San Juan, Puerto Rico ? The latest victory for the U.S. Olympic qualifying team came with a soundtrack — the repeated roar of “Whoa” from the crowd — that kept them from playing their best.

Several members of the American team put on a dunking exhibition during the pregame layup line, and the show kept going in the first quarter as the United States defeated Venezuela, 98-69, Friday night.

But in winning for the third straight night at the Olympic qualifying tournament, the Americans did it with a mixture of flair and sloppiness — seeming to lose their focus after opening an early 20-point lead.

Venezuela stuck around and pulled within 12 late in the third quarter, but the Americans did enough to keep from being seriously threatened.

The crowd — especially the people in the $19 seats on the third level — roared with appreciation during the layup drills as Vince Carter, Tracy McGrady, Richard Jefferson and others pulled off several breathtaking dunks.

There was more of the same early in the game, beginning with a windmill dunk by McGrady off an alley-oop pass from Allen Iverson for an 8-4 lead followed by an underhanded alley-oop pass from Iverson to McGrady for another jam.

A dunk by Elton Brand early in the second quarter got the lead up to 38-18, but the Americans started to make careless mistakes and had trouble executing against Venezuela’s steady diet of zone defenses.

Venezuela shot just 2-for-17 from inside the three-point line and 8-for-18 from beyond it in the first half and trailed 52-35 at intermission.

In earlier games, Argentina defeated Canada 94-90 behind 21 points from Luis Scola, 19 from Manu Ginobili and 18 from Andres Nocioni. Steve Nash went 6-for-6 on three-pointers and had 24 points and 10 assists for Canada.

Also, the Dominican Republic defeated the U.S. Virgin Islands 69-65 and Mexico beat Uruguay 80-68.