U.S. men's basketball team looks golden at Olympics

August 16, 12:50 PMLA Sports ExaminerBrian Milne

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If the U.S. men’s basketball team continues to play like this, you might as well give them the gold medal right now.

The Americans dismantled reigning world champion Spain 119-82 on Saturday at the Beijing Olympics in an all-around dominant performance that’s reminiscent of the Dream Team days.

Then again, we’ve said this before about American squads that ended up mopping the floor with teams early on (see 2004 and 2006).

There are still some obvious holes in this year’s U.S. squad – particularly its lack of size (with Dwight Howard being the lone true center). But there are some big differences between this year’s “Redeem Team” and those “Soft as Ice Cream Teams” in 2004 and 2006 – the '08 squad has LeBron James AND Kobe Bryant, is playing unselfish basketball, is playing defense and is playing with a playoff-type mentality.

Anything can happen over the next week, and one loss knocks the Americans out of gold medal contention, but barring an injury to Bryant or James, serious foul trouble or a horrendous shooting night, the U.S. might not be tested again until it runs into Argentina.

Argentina, for those who stopped watching after the Americans flamed out four years ago, took home the last Olympic gold and suits up four NBA players in Manu Ginobili, Andres Nocioni, Fabricio Oberto and Luis Scola.

But in the meantime, the U.S. will have to focus on Monday's game against Dirk and Caveman Kaman’s Crew from Germany. Bogut’s Bunch from Australia are likely on deck with Argentina or Lithuania waiting in the wings – that’s when things should finally get interesting for the “Redeem Team.”