As LeBron James, Kevin Durant and Dream Team torch France, it's clear that US ... - New York Daily News

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It is so easy for USA Basketball, Kevin Durant, Kobe Bryant and LeBron James (l. to r.) look as bored as spectators.

LONDON â€" What is the sound of one team playing basketball? A familiar one at the Olympics, and not very compelling. By midway through the second quarter on Sunday, France was merely France and the Americans were only competing against themselves, against their 1992 ancestors and against a set of refs who whistled practically everything.

“We try to keep our foot on the pedal,” said Carmelo Anthony, who drew three personals in just 8:12 of playing time during the first half. “If we’re up 15, we want to take it to 20. If we’re up 20, take it to 25.”

PHOTOS FROM DAY 2 OF THE LONDON OLYMPICS

Eventually, the U.S. took it to 29 points in a 98-71 win that wasn’t very pretty or entertaining. That is the irony, the no-win-despite-always-winning situation faced by the U.S. men’s (and women’s) national team. The better these guys play, the more boring this gets, and there really isn’t a viable solution.

Nobody wants to watch second-tier stars like Stephon Marbury and Carlos Boozer lose games here, as they did eight years ago in Athens. Nobody wants this to turn into a 23-year-and-under tournament, because then Olympic basketball will disappear like men’s soccer at the Summer Games. But few are all that fascinated by the sight of these blowouts anymore, another quadrennial ritual.

“I don’t feel sorry for them, not at all,” Chris Paul said about lesser opponents like France. “They don’t feel sorry for us.”

Now that our real stars want to play again in the Olympics, and now that these other teams have incorporated NBA-style basketball â€" except without as much talent â€" we’re back to square one, or worse. Twenty years ago, it was fascinating to watch foreigners from other leagues play a very different, horizontal game, hoping to finesse us into defeat. Now everyone goes to the hoop at full speed or pulls up for the three. Our guys just do it better.

It was fun on Sunday to watch LeBron James throw a bounce-pass lead to Kevin Durant for the slam in the first quarter. It was a little less fun to see James hit a long fallaway in the third. And so on, and so on.

What to do?

Charles Krupa/AP

Tyson Chandler helps U.S. dunk France.

These players are icons and newsmakers. They must be here. They must be covered. They must be quoted. Their very existence is a thrill for fans and fellow Olympians, confirmation that these Games are important.

“They know us a little bit,” Paul said, with self-aware understatement. “It’s a huge responsibility.”

So they win, as is in their DNA. They figure out the refs, which isn’t always easy.

“That third one, it was bad,” Anthony said of the personal. “I didn’t think I fouled him at all. We don’t know how they’re going to call it. One time it’s this way, one time it’s that way. We’re going to think it’s this way now until it’s that way.”

Certainly, nobody is going to beat this team with a cold hand, which is what the French had most of the night. France was 1-for-11 from three-point range in the first half, then 1-for-11 in the second. It was a consistently horrid shooting performance that only partly was caused by the Americans’ admirable defensive effort.

Maybe the U.S. will be challenged later on in this tournament by the Spaniards, who opened with a 97-81 victory over China.

“We think about them and they think about us,” Paul said. Chances are, Spain thinks about the Americans a lot more than the other way around. Everybody thinks about the U.S. basketball team, everybody wants to watch it dismantle opponents for, say, a quarter or two.

So maybe we can all just grin and bear it, while we stomp all over the world. The players seem to be enjoying themselves. James was asked if he would like the maximum eligibility age to be lowered to 23.

“No,” he said.

Why?

“Cause I’m 27.”