Team USA finally got its groove back.After stumbling through its last three games of group play at the 2016 Summer Olympics in Rio de Janeiro, the Americans appeared to wake up about six minutes into Wednesday's quarterfinal against Argentina.With 4:01 left in the first quarter, Argentina upped its lead to 19-9. Thanks to a previously unseen level of defensive intensity, Team USA outscored the Argentines by 37 points from then on.If the Americans can sustain that effort through the semis, it should be able to advance past Spain and into the gold-medal game.In the other semifinal, the surging Australians will take on Serbia. The former cruised into the semis behind a 26-point dismantling of Lithuania, while the latter escaped the three-point battle of Bogdanovics against Croatia.A complete schedule of Friday's action, as well as title odds, can be found below:Can Spain Slow Down a Motivated Team USA'The Americans are coming off a great performance against Argentina, but Spain has already been rolling for about a week now.After starting group play with two surprising losses against Croatia and Brazil, Spain has won four straight by an average of 25.8 points.The difference in Spain's offense since that second loss has been striking:"This is another challenging team, so we have got to come in right," Paul George said of Spain, per Reuters' Steve Keating. "They're good. Another team full of pros.They have a little bit of everything. They have shooters, big men, ball handlers, scorers.All of those guys are pros and they have played together for a while so they have some experience."As George said, 10 of Spain's 12 roster spots are filled by current or former NBA players. And most of them not only have experience together, but they have experience in big games against Team USA.Spain has won each of the last two Olympic basketball silver medals and should have revenge on its mind. It lost gold-medal games in 2008 and 2012 to the Americans by an average of just nine points.And those incarnations of Team USA showed a lot less vulnerability before the championship game than this 2016 group has.All of USA's issues seemed pretty manageable with some minor adjustments against Argentina, though. Something as simple as putting offensive and defensive specialists in the same lineup helped eliminate some stagnancy, as noted by Warriorsworld's Sam Esfandiari:More minutes with Kevin Durant and George on the floor at the same time, as well as focus from everyone on the defensive end, will be really tough for Spain to counter.It may have Pau Gasol and a number of NBA role players, but Team USA has Durant and multiple All-Stars who are finally starting to accept that they're role players in this setting.Australian Cinderella StoryAustralia came into this tournament as the 11th-ranked basketball nation in the world. After nearly two weeks of the Olympics, it looks like the best bet for silver.The biggest reason, literally and figuratively, for the 5-1 record' Australia's 7'0" point center, Andrew Bogut. He's averaging a ridiculous 18.8 points, 9.7 rebounds, 7.1 assists and 2.3 blocks per 36 minutes while shooting 81.8 percent from the field in Rio.The Ringer's Jonathan Tjarks wrote:What separates Bogut from most rim-running big men is his ability to facilitate. Hes deadly hitting Australias perimeter players off of back screens from Baynes or David Andersen, and he has the size and vision to find the open man anywhere on the floor. The Boomers have even given him chances to be the ball handler in the pick-and-roll, taking his defender off the dribble and getting into the lane, where he has full range of vision for his array of passes. Boguts ability to orchestrate the offense gives Mills and Dellavedova the freedom to hunt for their shots, making up for Australias lack of a primary scorer on the wing.Serbia has the size to match Bogut's physicality with Miroslav Raduljica, but he doesn't stand much of a chance on the perimeter.That's where Nikola Jokic comes in. Jokic does a lot of the same things Bogut does for Serbia, but with even more mobility outside the paint. Raduljica has had a great tournament, but a few more minutes for Jokic could be the only way to frustrate Australia's unique offense.Fullgrouplistingsand standings, as well aslive streamsof all the games, can be found at NBCOlympics.com.
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