It ended, for all intents, when Dwight Howard dunked and trimmed the three-point lead Yao Ming had given China to one point.

That made it 3-2. With that, the possibility of a shutout vanished.

Gone, too, were China's chances of beating Dream Team 2k8. More than 1 billion viewers worldwide (China has a population of 1.3 billion) were expected to watch the teams' Olympic debut, won by the United States, 101-70.

President George W. Bush attended the game. So did Chinese President Hu Jintao. They were among the multinational throng of 11,083 (officially, but, hey, this is China; the arena holds 18,000) that delighted in the marquee moment at the Beijing Olympics.

"I had five dunks in a game," said Kobe Bryant, the Dream Team's most popular player here. "That was because of the crowd. Last time I had five dunks in a game, I was in high school. I was 17."

They saw a team assembled as much for chemistry as for combined talent commit mistake after mistake, but they were errors of effort, not bravado. Hybrid scorers Kobe, LeBron James, Dwayne Wade and their supporting cast didn't play perfectly, but they played hard, as did the Chinese.

Only, the Chinese didn't have 12 pampered millionaires fighting for their country's redemption in the sport it created. The U.S. didn't win a gold medal in Athens in 2004, and they didn't win a gold in the 2006 world championships. So, they are extra focused here, now.

They played out of control, cheated on defense and forced shots, allowing a cooler Chinese team to hang in until the end of the first half. The U.S. stormed to a 10-point run in which James scored four of his 18 and Wade had two of his game-high 19. The lead was 26 at the end of three. It was 35, eventually.

Dubya added to the drama. American coach Mike Krzyzewski (who might not know the meaning of "superego") supplied the postgame scope and sincerity.

Chinese coach Jonas Kazlauskas, a crusty Lithuanian, supplied the postgame candor, and the humor.

"Psychologically, it was a very difficult for us to play the game," Kaz said, citing home-court pressure and his team's talent and conditioning deficit.

After Yao dropped an opening three-pointer, the led by four 3 1/2 minutes into the game, they began, perhaps, to freeze up in the moment: "Maybe this was the biggest mistake: We started thinking this can continue."

Asked how he expected to regroup and usher his charges forward, maybe as far as a rematch with the Dream Team in the finals, he sighed:

"This is a good dream, to see what you see."

Not as good a dream as Bush saw earlier, when he visited beach volleyballers Misty May-Treanor and Kerri Walsh on Saturday: .

Dribbles

The U.S. missed 14 of their first 15 three-point shots and finished 7-for-24. ... The men's 4x100 relay team set a world record in a qualifying heat, touching in 3:12.23. They swim for gold tomorrow at about 11:20 p.m. Eastern time.