Olympics: USA's NBA stars take revenge against Greece

Friday 15 August 2008

BEIJING - Revenge-minded United States overwhelmed Greece 92-69 on Thursday at the Olympics, routing the only team that had beaten the US National Basketball Association stars since the 2004 Athens Olympics.

Kobe Bryant and Chris Bosh each scored 18 points to lead the US squad, which also got 17 points from Dwyane Wade and 13 from LeBron James in an impressive display in a Group B preliminary round contest long awaited by the Americans.

"This was a big game for us. We had this one circled for a long time," US guard Chris Paul said. "A few of us felt we really needed this game to prove to ourselves we do mean business and we're ready to win the gold medal."

The Greeks upset a US NBA squad 101-95 in the semi-finals of the 2006 worlds and in the first meeting since they stayed within 20-16 after the first quarter before the American stars pulled away for good in the second quarter.

"They played much better, much more aggressive," Greece guard Nikolaos Zisis said. "They knew what to do to take us out of our game."

Trying to reclaim the global throne after settling for third place in Athens and at the 2006 World Championship in Japan, US NBA standouts used superior speed to set up spectacular slam dunks and dominate defensively.

"Kobe had a lot of good dunks. That was crazy," Wade said. "That was athleticism for you."

The Americans remained unbeaten after three games in preliminary round Group B play ahead of a showdown Saturday against world champion Spain, also unbeaten, that will likely decide which team claims a top quarter-final seed.

The attacking US defense forced 25 turnovers, outscoring the Greeks 28-4 off of giveaways, and made 15 steals, six of them by Wade.

"I stepped up my defense," Wade said. "My job is to play hard defensively."

Bosh scored 12 points in the first half while James and Bryant each added 11 points and Wade contributed 10 on the way to a 51-32 half-time edge.

"They pretty much picked us apart (in 2006). The only way to change that was to be aggressive," Paul said. "We're built to play defense. We will eventually impose our will and wear them down."

Wade scored eight US points in a row in the middle of the second quarter to give the Americans a 36-26 edge.

James brought the loudest roars from the crowd with a steal and a reverse slam dunk and jammed in another on a rebound as he and Bosh each scored six points in a pivotal 15-4 US run to end the first half.

"The defense in the second quarter turned it around for us," US coach Mike Krzyzewski said. "We played very good defense. I'm proud of our effort."

Bryant provided all the points in an 8-2 US run early in the third quarter and it quickly became a question of how many aerobatic feats the NBA stars would pull off to the cheers of supportive Chinese fans.

"We feel like the Beatles when we go someplace," Paul said. "Every time we go out of the hotel they are celebrating us."

Greece fell to 1-2 and will battle Germany and China for the group's last two quarter-final spots with hopes of meeting the US squad again for a medal.

"If we meet them again, it's going to be harder to beat us," Greece coach Panagiotis Giannakis vowed. "I think we learned a lot. My team can play better. We gave them opportunities to make easy baskets."