OMIYA, Saitama Pref. -- Tuesday's game between the Dream Team and Spain was a surprisingly close affair -- for the first 20 minutes, at least. After that, the heavily favored U.S. turned the contest into a blowout.
Using a balanced scoring attack and a smothering defense in the second half, Team USA thrashed the Spaniards 95-66 in the Super Dream Games 2000, a round-robin tournament also involving the Japanese national squad. After the game, Jason Kidd issued a warning to anyone with thoughts of beating the Americans during the upcoming Sydney Olympics.
"Our mission is to seek and destroy," said the Phoenix Suns guard. "We want to be compared with that '92 (Dream Team). We're not measuring ourselves against an opponent, we're measuring ourselves against the best ever assembled."