ESPN's T.J. Quinn breaks down Jamaica's world-record win in the men's 4x100 relay and the American women's 4x400 relay gold:
After winning the gold medal in decathlon, Ashton Eaton chats with ESPN.com's Jim Caple at the P&G House:
ESPN.com's Bonnie D. Ford and ESPN's T.J. Quinn discuss the women's 4x100 relay victory, the men's 4x400 relay silver and Morgan Uceny's fall in the 1,500-meter race:
U.S., Spain wins set up must-see final
The mission for each was to get through the semifinals with as little drama as possible to set up the gold-medal match (Sunday, 10 a.m. ET), and while Spain had plenty of drama in coming back to beat Russia, eventually the U.S. kept chucking its way out of trouble every time Argentina got close. You may think of the U.S. as being the most prolific 3-point shooting team in the world; in fact, some nights the Americans over many Olympic competitions have looked downright unfamiliar with it. But not Friday.
It was like a University of Kentucky game at Rupp Arena, what with the U.S. taking 42 3-pointers, more than half the team’s 81 shots, and hitting 18 of them in what turned into a 26-point rout. Kevin Durant, Carmelo Anthony, Kobe Bryant and Chris Paul kept firing and between made 3s, long rebounds turning into second-chance baskets and defensive rebounds turning into fast-break points Argentina couldn’t keep up. Even with Manu Ginobili and Luis Scola scoring pretty much the way they do every night in the NBA, Argentina just couldn’t fend off a team with too many great players.
Scola, after scoring 15 points but inexplicably grabbing only one rebound in 30 minutes, said, “I thought we could win the game … but they’re just a better team.”
Asked specifically why this team is better than others Argentina has played (and beaten) in U.S. competition, Scola said, “This team is more prepared to play in a different environment … with different rules, against a different style of play, with different referees.”
In other words, Scola was saying that while the U.S. team has often won international competitions, this version looks like the other international teams playing in this tournament, not a bunch of NBA players relying on talent to get them through a very different basketball experience.
And that brings us to Sunday’s gold-medal game. Spain is the team that has played like it’s under the greatest amount of pressure. Spain is the two-time reigning European champ. Spain is the No. 2 team in the FIBA World Rankings. Spain was the silver medalist in 2008 in Beijing. Silver here in London is acceptable; but losing to anybody other than the U.S. is not.
But now that they can presumably play freely Sunday, maybe Pau and Marc Gasol, Serge Ibaka and Rudy Fernandez, Juan Carlos Navarro and Jose Calderon can do something special, which most of the basketball world would find unthinkable. Asked what’s different about this team from the one the U.S. beat by 11 in the gold-medal game in Beijing, Bryant said, “Marc Gasol. His confidence has improved so much. His skill level has improved so much from when we last played them. That’s a major difference.”
Indeed, Marc Gasol and Ibaka were young pups then, but have been through NBA playoff wars now, and big international tournaments. The Spaniards, when they have the Gasols and Ibaka on the floor, have the second most talented front line in the world. But Ibaka was a non-factor against Russia Friday afternoon, putting up just two points and two rebounds in six minutes. Spain’s coach, Sergio Scariolo, is always stingy with minutes for Ibaka -- a pattern he might want to change Sunday if his team is going to have enough talent on the floor to get after the U.S. After all, Russia outscored Spain in the paint 24-18 Friday, which Ibaka can change all by himself.
The thing is, after listening to the U.S. players after they beat Argentina, you get the feeling that they are taking the Spaniards very, very seriously, as if the gold-medal game is a Game 7 in the NBA and they’re facing very capable, very formidable opponents … which indeed is the case. When a team featuring LeBron James, Kobe Bryant and Kevin Durant takes anybody that seriously, even a Spain team that might feel like it is playing with proverbial house money, any result other than a U.S. victory would be nothing short of a stunner.
Instant Analysis: USA 109, Argentina 83
How it happened: In the teams' third meeting in the space of 17 days, Argentina was within seven points at the break thanks to a Manu Ginobili corner 3-pointer just before the halftime buzzer. The United States' lead was down to as little as four points early in the third quarter.
Of greater concern for Team USA: Argentina had the pace where it was hoping to keep it, with the tournament's heavy favorite on track to be held under triple digits after ringing up a whopping 126 points when the teams met Monday night in the Group A finale.
