Jason and Team USA continue to make Olympic basketball look easy.

The United States (5-0) finished off its preliminary round games with a 106-57 pounding of Germany Monday night in Beijing.

No. 5, starting at point once again (three points, five rebounds, three assists), played a key role in getting Team USA off to a fast start. Leading 3-0 early, Dwight Howard drove the lane and dished to Jason, who drained a wide-open three to double the lead. No. 5 returned the favor on the next score, dishing to Howard who jammed it home for an 8-0 edge.

Jason talked to reporters about staying focused during a game that was a wire-to-wire blowout:

“It’s easy. We just play one way. No matter what we’ve accomplished or clinched, we got to fine-tune the machine. We wanted to come out and continue to play as if we are playing Spain or Greece or Argentina. No matter who our opponent is we got to play at a high level. We don’t want to have a game like this where we just go through the motions and think we can just turn it on. It’s easier to play hard and just keep it going.”

TAKING DOWN THE CHAMPS
On Saturday night, J-Kidd and Team USA posted a big victory over the reigning FIBA World Champions, Spain.

Jason started and played 13 minutes (two points, one assist, one rebound, one block) in leading the team to a 119-82 win. The U.S. turned what was touted as a big hurdle into another lopsided victory by starting strong and never looking back. No. 5 spoke about keeping everything in perspective afterward:

“For us it’s just a basketball game. We’re not looking at the past. We’re into 2008. When you look at a lot of guys who were on that team (in 2004), they were 19-, 20-years-old. They used that experience to get better and LeBron, Melo and those guys have matured. You can see that on the court and off the court. It makes us a very special team.”

UNSELFISH SHOOTER
Jason, who hadn’t even given shooting the ball a thought before Saturday, knocked down his only shot against Spain for his first two points of the Games.

“My man (LeBron James) gave me the ball and I had to take the layup, even though I didn’t want to. Shoot. But then I started thinking that he wanted a triple-double and I didn’t want to be the one that could of gotten him the assist and I didn’t want that.”

NOT DONE WITH SPAIN
Though Team USA handled Spain with ease on Saturday, there is a good chance the two will meet again down the road. Jason knows it won’t be as easy the second time around:

“This is only a prelim, so for them, they’re going to get better. They can look at this game and see what their mistakes were. We’re looking to see them somewhere in the semifinals or finals. But right now we can’t be concerned about them, we have to be concerned about ourselves and our next opponent…”

REDEEMING THE DREAM
Going into these games, cautious optimism reigned over Team USA, but with five impressive showings going into the quarterfinals, inevitable comparisons with the Dream Team have surfaced.

Jason spoke for his teammates about those comparisons:

“I think the biggest thing is when you look at the blowouts, the first Dream Team, they scared guys before they ever got to the floor. For us, the world’s gotten better, so it’s not about intimidating. It’s about playing the game the right way and that’s what we have done for the last five games. So, now we have to concentrate on Australia. We’ve got three games to the gold medal and now this is where it starts.”

NEXT UP
Team USA takes on Australia (3-2) in the quarterfinals Wednesday night at Beijing’s Wukesong Arena. The U.S. last played Australia in an Olympic warm-up on August 5th. Though they won by 11, the game was the biggest challenge the United States has faced since putting together this year’s team.

J-Kidd gave credit to the Australian team after that game:

“We came out slow. We have to work on moving the ball. We kind of let our offense get in the way of our defense, too, at first. You have to give Australia credit. They came out in the second half and made shots, but when we had to get stops and makes, we did that.”

The game can be seen at 5 AM PST Wednesday on the USA Network.

RELATED STORIES
USA completes romp through pool; Aussies next (The Associated Press, August 18, 2008)
http://ap.google.com/article/ALeqM5gaX3esZESsTh-_hK_juuNRV5xXewD92KNU581
Spain can only watch (The Washington Post, August 17, 2008)
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/08/16/AR2008081601764.html
Michael Phelps visits USA Basketball locker room (Dallas Morning News Olympics blog, August 18, 2008)
http://olympicsblog.dallasnews.com/archives/2008/08/michael-phelps-visits-usa-bask.html
Jason Kidd is shooting 100 percent in the Olympics (Dallas Morning News Olympics blog, August 18, 2008)
http://olympicsblog.dallasnews.com/archives/2008/08/jason-kidd-is-shooting-100perc.html
Additional Quotes: Team USA 106, Germany 57 (USA Basketball, August 18, 2008)
http://www.usabasketball.com/news.php?news_page=08_moly_05_quotes
Additional Quotes: Team USA 119, Spain 82 (USA Basketball, August 16, 2008)
http://www.usabasketball.com/news.php?news_page=08_moly_04_quotes
Additional Quotes: USA Senior Men 87, Australia 86 (USA Basketball, August 5, 2008)
http://www.usabasketball.com/news.php?news_page=08_msnt_exh_05_quotes