BEIJING: The US men’s Olympic basketball team and its all-star cast put on a dazzling show of soaring slams and tomahawk dunks Sunday, drawing rousing ovations as it beat China 101-70 in one of the most anticipated events of the Beijing Games.

US President George W. Bush cheered from the stands as NBA stars LeBron James, Dwyane Wade and Kobe Bryant coaxed “oohs” and “ahhs” from the red-flag waving crowd at Beijing’s basketball arena.

Wade scored 19 points, James had 18 and Bryant finished with 13 points for the Americans in a match that USA Basketball officials were told could draw the largest viewing audience ever for a sporting event.

China’s Yao Ming, all-star center for the Houston Rockets, finished with 13 points. He started the showcase by drilling a 3-pointer from the top of the key for the first score of the game.

NBA players are wildly popular in China, where the league estimates 300 million people play basketball. The Americans, still known as the Dream Team here, enjoyed a huge backing during exhibition games in Macau and Shanghai, support that will surely help them here on their gold-medal quest for Olympic redemption.

In earlier matches, defending champion Argentina stumbled to a 79-75 loss to Lithuania, despite 19 points from San Antonio Spurs star Manu Ginobli. World 20th ranked Croatia romped to a 72-52 win over Australia in their Group A opener.

Croatia shot 67 percent from field goal territory, including 12 of 15 three pointers, while Australia was just 6 for 19 behind the arc. Facing a tough Croatian defense, Australian center Andrew Bogut, the Milwaukee Bucks’ No. 1 draft pick in 2005, had trouble getting touches all night, while the Croats fast passing diluted his effectiveness on defense In the tournament’s opening game, American-born Dzhon-Robert Kholden scored a game-high 19 points to lead European champion Russia to a 71-49 win over Iran, while Dallas Mavericks star Dirk Nowitzki scored 23 points on 78 percent shooting as Germany overwhelmed Olympic rookie Angola 95-66.

Los Angeles Clippers center Chris Kaman, who received his German citizenship only last month, was sharper still, shooting 83 percent to lead Germany with 24 points.

“I think we’re a good team. We’ll find out just how good on Wednesday, when we play Spain,” Kaman said.

Nowitzki said the win left the team composed going into the rest of the tournament.

“We knew we needed to win this game. Spain is coming up, so we have to get better as we go,” the 2007 NBA MVP said.

Spain downed Greece 81-66 with Portland Trailblazers signee Rudy Fernandez scoring a game-high 16 points and the Los Angeles Lakers center Pau Gasol adding 11.

The scoring gap belied what was a fast-paced and closely matched-game on the parquet, with the result largely determined by free throws: Greece shot just 11 of 24, while Spain missed only three out of 25. “We played an intense game,” said Gasol, the leading scorer at the Athens Games, where Spain lost to the Americans to finish fourth. “I’m really happy we started with a win and that’s always important in a big tournament like the Olympics.” In the U.S-China match, the Americans made 21 of their first 25 shots inside the 3-point arc.

Bush and his family were wrapping up another long day of sports, more than 12 hours after they watched American swimmer Michael Phelps win the 400-meter individual medley for the first of his possible eight gold medals.

Bush came out first, walking to his seat above center court about a half hour before the 10:15 p.m. start. He was still shaking hands and slapping five with fans around him minutes later when Yao led China’s players onto the floor to a thunderous ovation.

The Americans sprinted out a few minutes later to an ovation that was just as loud.

Fans throughout the arena chanted “Jia You! Jia You!” (Let’s go!) and cheered plays on both ends.

Yao’s 3-pointer to start the game sent the crowd back into a frenzy and China stayed in the game for a while by hitting from behind the arc. The Chinese hit eight of their first 12 attempts, with Sun Yue’s 3 tying it at 29 with 6:09 remaining in the second quarter.

The Americans then started forcing turnovers by China’s smaller guards — long the team’s Achilles’ heel — and broke open the game with a series of layups and dunks. That helped the US score 10 straight, highlighted by James’ spectacular one-handed slam of Wade’s alley-oop pass, to build a 45-32 lead with under 2 minutes left in the half.

The lead reached 20 when Wade hit two free throws with 2:39 remaining in the third quarter, and the US team kept building on it from there. Michael Redd’s 3-pointer with 6:54 to play made it 84-50 and sent Bush and his family to the exits.

Yao checked out about 2 minutes later, raising a fist to the appreciative fans who were still cheering even in the blowout.

The Americans face Angola tomorrow. Things don’t get any easier for the Chinese, who face world champion Spain.