Gone Fishing The Dream Team vacation continued with an uninspired performance against a hobbled Lithuania by Tim Layden The Games are anticipated as carnivals, shows every other night in which the Dream Team lays destruction on some hopeless batch of foreigners and in the process makes it look like the highlights segment of NBA's Inside Stuff. But the matchups have evolved as something else altogether, wooden displays in which the outcome is preordained and the actual execution makes Olympic archery seem like the NBA Finals. Chapter 3 of Dream Team III unfolded last night at the Georgia Dome, where the U.S. beat Lithuania 104-82 before an Olympic-basketball-record audience of 31,447. This was an opponent that played without NBA veteran Sarunas Marciulionis of the Denver Nuggets and for all but five minutes of the first half without Arvydas Sabonis of the Portland Trail Blazers. Yet Lithuania was tied with the U.S. with just over three minutes to play in the first half. Pippen went up and over the foul-plagued Sabonis for two of his 13 points. photograph by David E. Klutho The victory was much like the U.S. wins over Argentina and Angola: uninspired and unimpressive. Worst of all, it was lousy entertainment. Either the Dream Team is going through the motions or the likes of 6'9" Lithuanian forward Gintaras Einikis, who scored 21 points on David Robinson, Hakeem Olajuwon and Shaquille O'Neal, have gotten better very fast. The Dream Team has heard similar criticism. "It's a double-edged sword," said coach Lenny Wilkens. "Nobody is satisfied. But that's the way our society is. We're always looking for problems. The gap between us and the other teams has gotten smaller. The other players aren't in awe of us anymore." There is a predictable rhythm to this edition of the NBA superstars on vacation, and last night's game could have been the prototype. Even with Marciulionis sitting out with an injured right knee; Sabonis on the bench with foul trouble; and Arturas Karnishovas, the 6'7" former Seton Hall forward, limited to 10 first-half minutes by a sore right ankle, Lithuania stuck to the Dream Team as if it were a sweaty MARTA rider in midafternoon. When Lithuanian guard Tomas Pacesas drilled a three-point shot from the right side with 3:07 left in the first half, the game was tied 40-40. At that point the U.S. outscored Lithuania 10-2, including three-pointers by Grant Hill and Reggie Miller, to finish the half. After Gary Payton opened the second half with a three-point jumper and Charles Barkley followed with a three-point play, the threat, however artificial, had passed. It was Lithuanian assistant coach Donn Nelson, the son of former NBA coach Don Nelson, who had chided a group of U.S. writers before the game. "We're going to smack 'em by 30 points," Nelson said. And then he rolled his eyes. It was meant as a cheap joke. But that would have been a good show. This was not.

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