Yet it took only one decent surge late in the third quarter, with LeBron James at the heart of it as usual and supplemented this time by Kevin Durant, for the United States to hike its lead to 17 by the start of the fourth quarter.
The fourth quarter that followed was an avalanche, sending Team USA to Sunday's title game in far easier fashion than anticipated and consigning Argentina's Golden Generation to a bronze-medal game against Russia in perhaps the final major international tournament for the quartet of Manu Ginobili, Luis Scola, Carlos Delfino and Andres Nocioni.
What it means: The route to reunite these teams was on the circuitous side, but we've indeed got the gold-medal game we all expected back when the United States arrived on British soil in mid-July.
Spain certainly took the long way to get there, losing games to Russia and Brazil in pool play and falling behind by 13 points early in Friday's first semifinal against the Russians despite Andrei Kirilenko's struggles trying to play with an injured quad. But now it's on: Team USA against the Spaniards on Sunday afternoon in a rematch of the 2008 game for the gold in Beijing that the Americans didn't seize control of until the last few minutes of the fourth quarter.
Team USA is 8-1 against Spain since the introduction of the NBA players into FIBA events in 1992. And in both of Spain's trips to the Olympic final -- in 1984 and again in '08 -- it came away with silver after losing to the Americans both times.
Player of the game: Stop us if you've heard this one before.
LeBron James, anyone?
Kobe Bryant had 13 points in the first half, Carmelo Anthony uncorked one of his trademark Team USA scoring sprees with four 3s in the fourth quarter to finish with 18, while drained four 3s of his own in the third to finish with a team-high 19 for the Yanks.
But James' all-around play (18 points, seven rebounds and seven assists) and penchant for the big play at key times landed him here yet again.
"LeBron is just doing everything," Team USA coach Mike Krzyzewski said. "Dirty work, clean work, leadership work. He kind of turned it up a notch in the second half and we all followed him."
Play of the game: Here's what Coach K is talking about ...
Using a screen on the left side of the floor from Kevin Love, LeBron rumbled right around the corner and into the paint faster than poor Delfino could react, bursting into the hole to rise up and hammer down a thunderous one-handed flush with 3:46 to go in the third.
When Durant soon followed with a couple of 3-pointers and James deftly guided home the rebound of Durant's errant 3 for a tip-in bucket, Team USA was on the way to a lead that would reach 25 less than two minutes into the fourth quarter.
And the rout was on.
By the numbers: In the 49th consecutive victory for the United States in international play, James' 18 points took him within two points of Michael Jordan for second place all-time among U.S. Olympians.
ESPN.com's Prim Siripipat and Bonnie D. Ford with the latest from the London Games:
Sure, Usain Bolt can run 200 meters faster than anyone else in the world, but let’s see him do it on a broken leg.
Manteo Mitchell did exactly that when his left fibula cracked midway through his opening leg of the men’s 4x400 relay. He didn’t stop, and didn’t even slow down much, finishing his leg and helping the U.S. to a second-place finish while qualifying for Friday’s final.
Kirby Lee/USA TODAY SportsManteo Mitchell heard his leg break … and kept going.Although he told reporters immediately after the race that he merely had a cramp, X-rays later revealed the fracture.
“Three days ago I was going up the stairs and I kind of missed one and landed awkwardly,” Mitchell said in a release from USA Track and Field. “I got treatment and I was fine. I did workouts, and when I warmed up today I felt really well. I felt I could go 44 (seconds)-low. I got out pretty slow, but I picked it up and when I got to the 100-meter mark it felt weird. I was thinking I just didn’t feel right.
“As soon as I took the first step past the 200-meter mark, I felt it break. I heard it. I even put out a little war cry, but the crowd was so loud you couldn’t hear it. I wanted to just lie down. It felt like somebody literally just snapped my leg in half.’’
Mitchell said that seeing the next American runner, Josh Mance, motioning for the baton handoff gave him the lift he needed to keep running hard. “I didn’t want to let those three guys down, or the team down, so I just ran on it,’’ he said. “It hurt so bad. I’m pretty amazed that I still split 45 seconds on a broken leg.”
This has been a tough Olympics for America in the 400-meter events. LaShawn Merritt, the 2008 gold medalist, pulled up with a hamstring strain in a heat and the U.S. wound up not having a runner in the 400 final for the first time ever. Now Mitchell, who made the relay pool after finishing fifth in the 400 at the U.S. trials, is out, too.
