Not even the original Dream Team had a performance like this.
Dream Team II scored 42 points in the first 10 minutes and 73 in the first half on the way to a 137-91 victory over Russia in the gold-medal game of the World Championship of Basketball.Scoring 137 points in a 40-minute game - which was 10 more points than Dream Team I ever managed - is the equivalent of 164 in a regulation 48-minute NBA contest. Sunday's outcome gave the Americans a 120.1 scoring average for the tournament, eclipsing the original Dream Team's 117.3 in the 1992 Olympics.
But Dream Team I was more consistent, winning by at least 32 points in every Olympic game. This year's team had three lackluster performances.
"The U.S. has the best players in the world, regardless of whether it's Dream Team I, II, III, IV, V, VI or VII," said Derrick Coleman, who led the big early burst that gave the Americans a 26-point advantage. "Comparing Dream Teams means people are just trying to divide us."
Shaquille O'Neal, who averaged 18 points and 8.5 rebounds for the tournament and was named Most Valuable Player, said the teams are hard to compare because their makeup was so different.
"We're different," O'Neal said. "They were older and more experienced. But I still think we'd beat them."
Dream Team II trailed early in one of the previous seven games, and all were close after five minutes. But the Americans scored the first nine points and led 25-10 five minutes into Sunday's game.
With 10:41 left in the first half, it was 42-16 and the U.S. team was 16-for-17 from the field.
"We wanted to play our best early, and it was no contest," coach Don Nelson said.
Russia, which lost to the United States 111-94 Friday night, was coming off an emotional 66-64 semifinal victory over favored Croatia, a game that ended just 15 hours before tip-off Sunday. The Russians also played without their best big man, Andrei Fetisov, who was not in uniform because of an injured right ankle.
"Last night's victory took everything out of us," Russia coach Sergei Belov said. "But staying with these players for 10, 20, 30 minutes is an achievement."
Dominique Wilkins, the oldest American player at 34, led the United States with 20 points, while O'Neal had 18 points and 10 rebounds.