US NBA stars rout Tunisia

US forward Kevin Love (R) and US gard James Harden celebrate. By Timothy A. Clary (AFP)

LONDON (AFP) - Carmelo Anthony and Kevin Love each scored 16 points to lead the US Olympic team of NBA stars to a 110-63 rout of Tunisia on Tuesday to claim sole possession of their preliminary round group lead.

The African champions made a strong start, leading 15-12 before the Americans went on a 14-0 run to seize the advantage for good.

Kevin Durant added 13 points, Anthony Davis had 12 and Russell Westbrook netted 11 for the US squad.

Macram Ben Romdhane scored a game-high 22 points for Tunisia

The US NBA squad moved to 2-0 in Group A with Nigeria, Argentina, France and Lithuania all at 1-1 and Tunisia winless. Next up for the multi-millionaire lineup will be a date with Nigeria on Thursday.

The US squad led 46-33 at half-time and opened the third quarter with a run of 10 points in a row to make their margin even larger.

Deron Williams lost his left shoe playing defence at one stretch in the third but kept going until the next whistle gave him time to re-lace it.

Kevin Love limped to the bench favoring his right knee after a layup midway into the third quarter, a cause for concern since the rebounding star is among the US team's few big men.

Love did leap off the bench with no sign of pain or discomfort, however, a few minutes later at the first of three spectacular slam dunks by his replacement in the lineup, NBA Draft No. 1 pick Anthony Davis.

And he was back in the lineup by the end, even hitting two late 3-pointers.

The Americans rolled to an 85-47 lead entering the fourth quarter and cruised home from there.

Tunisia, which lost 92-57 to the US squad at the 2010 world championship in their only prior matchup, served notice early that they were not intimidated by the US lineup.

Ben Romdhane's slam dunk gave them an 8-4 lead, their biggest of the game. Mourad El Mabrouk's 3-pointer and Amine Rzig's basket brought a 15-12 edge.

But the Americans finally shut down Tunisia's attack, going on a 14-0 run to seize command at 26-15 just 47 seconds into the second quarter. Anthony hit a 3-pointer and Westbrook followed with a basket to end the spurt.