Argentina stuns U.S. baskeball squad

INDIANAPOLIS -- Argentina pulled off a victory that until recently seemed nearly impossible, defeating the United States 87-80 Wednesday night at the men's basketball World Championships.

It was the first loss for a U.S. team in 59 games since the Americans began sending NBA players to international tournaments in 1992. The defeat did not knock the U.S. team out of the tournament, buy gave them a lower seed for the medal round where the nations could meet again.

"It's not the medal round, and we'll be back to win the gold," defiant guard Baron Davis said.

Argentina's victory was shocking in and of itself, but what made it even more incredible was the manner in which they accomplished it. The United States never led in the game, trailed by as many as 20 and couldn't mount an adequate comeback down the stretch.

The Argentine players leaped and hugged each other as the final buzzer sounded, while the American players stuck around and congratulated them. The Argentines then formed a tight huddle for several seconds before emerging with their hands raised to salute a small but vocal contingent of their fans in the lower seats at Conseco Fieldhouse.

This U.S. team had said it wanted to keep the unbeaten streak intact, but it also knew that the competition from around the world was not as weak as it once was. Like the U.S. team, Argentina won its first five games at the World Championships to set up a meeting of the only two nations with unblemished records.

Now, there's only one team with a perfect record.

It's Argentina.

"They were a lot better than we thought," Davis said. "They were just beating us every which way."

U.S. teams had two close calls in the past two years, defeating Lithuania by just two points at the 2000 Olympics and needing overtime to beat Brazil at the Goodwill Games in 2001.

Many of the best American players declined to participate in this tournament, and this version of Team USA looked quite vulnerable over the past week -- especially against nations that now have their own NBA players.