gotten little in the way of bench help, and are giving up the most points per game (84.8) of any team left in the tournament.

The team's Group A experience was also marred by Facundo Campazzo heinously hitting United States forward Carmelo Anthony below the belt in the third quarter of Argentina's 126-97 loss.

On the other hand, it's been all rainbows and sunshine for Brazil so far in London (other than a buzzer-beater loss to Russia).

Leading the scoring charge for Brazil are guards Leandro Barbosa, whose 15.0 points per game lead the team, and Marcelinho Huertas, whose brilliant open-court play has caused some to nickname him the "Brazilian Steve Nash."

But it's the Brazilian defense that's become the team's true strength in London. Led by lane-clogging big men Anderson Varejao and Nene, Brazil has given up an Olympic-low 69.8 points per game, leading to the second-best scoring differential so far.

On paper, Brazil-Argentina looks like the classic matchup of offense and defense—the perfect opportunity for an analyst to talk down to us with mindless cliches like "defense wins championships" and "the best defense is a good offense."

But there's one factor that most are missing headed into this contest: experience.

While Brazil looks like the far superior team headed into the game, every player on this roster is playing in his first Olympic elimination game. The Brazilian basketball program is making its first appearance in the Olympics since 1996, and is looking to make the tournament semifinals for the first time since 1968.

Conversely, the Argentinians are nothing if not experienced. Argentina's national team has made the semifinals in the past two Olympiads and returns eight members of the 2008 team from Beijing, five of whom were a part of the 2004 gold-medal team in Athens.

That gives Argentina a massive experience edge, but also a pressure to succeed not felt by the Brazilians.

Just finishing with the country's first winning record in Olympic play since 1988 was a win in itself for Brazil. An entire country will be disappointed if Argentina goes home empty-handed.

While that pressure to succeed for their home country could make the Argentinians freeze under pressure, it's more likely that it will motivate the veteran squad.

Look for Ginobili and Scola to come out firing as they prove that their country still deserves a spot at the Olympic big boy table.

And look for a close game, one that may not even cover the four-point spread (via Bovada.lv). But one where Argentina's abundant experience gives them their third-straight semifinals appearance and a rematch versus the United States.