James' Perfect Half Carries Americans

Thursday, August 30th 2007, 7:54 am

By: News On 6

LAS VEGAS (AP) _ By the time his perfect first half was over, LeBron James had a field goal percentage for the FIBA Americas tournament that seemed too unbelievable even for a video game.

And the United States had a huge advantage going into its biggest game yet.

James and the rest of the U.S. starters got the whole second half off, a welcome break before Thursday night's showdown with fellow unbeaten Argentina that will determine the No. 1 seed in the semifinals.

``At halftime we decided to give a couple of guys who have been playing dominant minutes in dominant roles an opportunity to get ready for tomorrow,'' U.S. coach Mike Krzyzewski said. ``We should be in full health tomorrow and the next four days is why we came together.''

Argentina had a much tougher night in an earlier game Wednesday, needing to make up a 17-point deficit to get by Brazil 86-79 in overtime. That meant heavy minutes for Luis Scola and Carlos Delfino, two of the few stars from their country who are playing here.

James was 11-for-11 from the field, making all four of his 3-point attempts, and scored 26 points in the first half to lead the United States to a 118-79 victory over Uruguay. Despite playing only 14 minutes, he fell two points shy of the American record in an Olympic qualifying game shared by Carmelo Anthony and Allen Iverson.

In a sensational display of speed and power, James raised his tournament-leading shooting percentage to an almost comical 79.7 percent (47-of-59). He is 14-of-20 from 3-point range, a 70 percent mark that also leads the event.

``That first half was awesome, it was as good as I've seen,'' said Chauncey Billups, whose Pistons watched James score 48 points against them in the Eastern Conference finals. ``That second (quarter) was just phenomenal. I was just happy I was there to see it. The dunks, the 3-point shots, he just wouldn't miss.''

James and the rest of the starters then grabbed spots on the bench next to leading scorer Carmelo Anthony, who missed the game because of a bruised right heel that is not considered serious. He will return to face Argentina in what will be the sixth straight night with a game for the Americans. Argentina will be playing for the eighth day in a row.

Argentina beat the United States in the semifinals at the 2004 Olympics, a loss the Americans avenged last year in the bronze medal game at the world championships.

``It's definitely become a rivalry between us, so tomorrow will be a big game for us and a big game for them,'' James said. ``If we continue doing what we've been doing for the last two weeks, we'll be fine.''

Even without Anthony's 21.7 points per game, the Americans still had no problem meeting the 117.5 average they entered the game at _ just shy of the 121.2 the Dream Team averaged in 1992. A big reason was James, who vowed to pick up the scoring slack.

``He said he was going to be me tonight,'' Anthony said. ``I didn't know what he meant. He said he was going to show me something. I guess he did that.''

Scola, headed to the Houston Rockets, has elevated his game in this tournament with the absences of mainstays such as Manu Ginobili, Fabricio Oberto and Andres Nocioni. The Americans, meanwhile, are loaded.

``I think this team for this championship is completely perfect,'' Scola said. ``You could not make a better team. Maybe if you had Tim Duncan and Shaquille O'Neal.''

Having James was good enough Wednesday.

Uruguay trailed by only 12 after a basket by Esteban Batista with 7 1/2 minutes remaining in the first half. The U.S. starters returned less than a minute later, beginning James' highlight reel.

He threw down a dunk about 15 seconds after returning, then added consecutive layups 17 seconds apart to push the lead to 43-25 with 5:44 remaining in the half.

When James nailed a 3-pointer with 2:39 left to improve to 10-of-10, 4-of-4 behind the arc, all that seemed missing was a shoulder shrug like Michael Jordan made after hitting all six of his 3-point attempts in the first half of Game 1 of the 1992 NBA finals against Portland.

``When he gets that jumper going, you can just forget about it because he's so strong in other parts of his game, going to the basket and finishing (with) two or three guys hanging on him,'' Billups said. ``You just try to play him for his jump shot, and when he's got that jump shot going, what can you do?''

James capped his half with one more dunk, going high above the rim and viciously throwing the ball down, stopping to look at the crowd for a second after he landed. The Americans led 66-38 at halftime after shooting 63 percent (25-of-40).

Batista, who played 70 games for the Atlanta Hawks over the last two seasons, scored 20 points for Uruguay, which has an important game against Brazil on Thursday.

``We play hard every game and tonight we did against the USA, that will never change,'' Batista said. ``We'll do the same tomorrow and again we will be the smaller team like we were against the USA. It's always the same for us.''