RIO DE JANEIRO -- Here is some at-the-buzzer analysis from press row at the Carioca Arena 1 after Team USA booked a spot in the semifinals of the Rio Olympics with an emphatic 105-78 victory over Argentina on Wednesday:
How it happened: Remember what Argentinean sage Luis Scola said the other day?
It's Scola's contention, after a lifetime in the international game, that no one has a bigger say in how the United States fares than the United States itself.
"It's pretty much up to [them]," he told me early in the tournament.
Three sluggish showings from the Yanks against Australia, Serbia and France certainly tested Scola's theory. But this quarterfinal reunion with the rugged Argentines brought it back into focus because Team USA snapped out of its weeklong funk with a strong display of team ball that enabled the Group A winners to reintroduce themselves to the concept of winning comfortably with this 27-point triumph.
And they did so emphatically after falling into an early 10-point hole.
With the Argentines passing and cutting their way to a quick 19-9 lead in what is widely believed to be the Olympic swan song for the likes of Scola and Manu Ginobili, Team USA awoke at last, rediscovering the determination on D that was so lacking for half of group play.
The Americans also stopped settling for every 3-pointer that presented itself and gradually got the ball moving, too, which led to a stunning 38-8 run that made it 47-27 before the Argentines and their famously raucous fans had much chance to celebrate.
Coach Mike Krzyzewski also made the notable tactical choice to briefly divert from his reliance on Kyrie Irving and Kevin Durant by taking Irving off the floor and surrounding Durant with more defensive-minded players, such as Paul George, Kyle Lowry and Jimmy Butler.
All those changes sped the game up to a pace that the aging Argentines -- 12 years removed from their unforgettable upset of Team USA in the semifinals of the 2004 Athens Olympics -- simply couldn't cope with.
The game was a non-contest throughout the fourth quarter ... but it was lively in the building nonetheless because Argentina's passionate supporters used the occasion to serenade their '04 heroes for all they've done in the new millennium in a fashion that had awestruck Team USAers cheering from their bench.
The brutish play inside of DeMarcus Cousins (15 points and two blocks) was another positive development in support of Durant's team-leading 27 points (7-for-9 on 3s), enabling Team USA to look almost as dominant as it did in a 37-point exhibition trouncing of Argentina on July 22 in Las Vegas.
"I don't really think anybody's putting pressure on themselves," Cousins told ESPN.com before the game. "We know we got a lot of expectations coming into this tournament. We're expected to win a certain type of way we haven't in the last few games. But we are winning.
"It's funny," he continued. "Because you hear some of the fan reactions or the media, and it's like, we're 5-0, but there's people complaining about how we're winning. I've never experienced that. But that's the kind of expectations you have playing for Team USA."
For the first time in about a week, those expectations didn't look like a burden for the tournament's heavy, heavy favorites.
The streak: Make it 74 wins in a row and counting for Krzyzewski. That includes 22 consecutive victories in Olympic play, 19 in FIBA World Cup tournaments, 10 in Olympic qualifiers and another 23 in exhibition games. The Americans previously tasted defeat in the semifinals of the 2006 FIBA World Championship against Greece. They launched this streak on Sept. 2, 2006, with a 96-81 victory over Argentina in the bronze-medal game in Japan.
Play of the game: Durant needed 17 points Wednesday to move past Michael Jordan for fourth in all-time scoring for the United States in the Olympics, Carmelo Anthony, LeBron James and David Robinson. He got there by halftime in Kyrie Irving-esque fashion.
Isolated with the ball at the top of the 3-point arc, Durant shook Andres Nocioni twice, first with a crossover to the right then with another to the left that got KD into the lane with ease. When Ginobili charged out at him, Durant simply sidestepped him with a long stride to the left and calmly dropped a fallaway jumper that gave him 18 points en route to a total of 27.
The current leaderboard:
(Honorable mention for Top Play: Nocioni's impressive -- and highly unlikely -- rejection of a DeAndre Jordan dunk attempt at the rim early in the third quarter. Jordan got loose for a makeup dunk seconds later, but Nocioni is 36 and stands just 6-foot-7, which should explain why Argentina fans were serenading "Chapu," as they call him, with a chant in celebration of the swat.)
Numbers game: Only three players who represented the United States in its 2004 Olympic loss to Argentina are still active in the NBA: LeBron, Dwyane Wade and Richard Jefferson. Melo was on that Olympic squad but did not play in the Argentina game.
Anthony is the only U.S. player who has appeared in all 23 Olympic Games that the Americans have played -- and won -- since the loss to Argentina in Athens. Melo had 14 Olympic points to his name at the time of that loss and has since scored 308 in the 23-game win streak to become the all-time leading U.S. scorer in Olympic hoops.
Here's a detailed look at Team USA's nine consecutive wins over Argentina since the semifinal loss in Athens:
What's next: After meeting Spain in the past two gold-medal games, Team USA has to face its fiercest international rival one round earlier than normal here in Rio.
To complicate matters, Spain heads into Friday's semifinals suddenly playing arguably the best basketball of any team in the tournament, having rung up lopsided victories over Lithuania, Argentina and France in its past three games by a combined 94 points.
The resurrection started with a 50-point hammering of Lithuania and has completely transformed the reigning European champions, who opened this tournament with losses to Croatia and Brazil. That left Spain at an uncharacteristic 0-2, followed by an unconvincing win over Nigeria.
Spanish coach Sergio Scariolo explained after Wednesday's 92-67 rout of longtime rivals France that a slow start was actually no surprise, given what he described as "terrible" preparations for the Olympics, thanks to injuries plaguing multiple key players, most notably Pau Gasol and Sergio Rodriguez.
But the Spaniards have rebounded emphatically and, even without Marc Gasol, appear poised to push the Americans as hard as they ever have. Team USA won the past two Olympic showdowns by a combined 18 points, 118-107 in the championship game at Beijing 2008 and 107-100 in London in 2012.