Team USA starts real tests with Argentina on Sunday

Every NFL fan knows you can’t predict what the New Orleans Saints season will be like based on their Aug. 5 Hall of Fame game performance (vs. the Cardinals). Along the same line, it’s hard to infer what will happen when the games matter by watching Team USA’s pre-Olympics tune-ups.

We’re left making projections based more on style points than competitive games. What we’ve learned for sure is Team USA can destroy weaker sides like the Dominican Republic. And we learned that when the Americans miss a lot of shots against at team with size someone like Brazil can hang around for a while.

None of which tells us much. The reality is there are only a few teams with real medal chances in London besides the United States and in the next few days they will play two of them.

These are the games that will give us a better idea of what is to come.

Sunday (3:30 ET on NBA TV) it is Argentina — a team that boasts Manu Ginobili, Luis Scola, Carlos Delfino and a core from that country’s “golden age” of basketball that know how to play the international game. This is a group that has fared well in international competitions for years and is a tough out. (Tuesday Team USA will face off against the second best team in the tournament, Spain.)

This game will be cloaked Dream Team talk — it is being played in Barcelona, where the ’92 team won its gold. It is the 20th anniversary of the Dream Team team and there was some controversy when Kobe Bryant said this Team USA could beat that side and Michael Jordan laughed at it. Sunday Team USA will be wearing Dream Team throwback uniforms.

But the USA doesn’t have to play the Dream Team, that’s a legacy debate, a barstool discussion. One you can’t even really have properly before the Olympics.

Argentina is real and pretty good. They can defend and score. The USA is better (Team USA is a 28 point favorite). But can the USA use its pressure defense to get easy buckets in transition against a more experienced team? Can the USA execute in the half court? How will their defense fare against a side that does execute and moves very well off the ball (plus can shoot)? Can LeBron James play the four against Scola? Is Kevin Durant going to keep lighting it up? Is Deron Williams going to keep up his amazing level of play against stiffer competition?

The USA and Argentina will play in London, they are in the same first-round group. This is just a warm-up. But both sides will be trying to send a message.

And we’ll be left trying to make inferences from the style points.