OLYM - USA into the record books

LONDON (Olympics) - Carmelo Anthony and the United States entered the history books on Thursday night by scoring an Olympic record 156 points in their victory over Nigeria.

New York Knicks star Anthony buried 10 of his 12 shots from three-point range and finished 13 of 16 from the floor and had a game-high 37 points as the Americans won, 156-73.

Making Anthony's scoring explosion all the more remarkable is that he only played 14 minutes and 29 seconds.

"Tonight, as a unit, we had it going," said Anthony, who is playing at his third straight Olympic Games.

"The percentage was just incredible. Everyone contributed. It's difficult to explain. It's part of being in the zone that I was in."

As a team, the USA made 29 of 46 shots (63%) from behind the arc.

USA coach Mike Krzyzewski marvelled at his team's shooting display.

"We just shot better than any team in a game that I've ever coached," said Krzyzewski, who has been at the helm of the USA since the 2006 FIBA World Championship.

He is a legendary coach at Duke University.

"Our guys just couldn't miss,” he said.

“They shared the ball, had 41 assists.

"When you hit 29 threes, it's very difficult to lose in a game like that.”

The coach had warm words for Nigeria.

"I thought Nigeria played hard.

“As much as we were scoring initially, they were scoring, too.

"We scored a lot of points, but they scored a lot of points.

"They got worn out and we just had more players.

"It's just an incredible shooting performance.

"The score is irrelevant to us. I just hope we save some points for our next games."

Nigeria's Ike Diogu, who has played in the NBA, said: "We're all professionals and my teammates play in Europe and they know what high intensity is.

"We just didn't do it tonight. The mindset of the game was that we wanted to win tonight.

"We wanted to show to the world our talent. We didn't get it done."

Diogu says that the Americans are favorites to win the gold, especially if they bury one jump shot after another the way they did on Thursday.

"If they shoot like this, I don't know if there is a team that can beat them," Diogu said.

FIBA