United States centre Dwight Howard dunks against Greece during their men's preliminary basketball game yesterday. The US won 92-69. - 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.

These 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 US (3-0), who clinched a spot in the medal round and move on to a matchup of Group B unbeatens tomorrow 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.

"We played like we wanted to win. We played together," Wade said. "We were very aware of their offensive sets, we were very aware of their personnel and we played like that. So we were kind of a step in front of what they wanted to do because we kind of knew everything already."

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 night.