Active.com 2008 Olympics : Tags : australia

BRING ON THE AUSSIE'S

After passing back-to-back tests against the elite teams of Europe, the U.S. men's basketball team probably could have beaten overmatched Germany wearing lederhosen to close the preliminary round of the Olympic tournament 5-0. Dwight Howard scored 22 points and LeBron James had 18, 16 in the first half, Monday as the United States completed an undefeated march through pool play.

The Americans were scoring so easily, they practically got in each other's way. Chris Paul led a 3-on-1 break and threw an alley-oop that could have gone to either James or Dwyane Wade. James jumped higher and got it to lay it in, then stepped outside to hit his second 3 for a 23-5 bulge. Up 19 after one, the U.S. scored the first eight points of the second to make it 39-12. The lead was 28 after James drilled 3-pointers on consecutive U.S. possessions, and ballooned to 30 for the first time when Dwight Howard scored four straight to make it 49-19 with 3 minutes left in the half.

The U.S. isn't ready to crown themselves the next big thing, a la Phelps. At the moment, the Americans are thinking about their quarterfinal game against Australia, the last team to push the U.S. Also, Spain plays Croatia at 2:30 a.m. Lithuania plays China at 4:45 a.m., and Argentina plays Greece at 10:15 a.m. The U.S. knows Australia is a physical team that lost by just 11 when the two countries played an exhibition game in Shanghai on Aug. 5. They kept it close despite not having their lone NBA player, Milwaukee Bucks center Andrew Bogut, available for the contest.

When the quarterfinals tip off tomorrow, everybody is 0-0. Should the Americans lose, they won't even end up with a medal - as happened to Spain in 2004, after they went unbeaten in pool play. Watch TEAM USA lift their basketball game to an entirely different competitive level against the Aussie's.

Lebron vs. Greece.jpg