U.S. basketball team rolls to blow out China

BEIJING — A few things just seemed out of place Sunday in Beijing.

A torrential rainstorm swamping the second day of competition at Beijing Summer Games. A Sunday night basketball game mixing a host of NBA superstar talent with halftime and time-out entertainment performances by two-man tandems dressed in ancient Chinese lion costumes and lines of young women dancing with hand fans. The standing room only Olympic Basketball Gymnasium crowd of 11,083 wildly cheering — for both sides.

Oh, and a United States-China game that started off with a Yao Ming 3-pointer, followed by an early barrage of Chinese treys that kept host China even with the powerhouse Americans through the first 15 minutes of their Olympic opener.

But as the game's final seconds ticked away after midnight, the United States had restored some semblance of order and expectation with a 101-70 rout of China, overwhelming the hosts with nonstop athleticism and a stifling defense that camouflaged early offensive woes.

"I think the fans in China got a great show tonight," said Dwyane Wade, who led the U.S with 7-of-7 shooting and a game-high 19 points, showing no signs of last season's knee injury.

LeBron James added 18 points on 8-of-12 shooting, adding a series of soaring, crowd-pleasing dunks on offense and several high-wire-act blocks on defense. Kobe Bryant and Dwight Howard completed the U.S. double-digit scorers with 13 apiece.

For the Americans, Sunday's game was to shake off opening-night jitters, learn how to make real-time adjustments against international foes and set a tone and tempo to dictate the game.

"We were a little wound up, a little sped up," said Deron Williams, the Utah Jazz guard who finished with nine points and four rebounds. "Once we settled down in the second quarter and especially in the second half, we were able to blow the game open, get some points in transition and finally start hitting some shots form he outside."

Carlos Boozer, Williams' teammate both on the Jazz and U.S. squad, agreed: "We're going to build off this game and continue to improve so that by the time we get to the final game, we're playing our best basketball."

Boozer finished with five points, three rebounds, an assist and a steal.

The Americans were at their best on defense, dominating the Chinese in steals (14-2) and then capitalizing on the other end with points off turnovers (a 12-2 margin) and scoring on the fast break (24-4).