USA guard Lebron James, right, scores over Germany center Chris Kaman. The U.S. defeated Germany, 106-57, on Monday in Beijing.

Beijing ? With a little more than five minutes left in the men’s basketball game between the United States and Germany on Monday, Dwyane Wade stole the ball, went the length of the court and dunked.

Germany’s Sven Schultze, apparently having witnessed one too many U.S. rim-benders during a 106-57 public spanking at the Olympic Basketball Gymnasium, gave Wade a hard shove as Wade turned to run up-court.

Wade stopped and stared at Schultze with a bemused smile on his face, and Germany’s coach, Dirk Bauermann, quickly called a timeout.

But the situation didn’t need defusing.

“I just asked him why he did that,” Wade said. “We’re just out there playing basketball. No disrespect. That’s what we do. We score the ball. I’m sure he was frustrated because they were losing that way.

“We went into the timeout, came back out and I didn’t say nothing else about it.”

The Redeem Team is doing everything the right way at the Beijing Olympics. The Americans are playing hard, clean and together – to a man, their mantra is play the right way – and they’re bending over backward away from the court to show the world they’re accessible, decent guys.

There was much to fix going into these Games. Not only had the U.S. stumbled in international play in recent years, but the chemistry was so poor on those teams it was palpable.

“We’re trying to change the culture,” forward Carlos Boozer said. “Our culture in Athens (in 2004) was terrible. It really was. And this time around we made an effort to show people that we’re good guys.”

The Americans have blown out the five teams they faced in pool play by an average of 30.2 points per game. They finished as the only undefeated team in the 12-country competition.

Against Germany on Monday, Carmelo Anthony scored on a lay-in four seconds into the game, and the Americans never looked back.

They led, 20-3, after 61â2 minutes and by 31-12 after the first quarter.

As dominant on offense as any team in recent memory, the Americans also play good old-fashioned, hard-nosed defense. They held Dirk Nowitzki to 14 points.

The U.S. faces Australia in the quarterfinals Wednesday.

“It’s time,” coach Mike Krzyzewski said, “to win a gold medal.”