MACAO, July 28, 2008 -- The U.S. Men’s Senior National Team held their first practice at the Cotai Arena at the Venetian Hotel in Macao Monday evening. It was a no-contact, mostly offensive, two-hour practice with a lot of running and a lot of shooting.

Before practice, the team held an introductory press conference, with Jerry Colangelo, Mike Krzyzewski, Carmelo Anthony, LeBron James and Dwyane Wade meeting the media. There were three major themes at the presser: We're happy to be here, we respect all of our opponents, and we need to get better at everything.

Most important though, was that James says that his right ankle, which he injured in practice last Tuesday and which held him out of Friday's shellacking of Canada, is "healthy" and "good." And he will play in the games here on Thursday (vs. Turkey, 8 a.m. ET, ESPN2) and Friday (vs. Lithuania, 8 a.m. ET, ESPN2), with no limit on his minutes. James looked fine in practice, going full speed for the duration with the rest of the 12-man squad.

"I'm gonna play him a lot," Krzyzewski said, "and make him work real hard."

Back to that 120-65 demolition of Team Canada... Coach K was asked if his team needs to improve on Friday's performance.

"Not if we have to play Canada again," he quipped.

Ouch. A nice zinger from the coach. But that was about as entertaining as the press conference got. Coach K showed nothing but respect for the teams the Americans will face in Beijing, saying that he believes the men's basketball competition will be "the best Olympics ever."

And since they'll be playing teams other than Canada, he wants his team to "get better defensively" and "get to know each other better offensively." Offensive cohesiveness was maybe the only thing that was lacking (after the first quarter, at least) in Friday's game.

The players also showed respect for their opponents, but when he was asked about "the other favorites" at the Olympics, Wade would only acknowledge Argentina and Spain for their wins in the 2004 Olympics and 2006 World Championships respectively, and wouldn't say that any other team was a favorite ... "besides us."

As the players were shooting around before practice began, Dwight Howard asked a courtside observer, "If I start shooting like Michael Redd, will I start making my jump shots?"

Howard then proceeded to do a perfect imitation of Redd's unique lefty stroke ... without the successful results.

A few minutes later, James turned it around on Howard, imitating the big man's NBA Ballers commercial by yelling "That's my move!" and "Gimme that ball!" at Howard.

The U.S. team arrived in Macao Monday morning, after a long flight from California, but fatigue was not an issue at practice. The players said that they all got plenty of rest on the plane. And Krzyzewski said that the 10 hours he slept on the flight was more than he ever gets at home.

"If I could get that chair into my home, I think I'd be a better man," he said.

They will practice again Tuesday afternoon.

John Schuhmann will be covering USA Basketball through the Beijing Olympics. Send him a question or comment.