The Aussies had quite a time after the first day in the Olympics celebrating the efforts of the swimming athletes and were leading all countries in the medal count. But in basketball, they had their worst day. It actually was a nightmare, with Canada winning 101-90.

For Canada it was Steve Nash -- familiar to Americans as an NBA player -- who led the way playing 36 minutes scoring 16 points, with six rebounds and 15 assists. But even more important, he did it with fire in his eyes and excitement in his heart as he thoroughly enjoyed dominating the heralded Aussie team.

Ray Allen is the star against China.(AP)

Andrew Gaze, scored 24 points to lead his team as usual, but as Al McGuire used to say, every team has a high scorer, but it doesn't mean that he's necessarily the best player. What really was most disappointing to me was the play of two NBA players: Luc Longley with eight points and five rebounds, and Chris Antsey with 11 points and 3 rebounds.

These are NBA players -- and in the case of Longley, one who started for an NBA championship team -- who did little to offset the first-rate play of Nash. Now the Aussies find themselves facing the fire of Yugoslavia, a team that beat Russia 66-60 and shows promise, despite their youth, of being able to win Group B.

For the United States, it was business as usual, beating China 119-72. But the score is not indicative of the promise the young Chinese frontline showed early in the game, when they actually at one point led the U.S. team. Zhizhi Wang, 7-1, Ming Yao, 7-5 and Batere Menk 6-11 really created some problems for the U.S. team for the first five or six minutes of the game.

Unfortunately for the Chinese, that's about how long they were in it. The threesome only got to play 49 total minutes, and their inexperience really showed as they got into serious foul trouble early, leaving the first half with four fouls each. Wang is only 20 and Yao only 19. Believe me, these two young men would be significant factors in the United States if they were playing at the collegiate level. Wang, who was voted the MVP in the Chinese professional league, would make an impact in the NBA.

The difference was the tremendous talent and depth that the U.S. team has. As I mentioned earlier, this U.S. team might be much tougher for the international teams because of the incredible quickness and the ability to play the floor both offensively and defensively. International teams rarely see that style of play.

The only letdown came early in first half as the defense, which is they're strongest side, fell apart. Only three men were working and two were watching, which enabled the Chinese to hit the open man and negate the pressure defense for the opening minutes of the first half.

Steve Smith came into the game and provided on the offensive end of the floor some terrific offensive basketball and got his team moving in the right direction. Once America started to roll and picked up the tempo offensively, there was no stopping them. You could tell after the halftime talk that the concentration of the NBA stars really intensified, and it really became a matter of how many points they would win by.

The most impressive player of the night was Ray Allen. As one of the replacement players, Allen has really impressed the coaching staff and players with his ability on both ends of the floor and his ability to be a longtime star in the NBA. At the end of the second half when it started to turn into a playground game, Allen turned up the defense and applied tremendous pressure to end the game on a positive note.

The biggest problem coach Rudy Tomjanovich and his staff have -- because this team does not bring egos to the floor -- is finding playing time for everyone. Allan Houston, unfortunately, was not able to play because of the wrist injury he suffered in practice. But that is only temporary, and I would not be surprised to see him perform against Italy, the next opponent for the United States.

This is an exuberant team, a team with great talent and quickness. It's also a team that should only be playing against the history of past Dream Teams because it is by far the best team in the Olympics. It will be interesting to watch this group develop with sportsmanship and decorum. When you're as dominating as this team could be, you have a tendency for fans to root for other teams unless they have the attitude of Dream Team I and win the fans over completely.

I will find it interesting in Game 2 to see how these young American superstars handle themselves on the court both as players and ambassadors for the game of basketball. If the game against China serves as the example, the Americans are off to a sensational two weeks at the Olympics in Australia.

Billy Packer has been an analyst for CBS Sports for 19 years, covering NCAA basketball.