The Boomers are adamant they can be more nightmare than dream team opponent for the star-studded United States in a blockbuster semi-final in Tokyo on Thursday.

The Boomers kept their hopes of a first-ever Olympic medal of any colour alive on Tuesday night with a dominant 97-59 win over Argentina at Yoyogi National Stadium. The US had earlier blitzed past Spain 95-81.

But the united Australians will be far from daunted by the match-up, believing a gold medal destiny finally awaits them at these Olympics. They will now at least play off for a bronze medal regardless of their result against the US.

“We’ve had one goal in our mind and that’s to win the gold medal,” Aussie star Joe Ingles said.

“There’s another step to that.

“We’re just happy to get the win, (we’ll) rest up and recover now.”

The Boomers started the game perfectly with a three-point bucket from Matthew Dellavedova — his only score for the match — after just 13 seconds from the tip-off and then Argentina bungled their first offensive pattern. But the Australians got too carried away with the outside shooting soon after with eight of their first 10 shots coming from beyond the arc and only two of them hitting the target.

Argentina seemed to be scrapping harder for the loose ball, with 41-year-old veteran Luis Scola troublesome early and Nicolas Laprovittola proving hard to stop as they recorded a four-point lead at the first break.

The Boomers than made an 8-2 run to start the second quarter to tear back the lead, captain Patty Mills (18 points, four assists) inspiring the charge with some hustling help defence and hard running back into offensive transition. Matisse Thybulle’s (12pts, five rebounds, three steals, two assists) energy at both ends of the floor was also influential.

Nick Kay (10pts, 10 reounds, three assists) must have thought it was his birthday, which it actually was, with the space on offence the Argentinians were affording him. It was almost as if they had never heard of the now 29-year-old dual Perth Wildcats NBL championship player.

Argentina were gradually finding it hard to find effective avenues to the bucket and began unravelling with missed three-point shots and some sloppy passing, as the Boomers picked up their team defensive intensity.

Australia got out to a double-figure lead for the first time mid-way through the third term when Jock Landale’s second three-pointer opened up a 10-point spread. Argentina stayed in the contest by upping their tempo into offence and despite cutting into the margin at times, a 12-point margin stood against them with a quarter to play.

In foul trouble early in the match, Dante Exum used his extreme athleticism to leave no doubt how the final quarter would play out with a monster dunk in traffic that again set the Boomers alight.

The final term was all one-way traffic for the Boomers as they went on a remarkable 17-0 run to put the game beyond doubt.

Coach Brian Goordjian put his stars on ice late in the match as the tears flowed on the Argentinian bench.

The Boomers will now meet the USA in the semi-final, with France to take on Slovenia in the other semi.