Cleveland Cavaliers’ LeBron James put on a great show as he scored 26 points in the United States' 118-79 victory against Uruguay in the FIBA Americas Olympic qualifying tournament.

Uruguay started well and took the early lead, but the inevitable happened as the Americans found their rhythm and quickly erased Uruguay’s fragile advantage to lead  by more than 30 points for most of the second half. They forced 16 turnovers and shot 64 percent to remain undefeated in the tournament.

With LeBron James leading the way by going 11-for-11 from the field, including making all four of his three-point attempts, other U.S. players managed to finish in double figures.
Phoenix Suns’ Amare Stoudemire scored 19 points, Deron Williams of the Utah Jazz added 14 and Los Angeles Lakers star shooting guard Kobe Bryant finished with 13.

Despite playing only 14 minutes, James was just two points shy of the team record in an Olympic qualifying game shared by Carmelo Anthony and Allen Iverson.

The U.S. will face Argentina, the other unbeaten team of the tournament, tonight in the final game of the second stage. A win over the South Americans would send the United States into Saturday's semifinals as the top seed.

Argentina beat Brazil 86-79 and needed overtime to do it, so the spectators of that match were probably more satisfied than the ones who watched U.S. hammer Uruguay.

The defending Olympic champions didn’t start very well and even in the second half they were trailing by double digits, but managed to get back in the game and win it in the end.

Luis Scola of the Houston Rockets and Leonardo Gutierrez stepped up in overtime and scored five points each, including a 3-pointer by Gutierrez with 2:33 to play to give Argentina the decisive lead.

"It was satisfying to beat a very good Brazil team," Argentina coach Sergio Hernandez said. "When things weren't good, we stayed together and showed patience."

Scola finished the game with 19 points and Carlos Delfino, who recently was transferred form Detroit Pistons to the Toronto Raptors, scored 17.