Bronze or bust

ATHENS, Greece — No excuses, and no gold.

The Americans won't be the Olympic basketball champions for the first time since 1988, beaten by an Argentine team that lacks stars but simply knows how to play together better.

Manu Ginobili scored 29 points to lead Argentina to an 89-81 victory in the semifinals Friday night, humbling the nation where the game was invented and perfected.

Bronze is now the best the Americans can do with their hastily assembled assortment of NBA stars that showed weaknesses almost from the moment it began practicing in late July, a month after its opponents.

Indeed, the Dream Team days are long gone. It's the first time since pro players were added for the 1992 Olympics that the United States will not go home with gold.

"We fought as hard as we could," Allen Iverson said. "We couldn't get it done for whatever reason. They were a better team than us."

Argentina, with almost the same roster that made history in 2002 by becoming the first team to defeat a U.S. squad of NBA players, will compete for the title Saturday against Italy, which defeated Lithuania 100-91.

The U.S. team, which entered the tournament with a 109-2 Olympic record, will play Lithuania for third place. The U.S. women's team, meanwhile, plays Australia for the gold.

The Argentines were better passers, shooters and defenders than the Americans. They confronted them with a mixture of man-to-man and zone defenses, and confounded them with an assortment of back picks and deft passes that turned the start of the second half into a layup drill.

Argentina's players celebrated wildly when the game ended, and the crowd yelled "Ole!"

U.S. coach Larry Brown walked over and gave a handshake and hug to his Argentine counterpart, Ruben Magnano, who played for Argentina in the Tournament of the Americas against the first Dream Team that won gold in Barcelona.

"Our rival today was extremely tough, but in the few hours that passed between yesterday's game and today's, we realized that nothing was impossible," Magnano said. "We had to go out there and attack them on an equal footing, go for them. That's what we did, and that's why we won."

NBA commissioner David Stern attended the third loss of the Athens Games for the Americans.