By Luciana Chavez

McClatchy Newspapers

BEIJING — The USA men’s basketball team has been so good at thrashing opponents throughout the Olympics that a nine-point halftime lead over Argentina in the semifinals Friday looked like a crisis.

The U.S. has run teams out of games with such ferocity in China that, when Argentina was able to slow the U.S. pace, limit long misses, and force the Americans to run their halfcourt offense, that looked like a crisis, too.

The U.S. still beat Argentina 101-81, behind Carmelo Anthony’s 21 points and six others players scoring at least 10, at the Beijing Olympic Basketball Gymnasium on Friday.

The U.S. advanced, as expected, to Sunday’s gold-medal game.

The U.S. will face Spain, which it beat by 37 on Aug. 18, at 2:30 a.m. EDT Sunday for the gold medal and all the chest-pounding that goes with it.

Argentina will play Lithuania, which lost to Spain 91-86 in the other semifinal, in the bronze-medal game at midnight EDT Saturday.