Team USA Crushes Venezuela in FIBA Americas Opener

Carmelo Anthony scored 17 points and Kobe Bryant added 14, as the United States Senior Men’s Basketball team destroyed Venezuela last night 112-69 to open up the FIBA Americas Basketball Tournament.

Michael Redd also dropped 17 points and the Americans got 16 from Amare Stoudemire and 12 from Dwight Howard. They will face the U.S. Virgin Islands, led by Phoenix Suns guard Raja Bell, in their next game Thursday night.

“The tournament’s going to get a lot harder than we had tonight, but as a team I think we played well,” said LeBron James. “We shared the ball well. We did everything that we needed to do to win a basketball game.” Carmelo Anthony, LeBron James and Kobe Bryant were all named starters last week and were joined on the court by Jason Kidd and Dwight Howard to begin the game.

Greivis Vasquez scored 12 points for Venezuela, which will face Canada on Thursday.