Crowd cheers on as U.S. women romp

BEIJING — The fans here have been unfailingly polite to the U.S. basketball teams, going so far as to cheer for them nearly as ardently as they do their own team.

But as the U.S. women throttled the Chinese 108-63 on Monday at the Olympic Basketball Gymnasium, an age-old question of international Olympic relations arose.

Leading 33-11 at the end of the first quarter and 61-27 at halftime, the Americans had to confront the conundrum of how to manage the blowout and keep with the Olympic spirit.

Compounding the difficulty for the Americans was the fact that arguably their two most talented players, Candace Parker and Sylvia Fowles, come off the bench.

"It's a good problem to have," guard Diana Taurasi said.

Tina Thompson led all scorers with 27 points, and Fowles continued her eye-opening international play with 18 points and eight rebounds.

"They were just way too good for us," Chinese coach Tom Maher said.

To the credit of the crowd, the Chinese roared with approval, gasped and waved flags at every basket. They chanted "China" throughout the second half, even as the baskets the Chinese scored were increasingly irrelevant.

"They went on a 7-0 run and I looked up and [the U.S. lead] was 37," said Taurasi, laughing because the reaction of the crowd made the advantage feel smaller.

Storm point guard Sue Bird had two points, two assists and three steals for the Americans.

The United States did not press after halftime. But when your bench players are still among the best in the world, there is really no easy way to take pity on an overmatched opponent.

It is a problem that the U.S. women are going to face again this week. They next play Mali, which is considered the weakest team in the tournament, on Wednesday. After that is a game with Spain, which lost to China in its opening game. That is followed by New Zealand, which is one of the weaker teams.

"We're not showing everything, so that does concern me a little bit," U.S. coach Anne Donovan said. "At the same time, we've been tested for two years."

The teams that the United States has to be most concerned with, Australia and Russia, will not appear until the medal round. The trick will be to stay sharp for those games while playing teams with inferior talent.

"I don't fear these players losing their hunger and their focus with the lopsided wins," said Donovan.

An Angolan challenge

Most Americans may only remember the Charles Barkley elbow incident from the 1992 Barcelona Games when they think of the Angolan national team in the context of Olympic basketball history.

But Angola, which will face the U.S. men on Tuesday morning, has been the class of the African continent for nearly two decades.

The team the U.S. will see has a balanced attack with younger players like forward Olimpio Cipriano, power forward Joaquim Gomes and power forward Eduardo Mingas. That group led Angola to ninth place at the 2006 FIBA world championships in Japan, the highest finish for any African nation in nearly 50 years.

It also nearly took down Germany in Japan, eventually losing in triple-overtime with German star Dirk Nowitzki scoring 47 points. Angola then won gold at the 2007 FIBA Africa championships to qualify for Beijing.

New York Times, The Associated Press and The (Raleigh, N.C.) News & Observer contributed to this report.