The U.S. put away Dirk Nowitzki and Germany in a hurry Monday, completing an undefeated march through pool play with a 106-57 victory.
Not since the Dream Team rumbled through Las Ramblas 16 years ago in Barcelona has a team looked this unbeatable. The Americans won their pool games by 32.2 points and averaged 103 points and now move on to a quarterfinal meeting with Australia, the only team they haven’t been able to blow out.
the game, the team exchanged congratulations with Phelps, now free to enjoy the rest of the games after winning eight gold medals in his record-setting Olympics. Bryant and Carmelo Anthony were among the U.S. players who went out to the pool to watch Phelps.
The Americans (5-0) return to the basketball arena Wednesday against Australia, the team that’s provided them with their toughest test in China.
The U.S. led by only seven points midway through the fourth quarter of an 87-76 exhibition victory in Shanghai two weeks ago over an Australian team that didn’t have starting center Andrew Bogut of the Milwaukee Bucks. He was resting a sore right ankle.
It’s hard to imagine a repeat of that semi-Shanghai surprise with the way the U.S. has played in Beijing.
Dwight Howard, who had swimming goggles propped on his head for the postgame press conference, scored 22 points. LeBron James had 18, 16 in the first half, and the Americans put three other players in double figures.
Bryant finished with 13 points as the Americans shot 55 percent from the floor and tossed in 11 more 3-pointers after making 12 in their last game.
With the top seed in their group already clinched, the Americans could have come out flat like Lithuania, which entered Monday as the other unbeaten and was trounced 106-75 by Australia.
Instead, they came out and flattened Germany.
The Americans scored 3 seconds into the game when Howard batted the tip to James, who threw it ahead to Anthony for a layup. That was the start of eight straight U.S. points, and the end of any suspense.
Germany missed nine of its first 10 shots, including a blown dunk and a botched putback by Los Angeles Clippers center Kaman. Bryant missed a dunk, too, during that stretch, but Howard and James had consecutive slams to make it 18-3.
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 Howard scored four straight to make it 49-19 with 3 minutes left in the half.
Bryant hit the side of the rim on another slam attempt early in the third quarter, so he backed up 20 feet and tossed in back-to-back 3s for a 62-29 cushion. Howard later slammed down an alley-oop from Wade, turning into an 80-39 bulge with 2:41 remaining in the period.
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.
Kaman, who joined the Germans this summer after getting German citizenship, managed just six points
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