Everything was going great for Brazil, except for the fact that Nene — their best player — had three fouls with five minutes left in the first half.

Brazil was ahead by 10, making 3-pointers and backdoor layups with equal aplomb, when coach Aluizio Ferreira decided to put Nene back in after the U.S. team started to make a run.

Nene quickly picked up his fourth foul, the Americans closed the first half on a run and kept it going after halftime to beat Brazil 110-76 on Wednesday night in their first game in the FIBA-Americans Olympic qualifying tournament.

"I don't regret it because Nene is essential for the team. He is the main player on the team," Ferreira said through a translator.

Brazil, the gold medalist in the Pan American Games, was at its best when forward Nene was on the court. But his fourth foul (five fouls is the limit under international rules) caused him to stay on the bench until late in the third quarter — which by then was too late.

Tim Duncan shot 8-for-10 from the field and scored 17 points, Elton Brand also had 17 and the United States dominated the second half after closing the first 20 minutes with an 11-5 run to take a two-point lead.

"They didn't surprise us. We had to play our best to win," U.S. coach Larry Brown said.

There were some nervous moments for the Americans in the first half as they were sloppy with the ball, failed to defend the 3-point line and fell behind by double digits. But they outscored Brazil 31-8 in the third quarter to turn it into a blowout and then coasted in the fourth.

"I don't think we were surprised that the first half was so close. We have a lot of respect for the teams we're playing against," Brown said. "This whole tournament is not going to be easy for us, and we recognize that."

Duncan finished with 17 points, Tracy McGrady had 15, Vince Carter 14, Ray Allen 13, Mike Bibby 11 and Allen Iverson 10.

Nene, who said his third and fourth fouls were bad calls, had 17 points to lead Brazil.

Things immediately got off to the bad start for the Americans as McGrady threw away the team's first pass and Duncan drew his first foul just 16 seconds into the game.

Anderson Varejao threw down an impressive dunk over Jermaine O'Neal and completed the three-point play to give Brazil a lead it would hold for most of the remainder of the first half, and Renato Finto hit a 3-pointer early in the second quarter to give Brazil its largest lead, 34-24.

The Americans went to full court pressure to mount a comeback and started to pull away early in the third quarter. A dunk by Duncan — making him 6-for-6 from the field — off a behind-the-back pass from Iverson gave the U.S. team a 59-51 edge. After another dunk by Duncan, he blocked three consecutive shots on one Brazil possession.

A jumper by Brand with 3.5 seconds left completed an 8-0 run that gave the Americans a 78-55 lead entering the fourth, and a reverse slam by Carter off an offensive rebound by Richard Jefferson made it 92-66 midway through the fourth.

"They didn't really jump on us," Brand said of the coaches' halftime talk, "but they said we really needed to play defense."

In earlier games, Mexico stunned Argentina — the silver medalist at last summer's World Championships — with a 91-89 victory behind 20 points from Eduardo Najera of the Dallas Mavericks. Also, the Dominican Republic edged Venezuela 78-76 and Puerto Rico defeated Uruguay 91-78.

The United States plays the Dominican Republic at 10 p.m. EDT Thursday night.

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