Kobe unleashes defense and new nickname on Lithuania

Paul has dunked before, which everyone on Team USA was quick to remind Dwight Howard of, given that he was the guy Paul dunked over in a Hornets-Magic game a couple of years back.

The other two items, however, were true rarities, and Kobe Bryant’s shutting down of Jasikevicius was one of the biggest eye-openers, as Team USA handled Lithuania with relative ease in a 120-84 victory that wrapped up the Macau portion of its pre-Olympic tour.

“That’s what I do,” said Bryant, who gave himself a new nickname: “The Doberman.”

There was pretty much nothing but a long, long list of positives for Team USA in this 36-point stomping, so let’s just go ahead and rattle off a few:

• Dwyane Wade again looked like the Wade of two years ago, punctuating a 7-for-9, 19-point performance with yet another powerful windmill dunk late in the fourth quarter that had his teammates jumping off the bench and roaring in admiration.

“He’s back. That’s all I can tell you, he’s back,” Carmelo Anthony said.