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It Looks Like a Storybook Last Stand for Argentina’s Golden Generation
- Updated: August 14, 2016
In what was certainly the game of the 2016 Olympics, Argentina refused to concede defeat, moving to 3-1 with a 111-107 victory over Brazil that featured 10 minutes of extra basketball and a furious late-game comeback.
It had every opportunity to collapse against its bitter international rival, but what’s left of the Golden Generation wouldn’t be denied during what’s likely its final Olympic experience together. Four member of the gold-medal squad from the 2004 Athens Olympics are still on the 2016 roster, and each has contributed to the group-stage success:
Down eight points with less than three minutes remaining in regulation, Argentina clawed back and capped the run with a side-stepping three-pointer from Andres Nocioni as the clock showed only three ticks left. Trailing by six in overtime, Facundo Campazzo took over and established himself as the other Argentine hero of the afternoon.
By the second overtime, Argentina stormed out to an eight-point advantage and staved off Brazil’s desperate charges.
This was and is a fundamentally flawed team. It has no convincing size outside of Luis Scola (14 points, 10 rebounds), which is why it struggled so mightily against the relentless onslaught of power and interior finesse from the Brazilians, and especially Nene (24 points, 11 rebounds). It can go cold from the outside and struggle to generate offense when isolation buckets aren’t falling.
But even on a day that saw Ginobili (13 points on 14 shots) and Carlos Delfino (zero points on four shots) fail to find a rhythm, and even though Ginobili and Scola are usually the team leaders, Saturday belonged to Nocioni—and a 25-year-old point guard with a game eerily reminiscent of Kyrie Irving.
It’s not just because Nocioni knocked down the corner triple that forced the first overtime period.
Recording 37 points and 11 rebounds while shooting 11-of-19 from the field and 8-of-12 from downtown, he couldn’t be stopped. According to RealGM’s game logs, it was the first time he’d topped the 30-point barrier in any type of competition since producing another 37-spot for Laboral Kutxa during an April 10, 2014 win over FC …
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