U.S. men to face Argentina in basketball semifinals

BEIJING (Reuters) - The unbeaten United States continued their relentless quest for gold in the men's Olympic basketball tournament by crushing Australia on Wednesday.

Argentina are likely to prove the first real test for the Americans in the semi-finals after the holders squeezed by Greece 80-78, while Spain and Lithuania also advanced.

The U.S. overpowered the Australians 116-85 to reach the last four propelled by 25 points from Kobe Bryant and 16 from LeBron James.

"We understand our greatest strength is our depth," Bryant told reporters. "We know we can just wear teams down. We'll play all comers. We want to play the champions."

The Americans have been the tournament's dominant team, outscoring opponents by an average of more than 32 points in winning all five of their first-round group games.

The Australians refused to be intimidated, forward Mark Worthington going eyeball-to-eyeball with James after a clash under the basket, but the gulf in class was cavernous.

Argentina squeaked past Greece in a see-saw game, Manu Ginobili scoring 24 points and Carlos Delfino adding 23, hitting three key three-pointers in a pulsating fourth quarter.

"It was a heck of a game," said a breathless Ginobili, moments after Greece's Vasileios Spanoulis missed a game-winning three-point attempt at the buzzer. "Now we must try to go for a miracle against the States."

DISTANT DREAM

China's distant dream of a medal was extinguished by Lithuania in a clinical 94-68 win.

An exhausted Yao Ming left the game with 4:17 left after being shoved and banged for 33 minutes, the China centre hurling his towel to the floor in frustration.

"I think we got this far with our courage but we had our limitations," said the Houston Rockets All-Star, who finished with 19 points. "We're disappointed but we have no regrets."

Lithuania, three-times Olympic bronze medalists, will face Spain in the semi-finals after Pau Gasol led the world champions to a 72-59 victory over Croatia.

Point guard Sarunas Jasikevicius nailed five out of six three-pointers to lead Lithuania with 23 points.

Los Angeles Lakers forward Gasol led Spain with 20 points though said the U.S. were still the team to beat.

"It's hard to beat them but nothing's impossible," shrugged Gasol, whose team finished runners-up to the U.S. in Group B but were blown out 119-82 by the Americans for their only loss.

(Additional reporting by Erik Kirschbaum, Pablo Garibian and Guo Shipeng)

(Editing by Steve Ginsburg)