Team US won 91-76 over Olympic champion Argentina on Thursday to prove that the smashing victories recorded so far at the FIBA Americas tournament could be repeated against the only other unbeaten squad in the tournament.

Kobe Bryant was praised for the unselfishness he proved in the game against Brazil, when he sacrificed his offensive game and focused all his attention and energy in guarding the speedy Leandro Barbosa and reduced the “Brazilian Blur” to just four points. Against Argentina the Los Angeles Lakers superstar switched gears and scored a game-high 27 points, including 15 in the first quarter to help team US keep its perfect record intact at the FIBA America's Olympic qualifying tournament.

Bryant had been only fourth on the team in scoring through the first seven games with a 15.1 average as he focused more on defense and team play in the first games.

The Americans were 28-13, after one quarter, 49-30 at the half and 73-52 after three quarters in the clash of the tournament's only undefeated teams in front of a crowd of about 5,500 at the Thomas and Mack Center arena on Thursday.

Asked whether the U.S. team had been tested at any point in the past two weeks, Milwaukee Bucks Michael Redd took his time to give a right answer and said: "You know what? No."

This important victory secured the No. 1 seed for United States in Saturday's semifinal against Puerto Rico. With a win over the South Americans, US will automatically qualify for next summer's Beijing Olympics. They should have no trouble accomplishing that goal as they already played the Puerto Ricans in an earlier stage of the tournament and won by 39 points.

However, LeBron James, who scored 15 against the Argentineans, said they wouldn't make the mistake of taking Puerto Rico lightly like they did against Greece in the semifinals of the world championships last summer.

"It's a brand new team and we have a brand new mindset," James said. "We know how important Saturday is and we're going to go out with the same intensity we had in the first seven or eight games and take it home."

Argentina played without four NBA players from its Olympic winning team: San Antonio's Manu Ginobili and Fabricio Oberto, Chicago's Andres Nocioni and Charlotte's Walter Herrmann. Argentina will clash with Brazil in the other semifinal.