The Thunder have four players competing in the Olympics as Kevin Durant, Russell Westbrook and James Harden compete for the United States, while Serge Ibaka represents Spain.

Sam Presti believes the national team experience helps players develop.

"I think it's really helpful for them to play under different circumstances; it only rounds them out as players and makes them better," said Presti. "What we observed from the World Championship was just the mental endurance that it takes to go through an international competition and the training camp that leads up to it in medal-round play just to get there.

"Just the level of mental endurance that Kevin and Russell have been exposed to and conditioned themselves to, I think has really helped us in our playoff series. That's a real benefit. I think Serge's experiences with the national team, again just being in different situations and adjusting to different styles of play, I only makes him a more well-rounded player. And James now is also getting that level of experience. I really feel like we've benefited from all of the exposures that the players have been given, and I think they're all very grateful for the opportunity too. It's fun to watch them in these situations."

Jim Boeheim has been disappointed in Team USA’s defensive performances after the last two games.

“After that Lithuania game on Saturday and this one with Argentina on Monday, I think we’ve learned our lesson,” Boeheim relayed from London. “And it's a good one to learn: We have to play defense.

“It’s as simple as that. If we want to win these Olympics, if we want to come home with the gold medal, we have to play defense the way we did in the third quarter against Argentina.”

Argentina connected on 56 percent of its attempts in the first half, and the US led just 60-59.

“We talked about it at halftime,” Boeheim continued. “We talked about what we needed to do. We just said, ‘Look, playing like this isn’t going to work.’ And then we went out and outscored them 42-17 in the third quarter.

“Of course, LeBron James (18 points) was great again. And when Kevin Durant shoots like that -- he made eight of his 10 ‘threes’ and finished with 28 points -- he’s difficult for anybody anywhere. And our point guards, Chris Paul and Deron Williams, were very aggressive and that made a big difference.

“But we took over this game with our defense. And we’re going to have to play like that the rest of the way if we want to win this thing.”