US team out for revenge

Team US has their eyes on a semi-final match up against reigning Olympic champions Argentina today, a formidable hurdle in their quest to bring gold back to the nation that invented the game.

The US team of high profile superstars led by Kobe Bryant, LeBron James and Carmelo Anthony will be looking to avenge an Athens 2004 semi-final loss to Argentina, led by Manu Ginobili and a group of fellow NBA players.

"We want to play the best. We want to play the defending champions," said Bryant after the US reached the final four by knocking out Australia 116-85 late Wednesday.

"Anyone who has aspirations to be a champion, you understand there is a sense of pride that comes along with beating a champion."

US players were brimming with confidence that they could beat the South Americans and recapture the gold, but failure at Athens and dismal performances at the 2002 and 2006 world championships were clearly on their minds.

"We all want Argentina. We all want revenge on that [Athens] game," said forward Carlos Boozer.

Despite winning all six of their Olympic basketball games by an average of about 32 points, the Americans were careful not to get too overconfident.

"If we don't approach every game like it's our last, we can be beaten," Cleveland Cavalier and current NBA scoring champion LeBron James said. "If we don't come into it and offensively make the extra pass or defensively we don't help each other and we start converting back to individuals, we can lose."

Argentina, who scraped past European powerhouses Greece 80-78 on Wednesday, said they would take it to the Americans, but admitted that the US were still at the top of the heap.

"They are the best team here," said San Antonio Spur's Fabricio Oberto. "The time we played them in Athens, we entered as we are going to enter now, with all of our strengths. I broke my finger in that match. If they tell me that we are going to win the gold again, I would break my finger again."