US Olympic basketball team's Kobe Bryant scored 18 points in the USA's win against Greece. - AP

BEIJING (AP)

The United States stopped the pick-and-rolls and just about everything else to beat Greece 92-69 yesterday at the Beijing Olympics.

The Americans that looked so lost two years ago appear to have found their Olympic defensive way.

Batting away balls or swatting shots on seemingly every possession late in the second quarter, the Americans broke open a close game and went on to win big.

China also won, getting 30 points from Yao Ming in a 85-68 win over Angola.

Kobe Bryant and Chris Bosh each scored 18 points for the United States (3-0), which clinched a spot in the medal round and moves on to a matchup of Group B unbeatens Saturday against world champion Spain. The winner will earn the group's top seed for the quarter-finals.

Dwyane Wade added 17 points and LeBron James scored 13.

Greece stunned the Americans two years ago in the semi-finals of the world championships, shredding the US defence for 63 per cent shooting with clinical execution of its pick-and-roll offence in a 101-95 victory.

Suffocatiing defence

This time, the Americans had an answer for everything, using a suffocating defence to extend a seven-point lead into a 19-point cushion in the final 5 1-2 minutes of the first half.

"Any time you get beat it's embarrassing and that's enough," Bosh said. "And we can really use that as a tool to help us with our defence now, and that's the name of the game. Because if you play good defence, no matter how you're shooting the ball you're going to be in the game."

Theo Papaloukas scored 15 points for Greece, which found things easy against the Americans two years ago but not this time. The Greeks had 26 field goals but committed 25 turnovers.

In other games, Brad Newley scored 24 points to lead Australia to a 106-68 win against Iran. Los Angeles Lakers centre Pau Gasol had 13 points in Spain's 72-59 victory against Dallas Mavericks forward Dirk Nowitzki and Germany.

Nowitzki scored 11 points for Germany.

Rimantas Kaukenas scored a team-leading 20 points as Lithuania defeated Russia. In what had been an extremely close game, Lithuania pulled ahead for the final time 82-77 on a thundering three-pointer by Jonas Maciulis with just over three minutes to go.

Argentina beat Croatia 77-53 in the final game of the day.