Carmelo Anthonyand the U.S. men’s Olympic basketball team rewrote the record books Thursday in a 156-73 romp over Nigeria, an epic blowout that answered the Americans’ detractors after two opening routs that provoked criticism of their slow starts and outside shooting. They led by 26 in the first quarter, had an Olympic-record 78 points in the first half and Anthony scored 37 points, going 10 of 12 on 3-point attempts, to break the U.S. single-game scoring record in less than three quarters. Incredibly, they eclipsed the 100-point mark with 5 minutes still left in the third. They broke the Olympic record for most points in a game with 4:37 still to play, and set U.S. records for 3-pointers (26), field goals (59) and field-goal percentage (71).

I haven’t been much of a fan of Olympic basketball this year, but this is certainly noteworthy. ‘Melo simply couldn’t miss. It was actually pretty incredible to watch. Granted this was Nigeria, not the Miami Heat, but you’d be hard pressed to find him shoot that well in practice with no one on him. Right now the Knicks are shaking their heads wondering where the hell that was last year… The US wins again – maybe Argentina will give them a tight game.. or maybe not. (Yawn)