Puerto Rico slams U.S., 92-73
Associated Press
ATHENS, Greece — Their shots clanged off the rim, smacked the side of the backboard or missed completely. Their best player stared at the floor helplessly as the ball squirted between his legs and rolled away.
Associated Press
Whatever remained of America's aura of invincibility slipped away, too, in a shocking, lopsided loss that left their coach embarrassed and angry.
Puerto Rico's Carlos Arroyo scores in front of Stephon Marbury of the United States in the second half. The Americans shot 3 of 24 from 3-point range and struggled against a zone defense.
Tim Duncan, Allen Iverson and the rest of the U.S. basketball team fell, 92-73, to Puerto Rico yesterday, only the third Olympic defeat ever — and first since adding pros — for the nation that ruled the sport for three-quarters of a century.
It was by far the worst defeat for a U.S. men's team, coming in the Americans' first game of the Athens Olympics.
"I'm humiliated, not for the loss — I can always deal with wins and losses — but I'm disappointed because I had a job to do as a coach, to get us to understand how we're supposed to play as a team and act as a team, and I don't think we did that," Larry Brown said.
Puerto Rico, which had lost to the Americans five times since last July, led for more than 33 minutes of the 40-minute game, was ahead by 22 at halftime and gamely held off a fourth-quarter comeback for one of the greatest sports achievements in the territory's history.
"We're a small island with a big heart," guard Elias Ayuso said.
The loss was a blow to the Americans' confidence, but it did little to hurt their gold medal chances. They need only to finish in the top four of their six-team group to reach the quarterfinals.
As Carlos Arroyo left the court with just over a minute left, he defiantly pulled at the words "Puerto Rico" on his jersey. He led his team with 24 points.
Puerto Rico played a tight zone defense, and the Americans could do next to nothing against the strategy.
After Lamar Odom made a 3-pointer for the U.S. team's first points, the Americans missed 16 straight from behind the arc. They tried to get the ball inside, but Puerto Rico collapsed several defenders into the paint and made life difficult for the U.S. team's best player, Duncan. He and Iverson led the team in scoring with 15 points apiece.
The Americans shot only 35 percent, finished 3 for 24 from 3-point range and had nearly as many turnovers (22) as field goals (26).
Brown
Puerto Rico was 8 for 16 from long range and 31-55 (56 percent) overall to help negate the Americans' 46-27 edge in rebounding.
Argentina men topple Serbia-Montenegro
Manu Ginobili's off-balance shot left his hand just a split-second before the final buzzer, dropping through the basket to give Argentina a thrilling 83-82 victory over Serbia-Montenegro yesterday.
"Once it left my hand, I knew it was good," said Ginobili, who scored 27 points. "This is a very special thing."
Serbia-Montenegro's Dejan Tomasevic drew a foul on a shot attempt from the lane with 3.8 seconds left, but he made only one of two foul shots to make it 82-81.
Argentina advanced the ball quickly, and point guard Alejandro Montecchia hit Ginobili with a pass just inside the foul line. Ginobili managed to get off a difficult shot from the right side of the lane that bounced off the glass and in.
GYMNASTICS
U.S. women second in qualifying round
There's nothing like a reality check.
The U.S. women's gymnasts stumbled to the finish of their qualifying round yesterday, botching their final two events to drop more than a half-point behind Romania. The Romanians finished with 152.436 points while the Americans scored 151.848.
"We know we left a lot of tenths on the floor," said Bob Colarossi, president of USA Gymnastics. "That's all right. We didn't come here to win preliminaries."
And fortunately for the Americans, they get a do-over in tomorrow night's team final. The top eight teams advance and everyone starts from zero.
The Americans haven't lost an international competition since 2002, and this is their deepest team yet.
Carly Patterson lived up to her billing as the U.S. golden girl, leading all individual scorers with 38.337 points.
But fellow Americans Terin Humphrey and Courtney McCool both stepped out of bounds on floor, normally one of the team's stronger events. McCool was particularly upset since floor is one of her better events, and she hurried to the sideline after her score of 9.25 was posted.
TENNIS
Roddick, Navratilova, Venus advance
About an hour after winning his Olympic debut yesterday, Andy Roddick found himself in a Rulon Gardner headlock.
Don't worry: Roddick and the U.S. wrestler were horsing around.
Roddick smacked 12 aces and 16 service winners in a 6-3, 7-6 (4) victory over Flavio Saretta of Brazil.
Martina Navratilova, 47, and Lisa Raymond beat Yuliya Beygelzimer and Tetyana Perebiynis of Ukraine, 6-0, 6-2.
Defending gold medalist Venus Williams overpowered Melinda Czink of Hungary, 6-1, 6-2.
SOCCER
Iraqi men win second consecutive game
Associated Press
The resilient Iraqis are making the most of their return to the Olympics.
Iraq's Mahdi Karim celebrates his goal against Costa Rica in a soccer game at Karaiskaki Stadium in Athens. Iraq won, 2-0.
They defeated Costa Rica, 2-0, last night in a soccer game that was temporarily halted when jubilant fans ran onto the field. The Iraqis second straight victory put them in the quarterfinals.
Iraq last qualified for the Olympics at the 1988 Seoul Games.
"We're delighted by the victories because we know what it means to our people," Iraq coach Adnan Hamad said through an interpreter.
In the 67th minute, Hawar Mulla Mohammed scored from 18 yards out.
Within moments, Iraqi fans jumped out of the crowd to join the celebration.
Mahdi Karim scored later, prompting several fans to storm the field again.
WEIGHTLIFTING
Turkey athlete wins third gold medal
Halil Mutlu of Turkey won his third consecutive gold medal while Udomporn Polsak's was her first and the first for a Thai female athlete.
Mutlu won at 123 pounds (56 kg) to join Turkish predecessor Naim Suleymanoglu and Greece's Pyrros Dimas and Khaki Kakiasvilis as three-time weightlifting gold medalists. Both Greek lifters go for their fourth consecutive golds later in the Athens Olympics.
Polsak won at 117 pounds (53 kg).
