The US Olympic men's basketball team has advanced to its first major gold-medal game in eight years after a 101-81 victory over Argentina. The United States will play Spain, who beat Lithuania 91-86. The Americans haven't won gold since the 2000 Sydney Games. Carmelo Anthony scored 21 points Friday for the US team. LeBron James added 15, 13 in the second half. Argentina, the 2004 Olympic gold medalist, lost leading scorer Manu Ginobili to an ankle injury in the first quarter. Luis Scola scored 26 points for the Argentines, who will face Lithuania on Sunday for the bronze. The US had drubbed Spain 119-82 in pool play. Pau Gasol had 19 points as Spain defeated Lithuania 91-86 to advance to the Olympic gold medal game for the first time since 1984. Rudy Fernandez bounced back from a third-quarter head injury to score 18 for the Spaniards. Spain is looking to add an Olympic title to the world championship it won two years ago in Japan. Simas Jasaitis and Sarunas Jasikevicius each scored 19 points for Lithuania, which will play for the bronze medal for the fifth straight time. Lithuania led for long stretches but couldn't overcome 18 turnovers. Early on, it looked like Spain would breeze. But after Spain took a 28-20 lead midway through the second quarter, the Lithuanians awoke and went on a 14-4 run capped by back-to-back 3-pointers by 6-foot-11 Ksistof Lavrinovic. Lithuania hit five 3-pointers - three by Simas Jasaitis - in the final 3:50 of the first half to take a 42-40 lead into intermission. The second half was a riveting possession-by-possession battle, with neither team able to open up a lead of more than four points. Lithuania clung to the lead until Felipe Reyes drove for a layup to put Spain ahead 55-54 with 2:43 to go in the third quarter. Jasaitis answered with another 3-pointer seconds later. Spain built an 81-74 lead with 3 minutes to play as the Lithuanians went nearly 4 minutes without a point. Jasikevicius hit a 3-pointer to pull Lithuania within 89-86 with 5.8 seconds to play, but Jimenez made two free throws to ice the game for Spain.