The U.S. has yet to announce its relay team for the final.
ESPN's George Smith looks at Usain Bolt's victory in the 200 meters and Ashton Eaton's gold-medal win in the decathlon:
Carmelo Anthony talks about why he chose to play for Team USA again, his pursuit of an NBA title and the Jeremy Lin saga:
LONDON -- After his South Africa 4x400 relay team crashed in Thursday afternoon’s semifinal, Oscar Pistorius sent out this tweet:
We have been so blessed to this point with a Silver at World Champs in 2011 and We were looking forward to the Final. We will be back soon!
He wasn’t kidding about "soon." Just five minutes later, he tweeted that track and field’s governing body had advanced the South African team to the relay final because it had been “severely damaged’’ when second leg runner Ofentse Mogawane was tripped by a Kenyan competitor.
Ian MacNicol/Getty ImagesOscar Pistorius looked like he was going to go home empty-handed from London. Not so fast. He has one more unexpected chance for a medal. Pistorius tweeted: IT'S ON!! We in the FINAL. Team management Protested as Ofentse was taken out and we have been given Lane 9!!
Pistorius said the day had been an emotional roller coaster, and indeed, it was such a roller coaster that it should have been marked by a six-foot cartoon figure holding a paw above his heads with the words: “Warning! You cannot ride this roller coaster unless you have already survived this level of mental and emotional strain.’’
But hey, Pistorius has been through it all, so what’s one more emotional churn? His legs were amputated shortly after birth and the IAAF once banned him from competition because it viewed his prosthetic legs as an unfair advantage. He fought through it all and finally reached the Olympics to inspire the world by running in the individual 400 meters last weekend.
Pistorius wants to do more than run and inspire, though. He wants to win a medal in the 4x400 relay, which is possible because South Africa was good enough to finish second at last summer’s world championships. For a while though, it looked like he wasn’t even going to be able to run in the semifinal, let alone for a medal.
Although Pistorius waited to run the third leg, Mogawane tripped with Kenya’s Vincent Kiilu around the last turn and fell to the track. Injured, he was not able to continue the race, so Pistorius instead stood at the exchange line waiting for a teammate who would never arrive.
“I took my eyes off the screen and looked down the straightaway and just as I took them off, it must have happened, because I looked down the straight and I was waiting for him,’’ Pistorius said. “He’s not the biggest of guys, so initially I thought he was pushed behind someone. And then I kept on looking and kept on looking -- and obviously he didn’t come on.’’
Replays appeared to show Kiilu cut in front of Mogawane, or at least drift into his lane. Both runners went down in a heap. Kiilu was able to get back up and struggle ahead, but Mogawane could not.
Kiilu insisted that he was not to blame for the fall. “I wasn’t at fault -- somebody spiked me from behind,’’ he said, showing the spike mark on his shoe. “I was in front and then he spiked me from behind.’’
The IAAF Jury of Appeal disagreed, ruling Kiilu had obstructed his South African rival. Initially, Pistorius said the team would not protest because it would provide no consolation. He said his disappointment and frustration would rank 11 on a scale of 10, and that he would grow even sadder when what happened sunk into his head.
Before that happened, though, his team had been reinstated and Pistorius was tweeting photos of himself running.
Will be up on the 3rd leg tomorrow for the Final! Really can't wait!
This was high jumper Amy Acuff’s fifth time at the Summer Olympics, and, for once, there was also summerlike weather Thursday to go along with it.
“I had to come to London to get a day that it wasn’t pouring rain,’’ Acuff said. “Atlanta, Sydney, Athens, Beijing -- all pouring rain for the qualification for the high jump. But London! Sunny, perfect!’’
Well, perfect except for one minor detail. Her performance. Acuff missed three times at 1.9 meters and did not qualify for the final.
“The performance was a disaster,’’ she said. “The first day off the plane, I dragged myself out and jumped higher than that. I don’t understand what the deal was out there. Sometimes that happens in the high jump. Rarely me, though.
“I’m sure some people will say, ‘Oh, she’s old; she’s decaying.’ But the irony here is I was in really, really good form. The world will never see it, though.’’
Despite competing in five Olympics, Acuff has never won a medal. “You always want what you don’t have, and I was really hoping for a medal here,’’ she said. “My practices had been going so well, and I really can’t understand why I couldn’t do such a basic height today.’’
