LeBron James soared for powerful dunks, pulled up for flawless 3-pointers. And when the halftime buzzer sounded, there was only one way to describe his play.

Perfect.

James was 11-for-11 from the field, making all four of his 3-point attempts, and scored 26 points in the first half Wednesday night to lead the United States to a 118-79 victory over Uruguay in the FIBA Americas tournament.

In a sensational display of speed and power, James raised his tournament-leading shooting percentage to an almost comical 79.7 percent (47-of-59). He is 14-of-20 from 3-point range, a 70 percent mark that also leads the event.

Despite playing only 14 minutes, he fell two points shy of the American record in an Olympic qualifying game shared by Carmelo Anthony and Allen Iverson.

"That first half was awesome, it was as good as I've seen," said Chauncey Billups, whose Pistons watched James score 48 points against them in the Eastern Conference finals. "That second (quarter) was just phenomenal. I was just happy I was there to see it. The dunks, the 3-point shots, he just wouldn't miss."

The Americans will face fellow unbeaten Argentina on Thursday in the final game of the second round. A victory would send the United States into Saturday's semifinals as the No. 1 seed.

Argentina beat the United States in the semifinals at the 2004 Olympics, a loss the Americans avenged last year in the bronze medal game at the world championships.

"It's definitely become a rivalry between us, so tomorrow will be a big game for us and a big game for them," James said. "If we continue doing what we've been doing for the last two weeks, we'll be fine."

That will be the sixth straight night with a game for the Americans, but the easy victory Wednesday allowed them to get some rest. U.S. coach Mike Krzyzewski rested his starters for the entire second half, but the Americans still had no problem meeting the 117.5 average they entered the game at -- just shy of the 121.2 the Dream Team averaged in 1992.

Anthony missed the whole game with a bruised right heel, an injury that wasn't considered serious. He complained of pain Wednesday morning, though it wasn't known if he was hurt during Tuesday's victory over Puerto Rico. Michael Redd started in his place and scored nine points.

Esteban Batista, who played 70 games for the Atlanta Hawks over the last two seasons, scored 20 points for Uruguay, which has an important game against Brazil on Thursday.

"We play hard every game and tonight we did against the USA, that will never change," Batista said. "We'll do the same tomorrow and again we will be the smaller team like we were against the USA. It's always the same for us."

Uruguay played even with the United States for the first 5 minutes and trailed by only 12 after a basket by Batista with 7 1/2 minutes remaining in the first half. The U.S. starters returned less than a minute later, beginning James' highlight reel.

He threw down a dunk about 15 seconds after returning, then added consecutive layups after passes from Jason Kidd 17 seconds apart to push the lead to 43-25 with 5:44 remaining in the half.

"LeBron doesn't have to score a point," Krzyzewski said. "He's not looking for his points, he takes what's there."

When James nailed a 3-pointer with 2:39 left to improve to 10-of-10, 4-of-4 behind the arc, all that seemed missing was a shoulder shrug like Michael Jordan made after hitting all six of his 3-point attempts in the first half of Game 1 of the 1992 NBA finals against Portland.

"When he gets that jumper going, you can just forget about it because he's so strong in other parts of his game, going to the basket and finishing (with) two or three guys hanging on him," Billups said. "You just try to play him for his jump shot, and when he's got that jump shot going, what can you do?"

James capped his half with one more dunk, going high above the rim and viciously throwing the ball down, stopping to look at the crowd for a second after he landed. The Americans led 66-38 at halftime after shooting 63 percent (25-of-40) in the first half.

Amare Stoudemire finished with 19 points and Deron Williams had 14 for the United States. Kobe Bryant and Tayshaun Prince added 13 apiece.

The Americans turned to him for a knowing nod, a wink, and they understood his eyes were the most discriminating of judges. Magic Johnson had a front-row seat for the American basketball revival, a presence borne of a salute to a Team USA roster honoring the red, white and blue Olympic legacy.

"Right coach, right players," Magic said Thursday night. "Everything is working now."

It is still impossible to tell the collective genius of this U.S. men's senior national team, because this 91-76 victory over Argentina comes with the defending gold medalists gutted of its championship core. Argentina will be in Beijing next year with the stars who were missing at this FIBA America tournament - Manu Ginobili, Fabricio Oberto and Andres Nocioni - and yet they'll have to understand that the dysfunction of Team USA has been replaced with resolve again, with the promise of greatness again. The Americans have regained that look of machinery, defending and shooting, playing tough and playing together.

"They're unbelievable right now," said Argentina big man Luis Scola, who recently signed with the Houston Rockets.

Nobody talks about Dream Teams anymore because that's been forever framed with Magic and his basketball Rushmore of stars in 1992. It was a different time, a different global game. Yet, Magic has watched Kobe Bryant and Jason Kidd change everything about the crumbled culture that poisoned this program. The transformation isn't as much about the design of USA basketball director Jerry Colangelo and coach Mike Krzyzewski, as much as it's been the will of Kidd and Bryant.

