Kobe Bryant displayed a sizzling shooting touch by sinking three 3-pointers in a row in 31 seconds on Wednesday as the United States beat Australia 119-86 to reach the Olympic basketball semi-finals. “I just found myself in a pretty good rhythm,” Bryant said after the NBA Dream Team’s win. “I found myself with some daylight and things were going in for me.” Bryant scored 20 points, his dazzling fourth-quarter display part of a run of four 3-pointers in 67 seconds that helped the US multi-millionaires subdue the pesky Boomers, who were led by 26 points from NBA guard Patrick Mills. “I was searching for something to get me going, something to ‘activate the Black Mamba’ as coach calls it,” Bryant said. “I found something to get me on the edge and I rode that the rest of the game.” The NBA stars reached a Friday smei-final against Argentina, which beat arch-rival Brazil 82-77 in another quarter-final. Argentina upset the Americans in the 2004 Olympics semi-finals but lost to them in the 2008 semi-finals. “We’ve got to be in full throttle from the start against Argentina,” US star Carmelo Anthony said. Reigning European champion Spain, which lost to the US NBA squad in the 2008 Beijing final, will face Russia in the other semi-final. Deron Williams had 18 points and Anthony added 17 while NBA scoring champion Kevin Durant had 14 and LeBron James added 11 points, 14 rebounds and 12 assists for the Americans. “He was phenomenal,” Bryant said of James. “You have certain players who are so athletic the ball seems to come to them and they make great plays.” That’s how Bryant was when he was in “the zone”, the same second-half hot shooting streak that has been seen from James, Anthony and Durant in prior US games.
