US guard Dwayne Wade hangs on the rim after he scored against Germany in their men's preliminary basketball game yesterday. The US won 106-57. - AP
BEIJING (AP):
THE UNITED States beat Germany 106-57 yesterday in men's Olympic basketball, advancing to the medal round and a potential tough game against Australia.
Dwight Howard scored 22 points and LeBron James had 18, 16 in the first half, as the United States completed an undefeated march through pool play.
Dirk Nowitzki, the Dallas Mavericks all-star, scored 14 points for Germany (1-4), which completed a disappointing Olympics. The Germans looked like contenders in a 95-66 rout of Angola in their opener, but then dropped four straight.
The Americans, 5-0, led by only seven points midway through the fourth quarter of an 87-76 exhibition victory in Shanghai over Australia two weeks ago. And the Australians were playing without starting centre Andrew Bogut of the Milwaukee Bucks, who was resting a sore right ankle.
American star Kobe Bryant is wary.
Playing well
"We feel like we're playing very well right now, but you have to keep in mind it's single elimination," Bryant said. "You can't afford any slip-ups."
Vasileios Spanoulis and Ioannis Bourousis each scored 19 points to lead Greece to a 91-77 victory over China. Antonios Fotsis added 17 points for Greece (3-2).
Yao Ming, who didn't score a basket until late in the second quarter, led China (2-3) with 18 points.
The game completed the brackets for the medal rounds. The US, winners of Group B, would face the winner of Argentina-Greece in the semi-finals if they beat Australia tomorrow.
In the other bracket, Group A winners Lithuania meet China and Spain face Croatia, with the winners advancing to the semi-finals.
Barrage
Greece took the pro-China crowd out of the game with an 11-2 run early in the second quarter on their way to a 46-24 half-time lead. China hit a barrage of three-pointers to pull within 10 points late in the third quarter, but the Greeks withstood the rally.
Australia beat Lithuania 106-75 and Argentina downed Russia 91-79 in other games.
Bogut, who led the Australians yesterday with 23 points, has one game plan to beat the Americans.
"Shoot 100 per cent," he said.
Houston Rockets forward Luis Scola scored 37 points to lead defending Olympic champions Argentina past already eliminated Russia. Chicago Bulls forward Andres Nocioni added 19 points while Utah Jazz forward Andrei Kirilenko led Russia with 23 points.
Russia battled hard to save pride, coming to within one point of their opponents in the fourth quarter. With Argentine football great Diego Maradona looking on, however, Argentina held on.
