Defending champion the United States recovered from a stunning 94-90 loss to Lithuania two days ago to ease past Angola 89-53 in Athens on August 23 and finish with three

wins and two losses in preliminary Group B of the Athens Olympic men's basketball.

The Americans has secured a place in Thursday's quarter-finals, but its placing in the group will not be decided until after the last match of the group between Puerto Rico and Greece.

It's the only comfortable win for the once unconquerable Dream Team of the United States, who suffered its first two Olympic losses at Athens to Puerto Rico and Lithuania since fielding NBA

players in 1992, in the round-robin preliminaries.

Tim Duncan had 15 points and seven rebounds in just 13 minutes, Lebron James and Carlos Boozer came from the bench to add 11 points each.

The Americans, who struggled past Greece 77-70 and held off Australia 89-79 previously, jumped to a 23-14 lead after the first quarter and improved to 46-26 at the half time.

Valter Monteiro led the African champion, who was outrebounded 52-17, with 20 points.

Losing all five matches in the preliminaries, Angola will play New Zealand in the 11st-12th decider on Tuesday.

Following are Monday's results of the preliminaries of the Athens Olympic men's basketball tournament (half-time score in bracket):

Group A:

Spain beat New Zealand 88-84 (48-37)

China bt Serbia and Montenegro 67-66 (31-34)

Italy bt Argentina 76-75 (35-36)

Group B:

Greece bt Puerto Rico 78-58 (40-28)

United States bt Angola 89-53 (46-26)

Lithuania bt Australia 100-85 (52-28)