RIO DE JANEIRO — The United States men's basketball team continued to steamroll towards a third straight Olympic gold medal as they thumped Venezuela 113-69 on Monday, adding a bit of sporting misery to the recession-ravaged country.
An upset victory over the U.S. would have done nothing to improve conditions in Venezuela, where food and medicine are running scarce and annual inflation is in triple digits, but it certainly would have lifted the nation's spirits.