USA/ANG – Americans cruise past Cipriano-less Angola

BEIJING (Olympics) – The United States strolled to their second win at the Olympics with Angola the victims on Tuesday evening at the Wukesong Arena.

Dwyane Wade poured in 19 points and Dwight Howard 14 as the Americans prevailed 97-76.

Howard had scored 12 and Wade 11 by half-time when the Americans held a 55-37 lead.

Angola had to play without arguably their best player in Olimpio Cipriano who was still suffering from a shoulder injury suffered in the tournament opening defeat to Germany.

“He may not even make it back for the rest of the Olympics,” Angola guard Armando Costa said to FIBA.com.

Angola only trailed 21-16 but Mike Krzyzewski’s team outscored the African champions 8-2 over the final two minutes of the first quarter for a 29-18 advantage.

The USA took command for good when they reeled off 12 straight points for a 51-32 lead late in the second quarter.

At half-time, the score was 55-37 and the Americans remained comfortably ahead the rest of the way.

The USA defense forced Angola into committing 25 turnovers and scored 15 points off those miscues.

“We played well but we had many turnovers and against a team like the USA, you can’t afford to do that,” Costa said.

“But our aim is to come out and play and to get a win and I think we can do it against China because we played them in our preparations.”

The Angolans play China on Thursday.

The game between the USA and Angola was played in a good spirit, and Wade said: “First of all, on behalf of my team-mates, we would like to thank Angola for playing so hard tonight.

“They made us play our A game. We are getting better like we do every game and we are really proud of that.”

As for his own performance, he said: "It's about me doing my job and doing what the coach wants me to do - playing very aggressive defensively, being very active, being a leader. Attack and not only make plays for myself but for others.

“I’m playing with a lot of confidence.”

For the Americans, they have started the Olympics with China and Angola.

Now the hard part begins because on Thursday, they take on Greece – the team that knocked them out of the 2006 FIBA World Championship in the semi-finals.

“We are looking forward to our next game,” Wade said, before commenting on the game two years ago.

“Greece played very good, especially defensively. They played good on the inside and they shot the ball well on the outside.

“We had ourselves to blame by not making free throws and playing together as well.”

FIBA