Dwyane Wade scored 18 of his 32 points in the fourth quarter, helping the US pull away for a 96-81 victory over Argentina yesterday in the basketball world championship bronze-medal game.
LeBron James added 20 points for the Americans, which could only match the bronze it won two years ago in Athens. This victory gave the Americans some measure of revenge from that disappointment, coming against the team that had beaten them in the semi-finals two years ago.
In a spectacular performance similar to those he delivered while winning MVP honors at the NBA finals, Wade was 10-of-14 from the field and made all three 3-point attempts -- he was 2-of-15 behind the arc coming into game. He fell three points shy of the American record Carmelo Anthony set earlier in the tournament.
PHOTO: AFP
Anthony capped a strong tournament with 15 points as the Americans bounced back from their 101-95 loss to Greece a night earlier. James finished with nine rebounds and seven assists.
Argentina (7-2) was trying for its third straight medal in a major event after winning silver in the 2002 world championships and gold two years ago in Athens -- with victories over the US during both.
But the Argentineans couldn't overcome foul trouble to Manu Ginobili, Fabricio Oberto and Luis Scola, the mainstays of those teams. All three spent significant time on the bench in the second half.
Ginobili, the San Antonio Spurs star, didn't make a field goal until midway through the fourth quarter and finished with 10 points. Scola led Argentina with 19 points and Andres Nocioni, who plays for the Chicago Bulls, scored 18.
Ginobili and James hugged as the game ended, while Nocioni shared a laugh with Kirk Hinrich, his Bulls teammate.
After collecting their bronze medals, James and Chris Paul threw their sneakers into the crowd of more than 16,000 at the Saitama Super Arena.
The US trailed for most of the first half before finally beginning to pull away late in the third quarter. Then it was time for Wade to take over.
Slashing to the basket or beating the Argentina zone from the outside, he scored 14 of 16 US points during one stretch. His back-to-back 3s gave the Americans their biggest lead at 91-75 with 2:52 to play.
Wade made his first start of the tournament, joining James, Anthony, Dwight Howard and Kirk Hinrich. They couldn't solve the Americans' defensive woes from a night earlier, as Argentina started 8-of-10 to take a 17-9 lead.
Argentina led 27-21 after one, and remained ahead for most of the second quarter despite playing with only one starter on the floor for most of the period. The US trailed by nine with just over 4 minutes left before halftime, but rallied to take its only lead of the half when Anthony's 3-pointer with 4.5 seconds left made it 50-49.
The Americans were 10-of-15 in the second quarter, including 3-of-4 behind the arc.
Leading by two in the third, the US finally got some breathing room with a 10-2 burst. James dunked on an alley-oop pass from Wade, then converted a three-point play that gave the Americans a 67-57 lead with 3:33 remaining in the third quarter.
With Ginobili sitting the entire period, the US led 69-62 heading to the fourth quarter.
Greece and Spain will play for the gold medal today.
Florent Pietrus scored 12 points, including four free throws in the final 1:10, and had nine rebounds to lead France to a 64-56 victory over Turkey in the fifth-place game yesterday, matching its best finish in a basketball world championship in 43 years.
France (6-3), which was expected to be a medal contender until star guard Tony Parker broke a finger in the final exhibition game before the tournament, managed to hold off Turkey (6-3) with a five-point possession in the fourth quarter and some shaky free-throw shooting.
France's best finish in a world championships was fourth in 1954, and it was fifth nine years later.
"We are so happy to finish in fifth place. This is a big honor for our country to finish so close to the final four teams," coach Claude Bergeaud said.
"The story of our country and the results show it was a long, long time ago. It wasn't easy being here without Tony Parker. We were obliged to build a new team because Tony Parker was very important to this team. These players can be proud," he said.
Turkey had already ensured itself of its best finish when it reached the quarter-finals for the first time. Turkey was ninth in 2002.
"We are very, very, very proud of sixth place," Turkey coach Bogdan Tanjevic said. "We have so many young players play a lot of minutes and get big experience for them and that is an investment in Turkish basketball."
Engin Atsur, who plays at North Carolina State, had 15 points for Turkey, which shot 14 percent (4-for-28) in falling behind 35-20 at halftime.
France let Turkey back in the game by shooting 4-for-10 in the third quarter, making one field goal over the final 8:40 of the period as Turkey got within 49-43.
Kaya Peker scored down low with 4:15 left to bring Turkey within 55-51.
Joseph Gomis, France's third-string point guard who replaced the injured Aymeric Jeanneau who had replaced Parker of the San Antonio Spurs, was fouled going to the basket and knocked to the floor by Peker, his fifth foul. Ender Arslan of Turkey pushed Gomis as he was trying to get up and he was called for an intentional foul. Gomis made three of the four free throws and on the ensuing inbounds, Mickael Gelabale dunked the rebound of a missed turnaround by Ronny Turiaf and France had a 60-51 lead.
France finished 19-for-37 from the line, but Pietrus, who was 6-for-10, made the four in the last 70 seconds, his team's only points over the final three-and-a-half minutes.
Kerem Gonlum had six points and 11 rebounds for Turkey, which finished 15-for-62 from the field (24 percent).
France lost 73-56 to Greece in the quarter-finals, while Turkey was beaten 83-58 by Argentina.
Turiaf, who plays for the Los Angeles Lakers, underwent surgery for an enlarged aortic root on July 26, 2005, delaying the start of his NBA career by a few months.
Bergeaud said Turiaf experienced some chest pain during the first half, and that he kept him out for a while in the second half. Turiaf had two points and two rebounds and played 13 minutes, five seconds in the second half.
Spanish center Pau Gasol hopes to recover from an injured right ankle in time to play against Greece in Sunday's final at the World Basketball Championship.
In a posting on his Web site yesterday, the 2.13m center for the National Basketball Association's Memphis Grizzlies was hopeful following X-rays taken after his injury late in a semi-final victory on Friday over Argentina.
"Right now, it is difficult to know if I will be able to play in the final, but I know that my team will be ready for anything," Gasol wrote.
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