Beijing looked as if it would be Acuff’s last Olympics when she retired to have a child (a daughter, Elsa). But a year later, she got the itch to compete and decided to come back. Despite her age, 37, she was jumping as well as ever. Until Thursday.
“Her career has been phenomenal,’’ said Chaunte Lowe, who qualified for the final with fellow American Brigetta Barrett by jumping 1.93. “She has five Olympic teams under her belt, and, from the looks of it, she can go another one if she wants.’’
Acuff, however, said she isn’t sure about Rio -- or anything else in her future, for that matter. “I haven’t thought that far ahead. I was still thinking about Saturday and being in the finals.’’
Julie Foudy catches up with U.S. women's soccer co-captains Abby Wambach and Christie Rampone to get the inside scoop on the Americans' gold-medal match against Japan:
U.S. coach Mike Krzyzewski reviews Wednesday's game and looks ahead to Friday's semifinals against Argentina:
ESPN's George Smith looks at Allyson Felix's gold in the 200, Usian Bolt advancing to the men's 200 final and Ashton Eaton leading in the decathlon:
How it happened: When LeBron James rebounded an errant Kobe Bryant 3-pointer in the third quarter, levitated over everyone else in the vicinity and banked in a one-handed pumping layup at his leisure, we were provided a pretty handy snapshot of this quarterfinal matchup.
Because James' presence hung over this game.
It took until the fourth quarter for the United States to get significant separation from the typically plucky Aussies, thanks to Kobe's spree of four 3s in 60-odd seconds, but James also made sure Team USA was never really threatened. The NBA's reigning MVP racked up 11 points, 14 rebounds and 12 assists in 30 minutes to register a comfortable triple-double that steered the Americans into Friday night's semifinals against Argentina.
Team USA again appeared to fall well short of its defensive potential by sloppily surrendering the first 11 points of the second half to cut a 14-point lead down to three in a matter of seconds. The Yanks also couldn't prevent San Antonio Spurs guard Patty Mills, who emerged from group play as the tournament's co-leading scorer with Spain's Pau Gasol at 20.6 points per game, from dropping another 26.
Yet the Americans never were in any lasting danger against a group of Aussies who couldn't afford to miss eight of 21 free throws and the handful of inside chances they did have. Not when they didn't have Andrew Bogut in the lineup to punish the Americans more for their intermittment focus.
"If Bogut's playing, it's different," Team USA coach Mike Krzyzewski said. "It's just different."
What it means: Team USA will play Argentina on Friday night for the third time in a span of 17 days, with the winner advancing to the gold-medal game against the winner of Russia-Spain.
Team USA now has won 48 consecutive games in international play, dating back to a loss to Greece in the semifinals of the 2006 Worlds in Japan.
The last team to beat the Americans on the Olympic stage? Argentina in the 2004 semifinals.
Team USA's Olympic win streak is up to 15 now.
Player of the game: In case we weren't clear before ...
Eleven points. Fourteen rebounds. Twelve assists.
Need we say more?
Kobe had all 20 of his points in the second half -- 18 coming on his six 3s after interimssion -- and Kevin Love finished with 10 points and 11 rebounds, eight of those boards coming on the offensive end. Deron Williams and Carmelo Anthony also quietly totaled 18 and 17 points, respectively.
Those performances, though, were complements to what James did as a tone-setter.
Play of the game: Pick your favorite no-look pass from James.
The ball he bounced through Aron Baynes' legs in the key to set up an early three-point play for Melo that LeBron celebrated as vigorously as any play he's made in these Olympics?
Another no-looker amid a lot of traffic in the paint to free up Russell Westbrook for a late layup in the first?
Or the much longer no-looker he zipped inside to make an easy bucket for Love?
On this night, it was hard to take your eyes off James, who almost had his triple-double (seven points, 10 boards and six assists) by halftime.
By the numbers: With 19 more 3-pointers in its sixth straight victory at London 2012, Team USA has 96 3s as a group for the tournament.
The Americans went into Wednesday night's play with 77, matching the 77 they drained in eight games at the 2008 Olympics in Beijing.
James, meanwhile, needed 56 points in Team USA's final games to overtake David Robinson as the program's leading all-time scorer in Olympic play. He's now 45 points away entering Friday's semifinals against Argentina.