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BEIJING : America's NBA masters marched into the Olympic Games basketball final on Friday to give their country hope of finishing a disappointing Beijing Games on a superstar-charged high.
The US crushed defending champions Argentina, who had shocked them in Athens four years ago, 101-81 and will face Spain in Sunday's gold medal clash.
Carmelo Anthony, the Denver Nuggets forward, led the American scoring with 21 points ahead of the Cleveland Cavaliers' LeBron James with 15.
LA Lakers star Kobe Bryant, a day before his 30th birthday, chipped in with 12.
Bryan Clay captured America's only track and field gold of the day by winning the decathlon to add to his silver from Athens.
Clay took the two-day event with 8,791 points, 240 ahead of runner-up Andrey Krauchanka of Belarus. Cuban Leonel Suarez was third on 8,527 and Russian Alexander Pogorelov fourth on 8,328.
"I was exhausted. To keep plugging away and not fall off, it was tough," Clay said.
Philip Dalhausser and Todd Rogers completed a US beach volleyball treble when they captured the men's title to add to their own world title and the women's gold won by Kerri Walsh and Misty May-Treanor.
The American duo beat Brazil's Marcio Araujo and Fabio Magalhaes 23-21, 17-21, 15-4 in a tense final with bronze going to the 2004 Olympic champions Ricardo Santos and Emanuel Rego of Brazil.
The win by Dalhausser, 28, and 34-year-old Rogers marked a return to the top step of the podium for the United States who won gold at the Atlanta Games in 1996 and Sydney in 2000, but saw their domination halted at Athens four years ago.
By the end of Friday, America's gold medal count stood at 31, still 16 behind China with just two days left.
America's baseball team was beaten in the semi-finals by arch-rivals, and defending champions, Cuba 10-2 in a match where the American pitchers were pounded for 14 hits, including three-run home-runs by outfielder Alexei Bell and catcher Ariel Pestano.
South Korea won the other semi-final, 6-2, to leave Japan and the US to fight for the bronze medal.
US designated hitter Matt Brown said: "Cuba are a great team with some great players. They hit our pitching mistakes. They hit them over the fence."
America's boxing hopes ended at the quarter-finals stage when heavyweight Deontay Wilder was beaten by Italy's world champion Clemente Russo.
Wilder's bronze medal is the only one for the US boxing team in what has been their worst ever performance at an Olympics.
In taekwondo, America's four-time world champion Steven Lopez lost to Italy's Mauro Sarmiento in the 80kg quarter-finals ending his bid for a third straight Olympic gold.
Lopez was here with his younger brother Mark and younger sister Diana as the first trio of siblings to represent the US at the same Olympics in the same sport since 1904.
Mark and Diana had won silver and bronze respectively in their events.
It was not all gloom for the United States.
The US also booked a place in the men's volleyball final, for the first time since 1988, with a nail-biting 25-22, 25-21, 25-27, 22-25, 15-13 win over Russia and will face Brazil in the final.
- AFP /ls
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