"Once your superstars buy into the team concept, everyone else buys in," Johnson said. "Once Michael (Jordan) and Larry (Bird) bought in, everybody else followed. This team is very focused on defense and that's what feeds the offense. We're only going to win the gold if we rely on our defense. That's what we did. Once we stopped them, we knew we were unstoppable in our transition game. They're doing the same thing here."

Maybe so, but there are those in the international basketball community still saying: Who are they stopping here? For Team USA, it'll qualify for the 2008 Olympics with a semifinal victory over Puerto Rico on Saturday. For a moment, Michael Redd started to answer the simplest question with a convoluted answer, but rightfully resisted.

Had the United States been tested in this tournament?

"You know ..." he started, and then stopped himself.

"No," Redd flatly said.

Redd's right. Still, he and his teammates have found a way to challenge themselves, with their tests coming from within the program. When they want, the Americans can play the most suffocating defense. Kobe has been frightening on the defensive end, liberated with the knowledge he doesn't need to expend as much energy offensively as he would with the Los Angeles Lakers.

Over and over, Team USA turned missed shots and steals into a layup line for most of Thursday night, with Kidd's genius delivering the ball wherever, and whenever, his teammates needed it. For the Americans, Kidd is the closest living thing to Magic, who loves what the New Jersey Nets star has done for the national team.

"It isn't just that he gives the ball to the right guys," Magic said. "He gives it to them in the right places."

The Americans have made it look so easy in Vegas. Resistance has been futile for the skeleton teams out of Brazil and Argentina, but both will undoubtedly return next year with plans of exploiting the U.S.'s half-court defense. Kobe can't cover everyone on the floor, and there's a belief that Team USA is suspect defending the pick and roll. Just spread the floor, throw shooters at them, and lesser talent can still use the international rules to make life miserable for the Americans.

"Everyone on the floor for Argentina, they can all shoot the ball," Colangelo said.

Yes, it appears Team USA has started to restore its standing in the world, but that won't be settled on the Strip this summer. There is a long way to go until Beijing. However, Magic Johnson was in the gymnasium on Thursday night and he delivered his American heirs to Olympic gold the strongest of endorsements by leaping into the air at the Thomas and Mack Center and pumping his fists to the sky. His kind of basketball, his kind of team again.

Here we are, heading into the final month of the NBA offseason, and there are still plenty of decent free agents milling about in the unemployment line. If guys like Earl Boykins are looking for someone to blame for their lack of contract opportunities, they should look to some of their brethren -- the cap-chewers, players so grotesquely overpaid that they sap the limited amount of cap space teams have. Or, if players don't want to think ill of their own, they can blame the silly general managers who proffered these fat contracts.

With this, we begin yet another edition of the Bryant "Big Country" Reeves Memorial Overpaid List, also known by the simple acronym, BBCRMOL. The annual list honors those NBA players of limited ability but bounteous salary.

We're going to tweak the list a bit. In the past, we've kept injured players out. But I asked myself, why? Even if a guy is legitimately hurt, what if he is taking up, say, $13 million in cap space and not contributing a dang thing? Isn't he still a payroll-killer?

You betcha. So, injured players will be eligible this year. Especially ones who are making eight figures.

Players who have been bought out are not be eligible, though. That spares the likes of Steve Francis and Adonal Foyle. And to be on the list, you need to be scheduled to make a good bit more for the upcoming year than the mid-level exception of $5.4 million. I put the minimum at $7 million.

With that, here is the list for 2007-08:

1. Kenyon Martin, Nuggets. Martin has to be tops on this list because he is making $13 million after playing just two games for Denver. It's easy now to blast the $86 million deal for Martin, whose persistent knee problems have prevented him from being anything close to an All-Star. Martin, remember, was recovering from knee surgery when the Nuggets signed him and there were whispers that the Nets knew he was damaged goods. But the move, at the time, was widely viewed as a coup for Denver and big-time blow to the Nets. Alas.

2. Stephon Marbury, Knicks. Marbury is only 30, but his skills are quickly deteriorating. Last year was a disaster, as Marbury's numbers dipped to their lowest since his rookie season --especially tough to swallow was his 41.5 percent shooting. He is being paid (more than $17 million) to be the leader of this bunch, but he's repeatedly shown that leadership just isn't his thing. Plus, he's been acting like a space cadet lately.

3. Andrei Kirilenko, Jazz. Speaking of space cadets, it's hard not to look back on Kirilenko's 2006-07 and not wonder, "What happened?" A lot of teams still like this guy, which is why the Jazz should move him before he repeats last year's career lows in minutes, points and rebounds. It's not so much that Kirilenko stunk, it's that he seemed so dang emotionally fragile, getting teary-eyed in the playoffs when discussing his reduced role. I have nothing against crying, but not in the first freaking round. Kirilenko's price: $13.7 million.

