OLYM - USA set records, Argentina and France look good

LONDON (Olympics) - Early emerged as the theme of the day in Group A.

The early game belonged to France, who woke up before 6 am.

“We can't complain, people get up every day at 4:30 in the morning to go to work. We woke up at six to play a game of Olympic basketball, how can we complain?”

These were Nicolas Batum’s words following France’s win over Lithuania.

Batum had his strongest showing yet, including 21 points. After a slow start to the tournament, Tony Parker (27 points) is also finding form and looked more like the player who led France to EuroBasket silver.

Lithuania, led at the halfway point.

France, concerned by the 43 points conceded before the break, tightened up defensively restricting their opponents to only nine in the third quarter.

That was enough to open up a lead that would carry them to an 82-74 final score in spite of the best efforts of Linas Kleiza (17).

'Get there early' would have been the advice to fans with tickets for Argentina’s game with Tunisia, while the game is still close.

At 28-14 the score-line seemed credible, until you looked a little closer.

Tunisia were ahead against one of the most formidable line-ups in international basketball history.

They just couldn’t miss.

But Argentina came out a different side for in the second quarter.

It saw the Argentinians - in spite of missing influential play-maker Pablo Prigioni - open with a 15 point scoring run led by a red hot Manu Ginobili (15 second quarter points).

In the second half, the Africans were unable to stick with the pace. “We started well, but we couldn’t keep up,” said Tunisia’s top scorer Salah Mejri (19 points).

As they game drew to a close, Argentina extended their lead with Carlos Delfino (21 points), Luis Scola (20) and Manu Ginobili (24) all scoring in the twenties for a final score of 92-69.

“That is the difference between top sides full of experienced internationals and NBA players.

“Most of our players play in Tunisia,” he added.

“But we are catching up.”

Early was also when the record books had to be amended, as USA’s halftime score of 78 was the biggest ever in an Olympic basketball game on their way to a 156-73 win over Nigeria, setting another Olympic record - the most points ever scored in a game. Several other US and Olympic records fell.

If USA's offensive show was breathtaking, the defense was left wide open as they conceded 25 points in the first quarter alone.

Unsurprisingly in view of the score, the USA had six players in double digits, including top scorer Carmelo Anthony (37 points) who shot 10 of 12 from long range. The USA buried 29 three-pointers in total.

"Seventy-eight at half-time and just seeing Carmelo go off in the first half and the second half, 10 for 12 from 3 (3-point range) was unbelievable to watch," said Kevin Love afterwards.

For Nigeria, Ike Diogu led the way with 27 points.

FIBA