USA vs. Tunisia: 5 Measures of Success for Dominant Americans

With Team USA's 98-71 drubbing of France comes a re-establishing of the dominance the Americans exhibited in Beijing.

Team USA should continue its early dominance against world No. 32 Tunisia when the two square off Tuesday.

The Tunisians are the only team in Group A without an NBA player and are playing in their first Olympic Games. 

With the Americans as overwhelming favorites, Team USA needs to look past the scoreboard against Tunisia and try to improve for future matchups. What are some measures of success coach Mike Krzyzewski and Co. can look for? Follow along as we take a look at five measures of American dominance.

Get off to a Quick Start

Team USA continued its trend of slow starts Sunday against France, only outscoring the Frenchmen 22-21 in the first quarter while struggling with fouls and turnovers.

Against a lesser-talented team like France, those slow starts can work. 

Once Team USA gets to heavier competition, the Americans likely won't be able to outscore their opponents by 15 in the second quarter and pull away as they did against France. 

Getting off to a quick start against an overmatched Tunisia could show the rest of the world those early-game kinks are a thing of the past.

But if they struggle early against the Tunisians, it could be an indicator of a major American weakness that strong teams can exploit.

Get Kobe Bryant Involved in the Offense

An underrated subplot of Team USA's run thus far has been the quiet play of shooting guard Kobe Bryant.

After leading the 2008 squad in Beijing with 104 shots, Bryant put up just six against France and was noticeably less aggressive in the exhibition period.

The reasoning behind new Kobe is unknown. It could be that he recognizes he's a secondary player behind LeBron James and Kevin Durant on this squad. Or he could simply be using the Olympics as an experiment for playing more off-ball minutes with Steve Nash now in purple and gold.

But either way, Team USA needs some type of spurt from Kobe to know it can still count on him in the later stages.

Figure out the Point Guard Situation

While Team USA coach Mike Krzyzewski has seemingly settled on Chris Paul as the squad's starting point guard, Deron Williams has looked like the better player.

Williams struggled with his shot against France, going 1-for-6, but his six assists and four rebounds gave him decent overall numbers.

Paul, on the other hand, was seemingly relegated to a spot-up shooting role with LeBron James taking over the primary ball-handling duties. CP3 had just five points and two assists while actually playing one fewer minute than his backup.

Having two elite point guards is ultimately a gift but could slowly turn into a curse if a true pecking order isn't established.

Keep Tyson Chandler out of Foul Trouble

Chandler's aggressive nature has backfired on the defensive end, rendering Team USA's only veteran center irrelevant.

After being limited to just nine minutes in Team USA's exhibition against Spain, Chandler again found himself in trouble against France. Chandler's three fouls in 11 minutes continue a trend of the center fouling once every four minutes.

With a five-foul limit, that rate simply makes Chandler more of a liability than an asset thus far.

Chandler has been effective in his limited minutes, but he'll need to curb his aggressiveness to prevent Team USA from relying too heavily on 19-year-old Anthony Davis.

Win by 30 Points or More

If Team USA isn't resting starters by midway through the third quarter, then this game went horribly awry for the Americans.

Tunisia is the only Group A squad without an NBA player and comes in ranked No. 32 in FIBA's world rankings.

This matchup is the equivalent of a No. 1 seed playing a No. 16 seed in the NCAA tournament. There is a snowman's chance in hell that Team USA doesn't win.

This is a statement game. Beating Tunisia by 30+ points is expected, so anything less could show cracks in the favorite's armor.