Saitama, Japan – Stuck in yet another bronze-medal game they never planned for, Dwyane Wade and his teammates could have come out with a lackluster effort.
Instead, Wade treated the game as if it were the NBA finals.
Then he played like it.
Wade scored 18 of his 32 points in the fourth quarter, helping the United States pull away for a 96-81 victory over Argentina on Saturday night in the third-place game at the world championships.
“This game was everything it was pumped up to be if it was in the finals,” Wade said. “I give credit to my teammates for playing their hearts out when a lot of people didn’t think so. This was a big step. We gained a lot of respect and love for each other. This summer was not a waste. We learned a lot.”
Playing one night after a 101-95 loss to Greece ended their title hopes, the Americans delivered a strong performance and avoided leaving the championships empty-handed for the second straight time. They finished sixth in 2002.
After collecting their bronze medals, LeBron James and Chris Paul threw their sneakers into the crowd of more than 16,000 at Saitama Super Arena.
“You never want to be satisfied, but I’m happy we didn’t lay down,” James said. “We didn’t mope and moan about what happened yesterday. We moved on and played a very good team today and we played probably our best game of the tournament.”
The championships end Sunday with Greece and Spain going for the gold medal. Pau Gasol, Spain’s leading scorer and rebounder, will not play because of a partial fracture in his left foot. The Memphis Grizzlies star was injured in the semifinal win over Argentina.
James added 20 points for the U.S., which could only match the bronze it won two years ago at the Athens Olympics. The Americans (8-1) defeated the team that had beaten them in the semifinals two years ago.
In a spectacular performance similar to those he delivered while winning MVP honors at the NBA finals, Wade was 10-of-14 from the field and made all three 3-point attempts – he was 2-of-15 behind the arc coming into game. He fell three points shy of the American record Carmelo Anthony set during the tournament.
“It was fun for us to watch,” Shane Battier said. “I don’t know if he thought he was back in American Airlines Arena in Game 6 of the playoffs, but he was something special tonight.”
Anthony capped a strong tournament with 15 points while James finished with nine rebounds and seven assists.
“We haven’t been together very long and for these guys to show the character it took to come back the next day after a tough loss is terrific,” U.S. coach Mike Krzyzewski said. “We built unity and handled adversity well.”
Argentina (7-2) was trying for its third straight medal in a major event after winning silver in the 2002 worlds and gold two years ago in Athens – with victories over the U.S. during both.
But the Argentines couldn’t overcome foul trouble to Manu Ginobili, Fabricio Oberto and Luis Scola, the mainstays of those teams. All three spent significant time on the bench in the second half.
Though Argentina was called for 12 more fouls than the Americans, Ginobili refused to blame the officials.
“They probably had a better game than we did,” the San Antonio Spurs star said. “They had nothing to do with the result.”
Ginobili didn’t make a field goal until midway through the fourth quarter and finished with 10 points. Scola led Argentina with 19 points and Andres Nocioni, who plays for the Chicago Bulls, scored 18.
Ginobili and James hugged as the game ended, while Nocioni shared a laugh with Kirk Hinrich, his Bulls teammate.
The U.S. trailed for most of the first half before finally beginning to pull away late in the third quarter. Then Wade took over.
Slashing to the basket or beating a zone from outside, he scored 14 of 16 U.S. points during one stretch. His back-to-back 3s gave the Americans their biggest lead at 91-75 with 2:52 to play. The U.S. outscored Argentina 46-32 in the second half.
“The last quarter was like NBA showtime with Wade and James dunking the ball all the time,” Argentina coach Sergio Hernandez said. “When you are tired like that, it’s impossible to win.”
Wade made his first start of the tournament, joining James, Anthony, Dwight Howard and Hinrich. They couldn’t solve the Americans’ defensive woes from Friday, as Argentina started 8-of-10 to lead 17-9.
Argentina was up 27-21 after one quarter and remained ahead much of the second despite playing with only one starter most of the period. The U.S. trailed by nine with just more than four minutes left before halftime, but rallied to take its only lead of the half when Anthony’s 3-pointer with 4.5 seconds left made it 50-49. The Americans were 10-of-15 in the second quarter, including 3-of-4 behind the arc.
Leading by two in the third, the U.S. finally got some breathing room with a 10-2 burst. James dunked on an alley-oop pass from Wade, then converted a three-point play that made it 67-57 with 3:33 remaining in the third. With Ginobili sitting the entire period, the U.S. led 69-62 entering the fourth quarter.
