Just six days after Team USA kicked off exhibition play with a 55-point victory over Canada at the Thomas & Mack Center, they took their talent to Macao to face Turkey this morning. LeBron James, who sat out last Friday’s game due to a sprained ankle, suited up for Coach K, moving Dwyane Wade back to his sixth man role.

James’ presence wasn’t the only thing that raised the level of giddiness from the stands, though. The 6′8” phenom let his play speak loud volumes right from the get-go in this game. In this contest’s first sequence, “King James” showed no signs of limitation, as he skied to snatch a rebound off the defensive glass and proceeded to take the ball the full length of the floor to finish the play with an acrobatic layup off the window. Moments later, after five unanswered points from Turkey, James buried a three in the face of Semih Erden to spark an 8-0 US run.

Turkey struck back with six quick unanswered points of their own, and from that moment on, the first quarter was an absolute track meet. To Coach K’s disliking, neither team had any regard for the defensive end of the floor throughout the first 10 minutes of this game, as the offensive output was as back-and-forth as a regular season matchup between the Golden State Warriors and Phoenix Suns.

In the midst of the “we’ll score, then you score” showing, we were able to catch a glimpse of the “real” Dwyane Wade. By that, I don’t mean the unhealthy and hobbled Dwyane Wade from the 2007-2008 NBA regular season. I mean the healthy, hungry, and fluid Dwyane Wade from his 2006 NBA Finals MVP days. The 6′4” guard took it baseline in the middle of the opening quarter, and put some English on it to finish with a beautiful up-and-under on the opposite side of the basket. After Turkey answered with back-to-back three’s, and took a 27-24 lead over the US, Wade finished off the quarter with two impressive finishes in transition (one of which consisting of a patented D-Wade weave-job) and a pretty feed inside to Carmelo Anthony.

Team USA was unable to pull away, however, as Turkey’s physical play, ball movement, and hot shooting kept it close throughout the first quarter.

Carmelo Anthony led all first-quarter scorers with 11, while Semih Erden (selected 60th overall by Boston this past June) was the most impressive Turkish player with his sound fundamentals and physicality against Dwight Howard.

End of 1st Quarter: United States 31, Turkey 30

The second quarter of the ballgame was absolutely nothing like the first. Team USA finally woke up and put on a defensive show, and despite mid-quarter sloppiness, were able to pull away.

The US was unable to get into any kind of offensive flow throughout the second quarter, on account of their sloppy play and overall slower pace, but they were able to finish things off nicely before intermission. LeBron James finished an agile alley-oop from Kobe Bryant, while Dwight Howard followed up shortly after with an extremely loud finish in traffic.

Turkey was held to just seven points in the second quarter, and found themselves trailing by 17 at the half.

Halftime: United States 54, Turkey 37

To begin the second half, the United States made it a point to attack the basket. Dwight Howard got involved early, as he slammed home a monstrous alley-oop before putting his soft interior touch on display with a short-distance layup.

Cenk Akyol attempted to give Turkey some life with a three-pointer, but Team USA’s active hands defensively opened up their transition game, allowing them to extend their double-digit lead. Dwyane Wade put on a silky-smooth shake n’ bake crossover, which led to a beautiful assist inside to LeBron James, and Kobe Bryant followed up with an impressive one-handed reverse jam on the break. Minutes later, James and Wade put in back-to-back slams to extend the United States lead to 23.

At that point, as Rick Kamla mentioned, Turkey seemed to have given up for the rest of the quarter. The United States transition game continued to shine, and the game had been officially blown wide open by the end of the third period.

End of 3rd Quarter: United States 87, Turkey 59

The final frame of this blowout wasn’t quite as highlight-packed as last week’s mashing over Canada, but D-Wade delivered the play of the game in the opening moments of the quarter. The five-year NBA veteran took it coast to coast against Turkey’s defense, put on a remarkable high-step dribble, and finished it off with a vicious one-handed throw-down in the face of two Turkish defenders.

Turkey was able to put together a solid fourth quarter on the offensive end, as they tallied 23 points and underwent just a four-point quarter deficit. Regardless, those final 10 minutes of action didn’t mean a whole lot as far as the final outcome was concerned. Team USA walked away with another big win, and improved to 2-0 in this year’s exhibition season.

Final: United States 114, Turkey 82

LeBron James led the United States in scoring with 20 points in his first game back, followed by 17 from Carmelo Anthony and 14 from the big fella, Dwight Howard. Chris Bosh and Dwyane Wade chipped in 13 points apiece off the bench, while Chris Paul wasn’t far behind with 12 of his own. Kobe Bryant scored just nine, but got his teammates involved with a game-high seven assists.

For Turkey, Cenk Akyol was the game’s highest scorer with 22 points on 8-14 shooting. Kerem Gonlum poured in 12, while Ender Arslan and former Milwaukee Buck Ersan Ilyasova each contributed in 10 points.

Exhibition play continues for Team USA tomorrow morning at 8:00 am ET, as they’ll face off against Lithuania back in Macao. The game will be aired, once again, on ESPN2.

Tags:  Carmelo Anthony Chris Bosh chris paul Deron Williams Dwight Howard Dwyane Wade Ersan Ilyasova Kobe Bryant LeBron James Olympics Team USA Turkey United States