So far swimmers are stealing the show for Olympic viewers here in the States. But the Redeem Team has given the most reassuring performance to date – its obliteration of China in men’s basketball.

Tipsheet believes the U.S. should fight to preserve its basketball heritage the way Canada fights to retain hockey superiority.

Both sports have gone global and both sports have fostered the development of numerous international powers.

So the U.S. has to restate its commitment to the sport. So far Coach K, Kobe, LeBron, Dwyane and the others have done their job.

ESPN.com’s Pat Forde had this take:

“The United States and China played a basketball game of historic import and global impact. The country with the best players walloped the country with the most players, 101-70. The country that owns the game’s past and present showed the country that could possess much of its future how to hoop at the highest level — literally and figuratively, dunk you very much.

“And up to a billion people might have witnessed it, either live or on TV, the president of the United States among them. In terms of signaling something big, it might have been the game’s most portentous moment since Bird played Magic in the 1979 NCAA championship, or Michael Jordan scored 63 on the Boston Celtics in the NBA playoffs.”

We’ll see if this continues. But the other basketball nations saw what happened in Beijing and took note.

Enjoy the highlights at work:

But that isn’t the only Olympic story. Deadspin offered a wrap-up as only Deadspin can.

And in gymnastics, aren’t you starting to feel sorry for the American girls? They sacrificed their teenage years for injury and frustration?