Rio Olympics: D’Tigers Take On Argentina

The rivalry between Nigeria and Argentina in sports is growing by the day.
Nigerians are familiar with the football world but this Olympics has expanded the fight for supremacy as the Nigerian men take on the Argentineans in the basketball event of the Rio Olympics.
The game will be played at 2.30am Nigeria time (Sunday/Monday) as part of the Group B fixtures of the Olympics.
In Rio and indeed
in basketball the South Americans are favourites to win but they are also mindful of the fact that Nigeria defeated them less than a fortnight ago as both teams prepared for the Games. But just three days after, Argentina bounced back to win the second friendly. Both matches were played in the US and two matches in the last two weeks means that both teams now know each other very well.
Argentina, edged in a high-scoring first encounter, 96-92, hit back with a vengeance in the second and won 101-79.
That comeback win was massive which has given their fans something to hope for tonight in Brazil.
The Argentineans are here in huge numbers which explains how the stands will look like when the fans back their teams.
In the second clash in Las Vegas, Nicolas Laprovittola underlined his importance to the team, stepping out of the shadow cast by his more famous teammates by pouring in 24 points for the winners. He hurt Nigeria with 3-point shooting and overall play.
Captain Luis Scola, who missed the first match, and fellow veteran Andres Nocioni, contributed 16 and 14 points, respectively.
“I think in the first game, we weren’t prepared to play against a team that offered a lot of defensive variables,” Argentina coach Sergio Hernandez told FIBA.com in Las Vegas. “Three days of training had not been enough for us to prepare our tactics.
“We didn’t allow them to play like they wanted (on Wednesday), except for the third quarter. In the fourth quarter, we played them five-on-five and punished them. I think today was very important for us because we were able to learn from the first meeting.”
Both sides have learnt from those games and everything will be put to test on Sunday.