U.S. Is Talking, Winning : Basketball: Australia gets an earful of the NBA game in 130-74 rout.

Don Nelson said he wanted to show the world the way Americans play basketball, and Tuesday night they treated Australia to the complete experience:

The running, the jumping, the shooting, the dunking. . . .

The trash-talking.

Rediscovering their game and, unfortunately, their high spirits, the Americans put Australia to the torch, 130-74, but if their game was impressive, it couldn’t begin to compete with their playground macho.

Larry Johnson barked an unprintable insult at Australia’s Andrew Vlahov that turned ears up and down the baseline red.

Alonzo Mourning took a bump in the back from Aussie center Mark Bradtke, wheeled around, put a finger in his face and said: “Let me tell you something. . . . “

Derrick Coleman was so amused by a Dan Majerle bomb, he fell down on his back and wriggled on the court.

“Yes, they certainly did have a lot to say,” said Australia’s Andrew Gaze, grinning. “I guess it’s an aspect of the NBA game which they carry with them. I suppose it’s part and parcel of their game.

“For us out there, we’re just trying to share the experience with them, and perhaps we were taken a little bit off guard by the way they were perhaps treating us. But I don’t think they were making an exception for us. I just think that’s part and parcel of their normal behavior.

“Whether that’s a good thing or a bad thing, I’ll leave that to your judgment, but you know, some of it’s quite humorous. Some of it, you wouldn’t want to repeat. But more or less, pretty much everyone had something to say.”

Trash-talking is, indeed, part and parcel of the NBA game, although it is in danger of legislative sanction. For Nelson, who wants the world to admire the U.S. game, it was nothing but an embarrassment.

Nelson first claimed ignorance--”You have better ears than I do,” he said--but upon reflection said he wouldn’t stand for it.

“I would prefer not to have my team trash talk and do the antics, the baiting,” Nelson said. “We talked about that before. If that’s true, then we’ll address that issue in a meeting.”

The Aussies, a never-say-die bunch of weightlifters, approached this game with their usual go-for-it fervor and, surprise, were rewarded for it.

Point guard Shane Neal hit a couple of three-pointers, and they jumped into a 6-2 lead. The United States caught up. The Aussies spurted again, going ahead, 17-10.

“We took ‘em a little off guard, I think it was,” said Gaze, who played one season at Seton Hall.

“I hope we got some photos of the score when it was 17-10.”

Nelson had started another of his keep-them-happy lineups: Coleman, Johnson and, as usual, three guards, including Steve Smith, who started the tournament at the end of the bench. However, when Shaquille O’Neal replaced Coleman at center, the Aussies discovered they weren’t as keen on going down the lane.

By halftime, the Americans were up, 62-48, and just warming up. They won the second half, 68-26.

The American players, criticized for their inability to run up scores the way the Dream Team did, whooped it up on the bench as the lead climbed into the 50s toward the final 56-point margin. In the closing seconds, three of them yelled at an awkward center named Paul Rees who was taking an open 10-footer. Rees clanked the shot off the front rim.

“We’re not here to trash talk,” Reggie Miller said later. “We know we’re the best.”

Miller was one of the Americans yelling at Rees. When you’ve been in the NBA long enough, you don’t even realize you’re doing it.

World Basketball Notes

In Tuesday night’s other quarterfinal game, Russia beat Puerto Rico, 101-85, as Sergei Bazarevich scored 27 points. Russia broke the game open late with a 15-4 run keyed by strong offensive rebounding. . . . The other quarterfinal pool resumes play tonight with Croatia playing Canada and Greece facing China.