ISTANBUL, Sept 1, (Agencies): The United States eased its way to a top seed in the knockout round of the world championship, beating Iran 88-51 on Wednesday in the first meeting between the longtime political rivals.
The US team, which downplayed the political aspect of the matchup, methodically pulled away in the first half, wearing down the Asian champions with its depth and athleticism.
Kevin Love scored 13 points and Kevin Durant 12 for the Americans (4-0), who will meet the fourth-place team from Group A in the round of 16.
The tensions between the nations’ governments provided the backdrop off the court, where before the game a group of fans sitting near midcourt held US and Iran flags with a sign reading “PEACE” in between.

But the only sparring on the floor was a playful bump between Haddadi and US forward Rudy Gay, teammates with the NBA’s Memphis Grizzlies.
The countries have feuded for decades and their relations have further deteriorated in recent years, with the United States sanctioning Iran for continuing with programs it believes could be used to create nuclear weapons.
After playing his starters for most of the second half of a 70-68 victory over Brazil on Monday, US coach Mike Krzyzewski went to the bench early in this one, with the Americans shooting 58 percent and scoring 23 points off turnovers in the easy victory.
Hamed Haddadi scored 19 points for Iran (1-3) and Arsalan Kazemi had 14.
The US team tried to keep the focus on the floor, with Krzyzewski saying he had played in Iran in the 1970s with an Armed Forces team and had great respect for the country.
There’s no rivalry on the basketball court, where the nations had never met in Olympic or world championship play.
The Iranian national team even came to Utah two years ago at the invitation of the NBA to play in a summer league as preparation for the 2008 Olympics.

Russia 89, China 80
China’s 80-89 loss to Russia has left them requiring a win over Turkey to ensure qualification to the second round of the 2010 world basketball championships.
If they do not get a result in that final pool match against the hosts on Thursday they could still advance if the Ivory Coast claim an unlikely first win of the championship by upsetting Puerto Rico, also on Thursday.
In the opening quarter it was one of China’s youngest players, Shulong Yu, who was leading his teams charge over Russia, with five points as they snuck out to a 21-15 advantage by the time the quarter ended. The advantage would not keep, as Russia surged back into the game through Sergey Monya’s (17 points) 3 three-pointers giving his team the lead for the majority of the second quarter.

It was only when China’s captain Zhizhi Wang stepped up and started to lead by example did China reclaim the lead with time running out.
Zhizhi Wang would finish the half with 8 points and the game with 14. Jianlian Yi (14 points 9 rebounds) was again doing the work at both ends of the court with 7 points and 7 rebounds for the half.
The lead would continue to ebb and flow in the third quarter. When the quarter came to a close, it was Russia who found themselves holding the slenderest of margins, 63-62.
In the final quarter the Russians, led by Sasha Kaun (16 points), completely took the game away from China as their shooting began to falter at crucial moments, winning with relative ease.

Serbia 94, Australia 79
Nenad Krstic returned from a three-game suspension and had a double-double in Serbia’s 94-79 victory over Australia.
Krstic scored 14 points and had 10 rebounds, Milos Teodosic added 19 points and Novica Velickovic contributed 18 points and nine rebounds for Serbia, which clinched a place in the single-elimination round.
Australia pulled within three with 2:07 remaining in the game on Matt Nielsen’s 3-pointer, but Teodosic and Velickovic then took over to secure Serbia’s victory in Group A.

NZ 71, Canada 61
Kirk Penney scored 18 points to help New Zealand eliminate Canada championship with a 71-61 win.
Jevohn Shepherd led Canada with 15 points but it wasn’t enough to prevent a fourth straight loss. Canada plays Spain in its last Group D game on Thursday, but is guaranteed to finish in the bottom two and miss out on the knockout round.

Croatia 84, Tunisia 64
Bojan Bogdanovic scored 19 points Wednesay as Croatia evened its record at worlds by beating winless Tunisia 84-64.
Marko Popovic added 16 points and Ante Tomic 15 for Croatia, which ran off the first 10 points of the game, let Tunisia score eight in a row, then quickly blew it open en route to a 20-point halftime lead.
Greece 97, Ivory Coast 60
Greece secured a spot in the second round eliminated Ivory Coast with a 97-60 win spurred by 15 points from Nick Calathes.
A day after a disappointing 76-65 loss to rival Turkey, Greece (3-1) took a commanding lead from the start to hand Ivory Coast its fourth straight loss.
Greece led 47-19 at halftime and increased the gap to 43 points in a fast third quarter that ended 81-39.
Brice Assie had 11 points for Ivory Coast, which plays Puerto Rico in its last Group C game on Thursday.
Greece outrebounded Ivory Coast 45-35 and shot 81 percent from the free throw line.