[caption id="attachment_72681" align="alignleft" width="492"] USA's Kyrie Irving goes up for a shot against Venezula's David Cubillan during their exhibition basketball game at the United Center in Chicago Friday. — AP[/caption]CHICAGO — Kyrie Irving scored 13 points, DeMarcus Cousins powered a dominant performance in the paint, and the United States pulled away from Venezuela for an ugly 80-45 exhibition victory Friday night. Coming off three straight flashy victories in Las Vegas and California, the United States used a strong fourth quarter to shoot 42.4 percent from the field in by far its worst offensive performance of its five-city tour in preparation for the Rio Olympics. But the Americans used their superior athleticism to limit Venezuela to 24 percent shooting and owned the interior with a 54-29 rebounding advantage. "Quite frankly, I'm very pleased about tonight because you don't just want to just hit 17 threes and not work hard," US coach Mike Krzyzewski said. "We had to work real hard tonight." Butler, a two-time All-Star with the Bulls, had four points and eight rebounds in 21 1/2 minutes in his first start with Team USA. He was cheered every time he was announced at the United Center. Butler had one of the few electric plays for the US when he ran out on the break and dunked Kyle Lowry's tip pass in the fourth quarter. DeAndre Jordan also had a vicious dunk off a lob from Kevin Durant, and DeMar DeRozan drew chants of "USA! USA!" with a windmill jam in the final minutes. Klay Thompson also scored 13 points, and Cousins finished with seven points and 12 rebounds. Durant had nine points of 3-of-9 shooting for the US, which plays one more exhibition Monday against Nigeria before departing for Brazil. John Cox scored 14 points for Venezuela, which will play the US again on Aug. 8 in the Olympics. Nestor Colmenares pulled down 10 rebounds. Irving and company were greeted with a round of hearty cheers when they came out for pregame warmups. Fans flocked to the side of the court where the Americans had their layup line, and Anthony and Durant posed for pictures with a couple of eager boys. The star power also extended to the sideline near the US bench, where former Olympians Scottie Pippen and Dwyane Wade watched the action attentively. Wade was joined by his wife, actress Gabriel Union, hours after he held his introductory press conference for his new contract with his hometown Bulls. Pippen played on the 1992 Dream Team that rolled to gold in Barcelona, and also helped the US win gold in 1996. Wade was on the Americans' gold medal-winning teams at each of the last two Olympics. US women overwhelm Canada Diana Taurasi scored 14 points and Elena Delle Donne added 12 to help the US women's basketball team beat Canada 83-43 Friday night in an exhibition game. After struggling in their first two exhibition games in the first half, the Americans jumped all over their neighbors to the north. The US only had a three-point lead on the select team in their pre-Olympic tour opener Monday and led France by one Wednesday at the half. The Americans wouldn't let that happen against Canada. Geno Auriemma started the five UConn alums much to the delight of the Connecticut fans who turned out in force to send off the Americans to the Rio Olympics next week. Taurasi, Sue Bird, Maya Moore, Tina Charles and Breanna Stewart struggled a little offensively when they were in, but defensively they shut down Canada. The Canadians missed 13 of their first 14 shots and couldn't recover from the slow start, trailing by 13 after one quarter and 24 at the half.
