Olympic Basketball | U.S. prepares for camp

LAS VEGAS — Three weeks wasn't enough time to prepare for the last Olympics. Therefore, the U.S. men's basketball team is trying three years.

The Americans open training camp today, but they are much closer to the end of their Beijing Olympics preparations than the beginning. With the same coaching staff and many of the same players back for their third consecutive summer, much of the work already has been done.

The United States will be part of a strong Group B, which includes all three medalists from the last world championships. Group B has 2006 world champion Spain, 2006 world runner-up Greece, Germany, host China and Angola.

Greece knocked off the Americans 101-95 in the semifinals of the 2006 worlds.

The Olympic tournament begins Aug. 10, with the United States facing China in the final game of the day.

For the U.S. team, there isn't the same rush to cram everything in as there was four years ago, when the Americans were together for 20 days before their first game in Athens, Greece — a 92-73 blowout loss to Puerto Rico that was the program's worst defeat in its history at the Olympics. They lost twice more and left with a bronze medal, citing a lack of preparation as one of the biggest problems.

Carmelo Anthony of the Denver Nuggets was on that U.S. team, and knows this one can't use that excuse.

"We've been together for years now, so we know what to expect," Anthony said. "It isn't like we just came together in two weeks. We've been together last summer, all summer. Six of the guys been together the summer before that, and a couple of us been together in '04. So we've been together for a long time."

Anthony and other high-profile NBA players such as LeBron James, Dwyane Wade, Chris Paul, Dwight Howard and Chris Bosh were together for 42 days in 2006, counting the world championships. Much of the team was in Las Vegas last summer for 24 days for the FIBA Americas tournament.

"We've had almost the same team three years, so they have a pretty good understanding of what we want to do," said U.S. assistant coach Mike D'Antoni, who is coach of the New York Knicks. "More or less, the same thing as last summer."

But there is plenty to be done. The starting five seemingly is set with Anthony, James, Howard, Kobe Bryant and Jason Kidd, but coach Mike Krzyzewski of Duke needs to settle on a rotation beyond that.

Chauncey Billups and Amare Stoudemire, two top reserves from last year's Olympic qualifying tournament, aren't available this summer.

"It's a work in progress, still," Bryant said.