Spain stayed close for Thursday's first half before the U.S. collection of NBA stars pulled away for a 115-100 victory, led by co-captains Joe Dumars of the Detroit Pistons with 21 points and Reggie Miller of the Indiana Pacers with 20. Veteran forward Jordi Villacampa led Spain with 28 points.
"This game is the best thing that could happen to us," said U.S. coach Don Nelson, also coach of the Golden State Warriors. "It was a wake-up call."
China 97, Brazil 93, OT. In the other Pool A game at Copps Coliseum in Hamilton, Ontario, China battled back from a 9-point deficit to force overtime and win in the extra session.
Chinese forward Weidong Hu scored 27 points, including 14 of 17 free-throw shots. Teammate Naiqun Wu helped force the five-minute overtime by contributing 7 points with just one minute and 14 seconds remaining.
Brazil's veteran forward Paulo de Almeida scored 26 points while teammate Maury de Souza added 23.
In Pool C at Toronto's Maple Leaf Gardens, Russia, a strong medal contender, and Canada, the host nation, both built huge leads and coasted to easy victories.
Russia 84, Argentina 64. Russia ran off the game's first 11 points in a victory against Argentina.
Russia took a 48-31 halftime lead by dominating the boards 28-9 and finished the game with a 45-23 advantage in rebounding. The final score was Russia's largest lead of the game.
Yevgeny Kissourin led Russia with 19 points, Sergei Bazarevich had 17 and Sergei Babkov 14. Russia finished with a 33-19 advantage on the free throw line.
Canada 83, Angola 52. Canada built an 11-1 lead against Angola in its triumph. Joey Vickery came off the bench to score 14 points in 21 minutes for Canada, as 11 players broke into the scoring column for the host country.
Angola's Herlander Coimbra hit all five shots he took from 3-point range and led all scorers with 16.
Australia 87, South Korea 85. In a Pool B match-up in Hamilton, Andrew Gaze poured in 31 points as Australia escaped with a win over South Korea.
"We allowed ourselves to get lulled into a false sense of security, but fortunately we were able to hang on," said Gaze, a national team member since 1982.
Kyung-Eun Moon scored 24 points to pace South Korea, going 8-for-15 from 3-point range.
Croatia 85, Cuba 65. In the other Pool B game, Croatia, a strong contender for the silver medal behind the United States, beat Cuba. Croatian center Dino Radja, of the NBA's Boston Celtics, scored 25 points to lead all scorers.
Puerto Rico 102, Egypt 74. Jose Ortiz, a former member of the NBA's Utah Jazz, scored 19 points and James Carter added 17 to lead Puerto Rico, which erased a 21-15 deficit in the first half.
Greece 68, Germany 58. In another Pool D game, Greece, which trailed by as many as 11 points, used a 22-4 first-half run to beat Germany, the defending European champion.
The Greeks were led by Panagiotis Fassoulas with 18 points and Fanis Christodoulou with 16. Henning Harnisch was the Germans' high scorer with 16 points. (AP, Reuters)
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