ISTANBUL, Aug 10 (AFP) - The United States beat Turkey 80-68 in its last warm-up game for the Athens Olympics on Tuesday, fighting off a serious challenge by the largely inexperienced hosts in the first half.
Tim Duncan was the top scorer for the US with 25 points, followed by Allen Iverson with 13, Richard Jefferson with 11 and Shawn Marion with 10.
Turkish star Ibrahim Kutluay was the top scorer of the game with 26 points, including seven three-pointers.
Striving to live up with the high expectations which come with the "dream team" tag, the reining Olympic champions dominated the second half after a neck-and-neck struggle in the first, in which the hosts took the lead several times before coming down 37-36.
The US victory came largely thanks to Duncan and Iverson, whom the Turkish defense failed to stop in the last period despite the fervent support of an electrified crowd at the Abdi Ipekci Arena.
Larry Brown`s boys, however, showed a shaky defence of the three-point line and -- just as in their first match against Turkey on Sunday, which the US won 79-67 -- the Turkish side hit back with accurate shooting from behind the line by Kutluay.
But with little input from their NBA players Hidayet Turkoglu and Mehmet Okur, Turkey ultimately failed to counter the pace and the physical strength of the Americans.
Though not without criticism of their performance ahead of the Olympics, the US has recovered steadily from a stunning 95-78 defeat against Italy last week.
Since then they have also beaten Germany 80-77 and Serbia and Montenegro 78-60.