Annihilation of Angola precedes tougher game for the U.S. men

Thursday's quarterfinals are Lithuania-China, Italy-Puerto Rico, Greece-Argentina and Spain-United States.
ATHENS, Greece (AP) -- When a day of drama had ended and the quarterfinal pairings were set, the news was not great for the United States.
In order to get to the semifinals and possibly the gold medal game, first the Americans will have to defeat Spain -- the team that left the widest wake of impressed and defeated opponents during the preliminary round.
"I don't know anything about them," Tim Duncan said of Spain after the Americans cruised past Angola 89-53 to finish the opening round with a record of 3-2.
The skinny
Here's the scoop, Timmy: The Spaniards have finesse yet are physical, they're led by an NBA player who's tougher than he looks, and they usually shoot 3-pointers the same way your teammates do -- not all that well.
Spain's players had an opportunity Monday to take it easy against New Zealand, lose a game and thereby knock Serbia-Montenegro out of medal contention. Instead, they banged bodies as though it was a wrestling match, won by four points and let Serbia-Montenegro self-destruct later in the day.
"This is the Olympic stage, the setting for miracles," China guard Liu Wei said after his team stunned the defending world champions 67-66 to advance to the quarterfinals and relegate Serbia-Montenegro to today's 11th-place game against winless Angola.
In other games with medal-round ramifications, Greece defeated Puerto Rico 78-58 and Italy edged Argentina 76-75.
The matchups for Thursday's quarterfinals are Lithuania-China, Italy-Puerto Rico, Greece-Argentina and Spain-United States.
Coach's comment
"We went out and tried to get the victory for the respect of the competition, the respect of our rivals and the respect of ourselves," Spain coach Mario Pesquera said. "There's also another important factor: When you have a winning streak like we have, it's a little dangerous to break it."
Spain (5-0) also won all of its tuneup games before the Olympics, and the Americans would be ill-advised to underestimate them.
"Spain dominated our group," New Zealand coach Tab Baldwin said. "I think any team going against Spain has probably got to be considered an underdog."
In the opening moments of Monday's game against Angola, Duncan found just one defender -- not the usual two -- guarding him. He gladly took advantage, dropping in a shot.
Duncan scored a team-high 15 points in just 13 minutes, and the Americans dominated the boards Barcelona-style with a 52-17 edge in rebounding as NBA commissioner David Stern watched from 10 rows behind the American bench.
No waiting
Shawn Marion made the U.S. team's first 3-point attempt 82 seconds into the second quarter for a 28-14 lead, and LeBron James hit another 3 to extend it to 33-14. The U.S. team finished 3-for-6 from behind the arc and 33-of-60 (55 percent) overall.
"The only negative, I thought, was we turned the ball over a lot [12 times] in the first half, which has plagued us a lot in this tournament," coach Larry Brown said.