OMIYA, Saitama Pref. -- Tuesday's game between the Dream Team and Spain was a surprisingly close affair -- for the first 20 minutes, at least. After that, the heavily favored U.S. turned the contest into a blowout.

Using a balanced scoring attack and a smothering defense in the second half, Team USA thrashed the Spaniards 95-66 in the Super Dream Games 2000, a round-robin tournament also involving the Japanese national squad. After the game, Jason Kidd issued a warning to anyone with thoughts of beating the Americans during the upcoming Sydney Olympics.

"Our mission is to seek and destroy," said the Phoenix Suns guard. "We want to be compared with that '92 (Dream Team). We're not measuring ourselves against an opponent, we're measuring ourselves against the best ever assembled."

But in the first half, this year's version of the Dream Team looked nothing like the Michael Jordan-led group that captured gold eight years ago in Barcelona.

Before 19,610 awfully quiet fans at Saitama Super Arena, the U.S. sputtered out of the blocks and allowed Spain to keep it close. The two-time defending Olympic champs, who arrived in Japan on Monday afternoon, were jet lagged and it showed. They missed easy jumpers and sloppy play led to turnovers. With almost eight minutes gone by, Spain led by a bucket and it looked as if the Dream Team's worst nightmare might actually come true.

"I respect the Spanish team," said U.S. coach Rudy Tomjanovich. "I coached against them a couple of years ago. If you take them lightly, they'll beat you."

Kidd made sure that didn't happen. With the game tied 15-15 midway through the first half, the 27-year-old rattled off seven unanswered points that gave the U.S. some breathing room for the first time all night. They were the only points he'd score, but they couldn't have come at a better moment.

The U.S. upped its lead to 17 on a Ray Allen jumper with 1:24 left in the first half, but the pesky Spaniards -- backed by captain Alberto Herreros' eight first-half points -- went into the locker room down by only 11.

That's when Tomjanovich lectured his team on the merits of playing sound defense and not carelessly fouling the opponent.

"I thought the game was a contrast between the first and second halves," said coach T. "In the first half, we fouled the shooter too much. We made adjustments (at halftime) and our press became a huge factor . . . We kept constant pressure on them."

Constant, indeed. Spain, which mainly wished it stayed on the plane, ended the day with 24 turnovers, 14 in the second half.

"I think the second half is what you can expect from here on out," Kidd warned. "We've been traveling a bit and we had to work out the kinks."

Over the last 20 minutes, the kinks were nowhere to be found. Led by Vince Carter dunks and nifty Gary Payton assists, the Americans opened the second half with an 18-1 tear.

Adios, Spain!

When Antonio McDyess dropped in a two-footer with 12:15 left in the game, the U.S. was up by 30. They increased their lead to 35 with five minutes left, but that's as big as it got.

Spain looked fatigued on both sides of the ball in the second half. Nothing the team, which has qualified for the Olympics, did went right. But there were bright spots for the European silver medalists early on. Forward Alfonso Reyes racked up 13 points and seven boards (most of those numbers came in the first 20 minutes), while speedy point guard Raul Lopes, 20, created matchup problems for the U.S.

All 12 Americans scored at least four points, but no one managed more than 10 (Allen, Payton, Carter and Allan Houston all had 10 points apiece). The U.S. bench out- scored Spain 57-13.

The Dream Teamers face Japan, which failed to qualify for the Olympics, at Saitama Super Arena tonight. On Sunday, Spain trounced the host nation by 41 points.