LONDON — Knicks point guard Pablo Prigioni said he hopes his Argentina squad can make Team USA look as vulnerable as it did in its 99-94 Olympic escape against Lithuania Saturday.
Argentina, which came into the Olympics as favorites to medal, faces the Americans tonight in the final contest of pool play. The U.S. is through to the quarterfinals, where it will likely face Australia.
Argentina is quarterbacked by Prigioni, a Spanish league veteran who opted to test the NBA next season and will be the oldest rookie in league history at 35. He missed one Olympic game last week with kidney stones.
Prigioni has seen the good and bad sides of the U.S. team. Less than a week before opening ceremonies, Argentina rallied in the fourth quarter in an exhibition against Redeem Team II and lost by just six points, 86-80, in Barcelona. Manu Ginobili, Luis Scola and Carlos Delfino are among its standouts.
“The USA has an enormous team, capable of destroying as they did against Nigeria,’’ Prigioni said yesterday. “But, some days, they are not so comfortable, as I look against Lithuania and us in Barcelona during the second half. They can destroy you and have the weapons. But we will try to win by being intelligent, passing the ball, trying to take them to an uncomfortable game.’’
Lithuania shot 58.5 percent against the U.S., which looked complacent after its historic 83-point romp over Nigeria. Prigioni will face his future Knicks teammates Carmelo Anthony and center Tyson Chandler, who played just eight minutes against Lithuania and may be bothered by a sore finger.
“I like Pablo a lot,’’ Anthony said. “I like him a lot — an older veteran guard who knows how to run the team, knows how to play the game and is very knowledgeable of the game out there on the basketball court. When we watch film of him and just watching him play over the years, he rarely turns the ball over. He just runs the team, just runs the offense, don’t try to do too much, shoot when he’s open and try to get everyone else involved.’’
Anthony scored a game-high-tying 20 points against Lithuania, but didn’t fare well defensively, sometimes matched up with his former Nuggets teammate Linas Kleiza, who finished with 25. Anthony and his mates did not get back in transition defense most of the afternoon.
“They came out and played extremely well, they almost played perfect,’’ Anthony said. “It caught us off guard. They had us on our heels. Today is definitely a tune-up day for us, getting in practice and talking about things.’’
Nets point guard Deron Williams, who scored five points late to prevent a massive Lithuania upset, figures Argentina could be as rugged.
“We’ve already played them once in the friendly game and had a good test,’’ Williams said. “They’re probably better now than they were then and so are we. It’ll be a great matchup for us, another great test to see where we are at, the last game before the real fun stuff.’’