(Sports Network) - Dwight Howard scored 22 points and pulled down 10 rebounds, as the U.S. men's basketball team finished preliminary round play at the Olympics with a 106-57 rout of Germany Monday night. Howard missed just one of his 10 shots from the field and LeBron James added 18 points for the squad tabbed as the Redeem Team following their bronze medal finish in 2004 and an unceremonious loss in the semifinals of the 2006 World Championships.

They may not be the Dream Team of 1992, but this batch of players has been dominating thus far just as Michael Jordan, Magic Johnson, Larry Bird, Charles Barkley and others were in Barcelona.

Led by veterans such as James and Kobe Bryant, the Americans breezed through the five preliminary round matchups, winning by an average of 32 points. Up next is a quarterfinal encounter with Australia on Wednesday.

"It's going to be like that for the next three, too," James said of the dominance. "We're trying to play with a chip on our shoulder. We go out every night and try to get better. Going against Greece and going against Spain were easy to get up for. We could have easily had one of those games where we came in and made excuses, but we didn't take a step backwards today and that was good. It was really good."

The U.S. beat Greece, 92-69, a team that knocked the Americans out of a gold medal opportunity two years ago at the World Championships. Spain was unbeaten until getting waxed by the Redeem Team, 119-82, on Saturday.

Now it's onto a game against a team that actually came close, albeit in an exhibition. Australia lost to the U.S. 87-76, right before the Olympics. The Aussies didn't even have their best player then, with NBA standout Andrew Bogut sitting out with an injury.

"They play a real physical game," said James. "It's a real physical team and we're looking forward to it. We're going to have to get a lot of rest and take care of our bodies because it's going to be one of those physical games. One thing we're going to do is to try to get up and down and try to wear them down a lot."

Bryant had 13 points Monday night, while Dwyane Wade and Chris Paul each added 10, with the victory highlighted by another solid defensive effort. Germany shot 30 percent from the field and trailed 20-3 late in the first quarter, all but making this game a rout from the start.

Dallas Mavericks star Dirk Nowitzki had 14 points and eight rebounds for Germany, which failed to make it through to the quarterfinals.

The U.S. scored the game's first eight points, capped by a Howard basket, and James' bucket moved the cushion to 17-3 with 3:34 left in the first.

Germany never threatened over the final three quarters, trailing 39-12 after a Paul three-pointer early in the second and by a 53-29 count at the half. The advantage ballooned to 80-39 on Howard's basket late in the third and the final score represented the largest lead.

After the game, the U.S. players celebrated with swimmer Michael Phelps, who won a record eight gold medals at these Games.

"First of all, that's legendary right there," said Wade. "Him coming in and sitting down, chillin with us. We got the opportunity to see him do his thing and I'm glad he got the opportunity to see us do ours. USA is sticking together. We enjoyed it."

Croatia blew out Iran, 91-57, to secure third place in Group A. The Croatians will take on Spain in the quarterfinals. Croatia beat Spain in the last two European championship tournaments.

Australia canned 16 three-pointers, on the way to pounding previously unbeaten Lithuania, 106-75. Andrew Bogut had 23 points to lead the Aussies. Lithuania will meet China in the quarterfinals on Wednesday.

Greece beat the Chinese, 91-77, Monday. Yao Ming had 16 points for China, which was already assured a trip to the quarterfinals. Greece's next test is against Argentina in the quarterfinals.

Pau Gasol tallied 31 points and nine rebounds, also going 13-of-14 from the floor, in Spain's 98-50 rout of Angola.

In the final game of the night, Argentina beat Russia, 91-79. Luis Scola had 37 points to pace Argentina, the defending gold medalists.



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