US beats Angola to reach quarters at World Basketball Championship

“We can do a little bit better, but we tried our best,” Angola coach Luis Magalhaes said.

The Americans lacked some focus against Iran and Tunisia in their last two games, knowing victory was certain and not wanting to embarrass opponents or get any of their own players hurt.

But they expected to be sharper after a couple of days of practice, knowing they would press, substitute frequently, and raise their overall level of play with the games finally becoming important.

“This is what we all sacrificed our summers for,” Billups said of trying to win the Americans' first world title since 1994. “Right now we're on the right path.”

The U.S. won the opening tip for the first time in Istanbul and scored the first five points. Billups and Durant nailed consecutive 3-pointers to cap a 10-0 spurt and make it 22-7, and the Americans led 33-13 after one.

Billups is playing out of his normal NBA position as a shooting guard, and he made only 4 of 19 3-point attempts in preliminary play. Krzyzewski was asked last week if he would consider a lineup change, and he said he would look at it.

The lineup stayed the same, but Billups looked much different.

The lead ballooned to 29 late in the second quarter. Durant shot 7 of 10 in the half and Billups was 4 of 6, all from behind the arc, and Durant's 3-pointer with 7 seconds left sent the Americans to the half with a 65-33 advantage.

Derrick Rose made two straight 3-pointers and Billups added another to start the U.S. scoring in the third quarter, and the lead grew to 37 late in the period. The Americans were 6 of 9 behind the arc in the period, which ended with them leading 91-56.

The Americans finished with 30 assists on their 41 field goals and committed just five turnovers.

“That's what we strive for, that's what we're here for, is to try to win,” Gordon said, “and as long as we keep on using our talent and being unselfish, we should be able to win.”

Felizardo Ambrosio finished with 12 points and Roberto Fortes 11 for Angola, which played without leading scorer Olimpio Cipriano because of a leg injury.

“It was a different challenge tonight,” U.S. assistant Nate McMillan said. “Their key guy didn't play tonight, so that took one of their options away, but it was about us. I thought we established ourselves early defensively as far as we wanted to play.”

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