LAS VEGAS (Rio 2016 Olympic Games) - USA coach Mike Krzyzewski has been taking a walk down memory lane this week ahead of his team's Olympic warm-up game on Friday against Argentina.

It was 10 years ago that the American coaching icon suffered the only loss in his USA career, a 101-95 defeat to Greece in the Semi-Finals of the FIBA Basketball World Cup in Saitama, Japan.

His team rebounded with a 96-81 win over Argentina in the Third-Place Game to reach the podium.

"It was a huge win (over Argentina)," he said after Thursday's practice in Las Vegas. "Literally, the house burned down (after the loss to Greece). We were disheveled. Depressed. Ashamed. And we had to get it together."

Point guard Theo Papaloukas and center Sofoklis Schortsanitis of Greece had been particularly good against the USA. The former had 12 assists and the latter 14 points. The USA did not contain the Greeks' pick-and-roll and that, combined with Vasilis Spanoulis's 22 points, were largely responsible for the biggest upset of the tournament.

So when the Americans came out the next day against Argentina, a team that had most of it's Gold Medal-winning heroes from the 2004 Olympics, they had a tough task on their hands.

"I think I started LeBron (James) at the point and that was really probably the start of him – I just knew that we needed him in a prominent role," Krzyzewski said. "And we won. We beat a really good Argentina team."

James had 7 assists in that win over Argentina with his 22 points and 9 rebounds. The victory triggered a 10-year winning streak. The USA haven't lost in international basketball since, although Brazil threw a scare into them at the 2010 FIBA Basketball World Cup in the Group Phase and Spain pushed them very hard in the Finals of the last two Olympics.

The last triumph in their winning streak came at the 2014 FIBA Basketball World Cup against Serbia in the Final.

Coach K remembers the win over Argentina as being the turning point.

"That was like the start and it showed that we could recover from adversity," Krzyzewski said. "And we've continued it. Whatever adversity we've had in a game, we've been able to handle in a game."

The USA getting ready for the Rio de Janeiro Games has one player that suffered the defeat to Greece and beat Argentina 10 years ago. It's Carmelo Anthony. The veteran, a leader in the current side, is one of the most vocal players in practice.

He believes the Americans are shaping up to have a good title defense in Brazil.

"One of our strengths is defensively, we definitely get after it," Anthony said on Thursday. "Offensively, we have guys who can score the basketball, we have guys who can shoot the basketball, and we have bigs who are dominant. I don’t think there are many weaknesses with this team."

FIBA