4. Theo Ratliff, Timberwolves. You can pick your injury with Ratliff -- ankle, knee, back. Whatever. He is 34, and he is done. Still, if the Celtics win a championship this year, they should send Ratliff a ring. He has one year left on his contract, at $12 million, and the cap relief that will bring to Minnesota was a key to the Kevin Garnett trade.

5. Antoine Walker, Heat. It's been a rough summer for 'Toine, robbed in his Chicago home at gunpoint, so I am inclined to go easy on him. But it's impossible to ignore just how bad he was last year. He shot 39.7 percent from the field, which put him 355th in the league. He was 43.8 percent from the free-throw line, which was 432nd. He shot 27.5 percent from the 3-point line, or 232nd. That is an alarmingly low success rate for an NBA player, especially one making $8.5 million.

6. Raef LaFrentz, Blazers. After he played just 17 games for the Celtics in '03-'04, LaFrentz wrote an open letter to Celtics fans, apologizing for his lack of productivity. That was nice of him. Of course, he did not offer to give back any of the millions he was making. He is in Portland now, averaging 3.7 points and earning just under $12 million.

7. Malik Rose, Knicks. Rose is a likable fellow, but the fact is, he is a 6-7 power forward who shot 39.8 percent. He was perfectly healthy, yet averaged just 3.0 points and 2.7 rebounds in 12.5 minutes. Such production will cost the Knicks $7 million this year.

8. Wally Szczerbiak, Seattle. Two bad ankles have made Szczerbiak a standstill perimeter shooter. He can still stroke it, but he has been healthy for just 104 games in the last four years. The Sonics got him to make the numbers in the Ray Allen trade work, and will get out of his contract after next year. In the meantime, they owe him $12 million.

9. Ben Wallace, Bulls. I'm a little torn because I know the Bulls brought in Wallace to solidify themselves in the middle and help them take the next step. Wallace's defense on Shaquille O'Neal in the first round of the playoffs in some ways justified the big contract. I knew some of Wallace's contributions would be intangible, but his production was very subpar (6.7 points, 10.7 rebounds and 2.2 blocks) and Wallace rarely looked like the guy the Bulls thought they were getting. At $15.5 million -- that's about 28 percent of the Bulls' salary-cap space -- it's impossible to keep Wallace off this list.

10. Kwame Brown, Lakers. When it comes to reasons the Lakers can't seem to get any better, Brown and his $9 million salary should top the list. There's something about this guy ... he just seems to be missing a fundamental understanding of what it means to play in the NBA. Brown missed half of last season with injuries and when he did play, he averaged just 8.4 points and 6.0 rebounds. The good news: He is in the final year of his contract and is valuable trade bait.

Leandro Barbosa scored 32 points to lead Brazil to a 96-62 victory over Uruguay on Thursday and a berth in the semifinals of the FIBA Americas tournament.

Brazil (4-3) clinched third place and will play Argentina in the semifinals on Saturday.

The top two teams in the tournament earn berths in the Beijing Olympics, while the next three finishers advance to an Olympic qualifying tournament next July.

Argentina beat Brazil 86-79 in overtime on Wednesday in their second-round meeting and Barbosa, the tournament's leading scorer with a 22.3 average, had 16 points on 5-for-18 shooting.

"Since we lost yesterday we came in with a lot more energy and was more physical," Brazil center Nene, who plays for the Denver Nuggets, said after getting eight points and four rebounds against Uruguay. "We'll bring that energy Saturday. It will be a big game for both teams."

After playing eight games in nine days, the teams will have off Friday.

"We'll spend tomorrow relaxing and try to find our mistakes against Argentina and see how we'll play them," Brazil's Tiago Splitter said.

Argentina lost to the United States 91-76 on Thursday night in a matchup of unbeaten teams.

Uruguay (2-5) scored the opening basket of the second half to get within 44-39, but Brazil used its depth and size advantage to take over. Brazil scored 10 straight points and held Uruguay to just three more field goals in the quarter in opening a 74-45 lead.

Barbosa had 15 points in the quarter and except for his two 3-pointers and another by Valter Da Silva, Brazil's points all came near the basket. Batista had all of Uruguay's points in the quarter.

"We knew we had to play the first part of the third quarter well because that is when they could change the game," Splitter said. "We got our confidence, made passes and opened the score."

Batista, the only player in the tournament to average a double-double with 21.3 points and 12.7 rebounds, finished with 17 points and 10 rebounds.

"It was tough today but we tried," Uruguay coach Alberto Espasandin said. "But Esteban couldn't handle it all by himself."

Uruguay still had a chance to finish fifth and play in the Olympic qualifying tournament, but needed Canada to beat Puerto Rico. As the final seconds of Puerto Rico's 72-66 victory wound down, the Uruguay players filed out of their seats behind the basket and silently headed for the team bus.

"They are very good players. It was tough but we competed," said the 6-foot-10 Batista, who played for the Atlanta Hawks and was the first native of Uruguay to sign an NBA contract. "Today we played for the qualification and we had a job to do and couldn't."

Barbosa, who plays for the Phoenix Suns, refused to talk with the media as he left the arena.