Argentina Finishes Greece in Insane Fashion

There have been three real tight games in the Olympic men's basketball tournament, but the Argentina-Greece has been without doubt the most entertaining. There were something like 179 lead changes. Greece and Argentina traded spurts through the first three quarters. On the backs of Carlos Delfino and Manu Ginobili, Argentina took slight control in the fourth. But Greece stuck close, nailing improbable three after improbable three.

The most improbable came with 30 seconds left, the shot clock winding down and Argentina up by five. Panagiotis Vasilopoulos (!) banks in an off-balance trey. Argentina by two. A difference of six seconds between the shot clock and game clock. After a timeout, Manu handles the ball up high. He begins his move with about 12 seconds left, steps back and shoots a three. Clank. Greece captures the rebound and -- down two -- races up the court. With three ticks left, Vassilo Spanoulis takes a contested three from the top of the key. Clank. Luis Scola bats the ball around and ... game.

Manu almost saw his team get eliminated by a point after that miss. Given Greece's earlier luck from behind the arc, Spanoulis's shot looked good when it left his hands. The utter ecstacy after the buzzer shown by Argentina looked more like excitement than relief. It tells me this team won't be afraid of the Americans on Friday (in fairness, the Australians weren't afraid either). Argentina might have gotten away by the skin of their scalps, but it was because Greece played phenomenal more than Argentina being a step behind its 2004 version.

If either of Friday's games are anything like Argentina-Greece, we're in for some treats.