Team USA remain unbeaten in the Olympics games so far and they showed the gulf in quality by hammering Nigeria by a massive 156 points. The previous record was held by the 1988 Brazil team who scored 138 points against Egypt. That record though was broken with just under four and a half minutes remaining when Andre Igoudala hit a three pointer.

The first half saw the Americans score a huge 78 points which once again broke the Olympic record of 72 points scored in half. There were still more records to be broken with Carmelo Anthony scoring 37 points which is the most points scored in a game by an American at the Olympic games. You might think that this was expected but Anthony scored those points playing less than half the game. Anthony was not finished there as he broke another record, this time for the number of 3 pointers made. He sunk 10 from 12 shots and this was their biggest margin of victory.

Others on the score sheet were Kobe Bryant with 16 points, Lebron James with 6, Russell Westbrook 21 with his OKC team mate Kevin Durant on 14. Kevin Love and Deron Williams made 15 & 13 points respectively.

‘We just shot better than any team in the game that I’ve ever coached,’ said United States coach Mike Krzyzewski, who coached the Americans to gold in Beijing and was an assistant on the 1992 Dream Team staff. ‘Our guys just couldn’t miss tonight. Whenever you hit 29 three-pointers, it’s very difficult to lose in a game like that.’

Carmelo Anthony said: ‘Tonight was just one of those nights, as a unit we had it going. It could have been anybody out there on the court playing against us. When we shoot like that, the percentages are just incredible, and everybody, one through 12, contributed.’

Nigeria coach Ayodele Bakare said: ‘My mind is still stunned,’ he said. ‘I counted, how many, 45 different records? We have the dubious distinction of being part of those records. It’s tough to motivate players after this because we didn’t expect this sort of result.’

Krzyzewski took exception to people suggesting his team set about to humiliate Nigeria. He said: ‘The first thing we did was not play LeBron and Kobe in the second half. Even with Carmelo shooting like that, we benched him. We didn’t play Durant, we didn’t take any fast breaks in the fourth quarter. But you have to take a shot ever 24 seconds, and every shot we hit. I take offence at the suggestion. There is no way our program is out to do that. I think coach (Bakare) would be humiliated if we didn’t play hard.’