BEIJING -- LeBron James dominated the game with his size and strength on both ends, and Dwyane Wade scored 19 points to give the United States a 97-76 victory over Angola on Tuesday at the Olympics.
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| LeBron James is a force to be reckoned with in the victory over Angola. (AP) |
Wade was perfect from the field in Beijing until missing in the third quarter.
"We played with really good energy in spurts and played some really terrific basketball," U.S. coach Mike Krzyzewski said. "Our goal wasn't to win by a certain margin. It was to really work hard and keep up our pressure and then once that was done, we just worked on a few other things."
Earlier, Pau Gasol scored 29 points to lead world champion Spain over Yao Ming and host China 85-75 in overtime.
Spain, which finished out of the medals at Athens in 2004, remains unbeaten in Group B with four points and next faces Germany on Thursday. China is without a win after two games, including a 101-80 drubbing at the hands of the United States.
Also in Group B, Vasileios Spanoulis and a dogged Greek defense curbed Dirk Nowitzki in a 87-64 win over Germany in Group B.
The United States improved to 4-0 against Angola, starting with the Dream Team's Olympic debut in 1992.
The Americans (2-0) moved on to face Greece, the team that stunned them two years ago in the semifinals of the World Championships. Two days later comes a matchup with Spain, the team that won that tournament and is also 2-0 in this one.
"I'm expecting this game right here to be tough," United States forward Carmelo Anthony said. "They know that we're coming back to redeem ourselves and I'm pretty sure that they watch us a lot."
Long before the rout of Angola started, the Americans were already looking ahead.
Krzyzewski and his staff were seated behind the baseline about 5½ hours earlier for a look at the Greeks, who shut down Germany over the final three quarters while pulling away.
Greece stunned the United States 101-95 two years ago in Japan. This U.S. team is much deeper, and James is a whole lot stronger.
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James hadn't done much offensively midway through the second quarter when he made his presence felt on the other end, jumping so high to block Felizardo Ambrosio's shot that it looked more like a volleyball spike, with James glaring back at the fallen Ambrosio as the ball went out of bounds.
The Angolans were down only seven with less than four minutes remaining in the half when James simply muscled them out of the way. After Wade's 3-pointer, James went all the way for a layup, then knocked Leonel Paulo backward to grab a loose ball and convert a three-point play that made it 47-32 with 2:26 left.
James came up with a steal and flipped the ball behind him to Chris Bosh for a bucket, then capped a 16-2 spurt with another layup that extended the U.S. lead to 55-34. The Americans were up 55-37 at the break, with James, Howard, Wade, Anthony and Bosh all perfect from the field.
The U.S. shooting would have been much better if not for Kobe Bryant's 0-for-5 half, but he quickly got involved in the third quarter with eight points, highlighted by a spinning dunk on the fast break.
Carlos Morais scored 24 points for Angola (0-2).
The Spaniards showed their quality in a dramatic game that had them trailing for much of the last three quarters.
Battling back from a 14-point deficit at the end of the third period, Juan Carlos Navarro tied the score at 70-70 with two minutes to go.
China then went ahead on a jumper by former NBA player Wang Zhizhi, but Spain pulled even again at 72-72 on a fadeaway jumper by Pau's little brother, Marc.
Spain raced to a four-point lead at the start of overtime, and with Yao on the bench and the rest of the squad drained, China crumbled in the face of back-to-back jams by Pau Gasol.
"It hurt, but we drop it and move forward," an exhausted Yao said.
Rudy Fernandez added 21 points for Spain. Liu Wei led the scoring for China with 19, followed by 15 each for Wang and Zhu Fangyu, and 11 for Yao.
In Group A, Linas Kleiza scored 22 points to lead unbeaten Lithuania to a 99-67 victory over Asian champion Iran. Sarunas Jasikevicius added 20 points while Hamed Ehadadi had 21 points for Iran, which is winless after two games.
Croatia defeated European champion Russia 85-78. Marko Popovic led Croatia with 22 points, while captain Andrei Kirilenko led Russia with 18.
