MACAU — Any team with Kobe Bryant and LeBron James in the lineup is going to score.

Sure enough, the United States had no problem doing so in the first quarter yesterday — but neither did Turkey. The Americans didn't pull away until their offensive superstars decided to be defensive stoppers.

James scored 20 points and was a defensive force in his exhibition debut, helping the U.S. Olympic team overcome some early sloppy play to beat Turkey, 114-82, in its first game in China.

James and Bryant both finished with five steals, leading a defensive effort that had 16 of them.

"We love defense as a team because we have a lot of guys who can get at it defensively, cause some havoc and make a lot of plays," guard Dwyane Wade said.

James made them on both ends of the floor.

The NBA's leading scorer was 8 of 9 from the field and finished with six rebounds, five steals and four assists in 23 minutes, sitting out the fourth quarter.

"I think he played excellently," center Dwight Howard said. "He passed the ball well, played great defense, ran the lanes. He played like LeBron James."

Bryant was only 1 of 5 for seven points but had seven assists with his five steals. Often considered the NBA's greatest player, he wasn't the dominant player on the floor this time.

"The best was LeBron James, who made a big difference," Turkey coach Bogdan Tanjevic said.

TRACK AND FIELD

RUSSIANS SUSPENDED

With only one week to go before the Beijing Olympics, Russia suddenly has its own version of a BALCO doping scandal involving some of the track team's biggest stars.

After a 1 1/2-year investigation, the IAAF provisionally suspended seven female Russian athletes yesterday, accusing them of tampering with their urine samples. The list includes Yelena Soboleva, a world record-holder and world champion middle-distance runner who was favored to win both the 800 and 1,500 meters at the Olympics.

The athletes could still compete at the Beijing Games if they were to get an emergency ruling lifting the provisional suspension.

Track and field competition begins in China on Aug. 15.

The IAAF announced that in addition to Soboleva, two-time world 1,500 champion Tatyana Tomashova, middle-distance runners Yulia Fomenko, Svetlana Cherkasova and Olga Yegorova, hammer thrower Gulfiya Khanafeyeva and discus thrower Darya Pishchalnikova would be provisionally suspended.

"According to their latest results, they were considered to be real contenders for Olympic medals, including gold," All Russia Athletics Federation president Valentin Balakhnichev said.

NOTES

Sharapova withdraws: Maria Sharapova will miss the Beijing Olympics because of a right shoulder injury. The three-time Grand Slam singles champion said on her Web site yesterday that an MRI exam and other medical tests showed she has two small tears in tendons in her shoulder.

Doping suspects: Middle distance runners Elena Antoci and Cristina Vasiloiu from Romania could be dropped from their Olympic team after testing positive for the blood booster EPO. Initial test from a laboratory in Lausanne, Switzerland, showed EPO and the Romanian Olympic Committee is awaiting results of a second test.