26 Jul 2008

Team USA beat Canada in basketball match

4:03 pm on 26 July 2008

Carmelo Anthony, Dwyane Wade and Michael Redd scored 20 points apiece as the USA dominated Canada 120-65 in a Beijing Olympic basketball tune-up in Las Vegas.

Chris Paul handed out eight assists for the United States, who will play two warm-up games in Macao and two more in Shanghai before their Olympic opener in Beijing against hosts China on August 10th.

Team USA, stocked with National Basketball Association stars, had been practising against a select team of NBA players in training camp in Las Vegas.

Cleveland Cavaliers superstar LeBron James injured his right ankle in training this week and didn't play.

The United States are vying to regain international basketball glory for the first time since claiming Olympic gold in 2000.

Team USA was embarrassed en route to winning bronze medals in the 2004 Athens Olympics and the 2006 World Championships.

Since those debacles, Team USA has been restructured - starting at the top. USA Basketball hired veteran NBA executive Jerry Colangelo as the architect of the squad and appointed iconic Duke University coach Mike Krzyzewski as coach.

Players since have been forced to commit to Team USA for three years to foster the kind of continuity other international teams possess.