Tony Parker 1, Manu Ginobili 0.
For the first time the two Spurs stars met leading their teams in international competition and in the first real upset of the London Olympics France used its speed to blow by Argentina and get the win 71-64. Parker by himself outscored Argentina 13-11 in the fourth quarter to key the win.
Both teams are in Group A, which is the group the Americans should sweep. Both teams are now 1-1 but France has already played the USA and has just the two weaker African squads plus Lithuania left on its schedule — they should win out and get second in the group. Which gives them an easier path to a medal. Argentina still has to play the USA and if they finish third in Group A they could have a tough match with Brazil (or maybe Russia) in the first game of the medal round.
And the USA is just cruising along (they face Tunisia later on Tuesday).
Argentina had looked good coming in against a slower-footed Lithuanian team, while the more athletic French team came in playing at a different tempo off their loss to the USA. France made an early 12-0 run that got them up 19-10 at one point and they never let go of that lead.
Argentina struggled to knock down shots, hitting 4-of-23 from beyond the arc and shooting 37 percent overall as a team. Ginobili had 26 points on 9-of-20 shooting and Luis Scola added 16 points. But Carlos Delfino was 1-of-8 from the floor and that seemed more typical of the Argentinean day.
France got 14 points out of Nicolas Batum and just seemed to get key contributions from everyone. When both Ronny Turiaf and Boris Diaw fouled out with just more than two minutes to go in a close game, the Wizard’s Kevin Seraphin made his best play of the game — he stole a post-pass to Scola, knocked it out to Parker, then ran the floor and was rewarded with the ally-oop pass. It was the game defining play of the fourth quarter.
Argentina, which had looked good in a tune-up against the United States as well as in its Olympic opener, just looked old and a step slow all night.
And with the loss, Argentina’s road to a medal just became a steeper climb.