BEIJING (Olympics) - BEIJING (Olympics) - Germany needed three overtimes and 47 points to beat Angola at the 2006 FIBA World Championship, but that was before Dirk Bauermann’s team had Chris Kaman.

The Los Angeles Clippers center, who obtained his Germany passport in July and helped the country win the final spot on offer for Beijing at the FIBA Olympic Qualifying Tournament, poured in 24 points while superstar Dirk Nowitzki added 23 as the Mannshaft rolled to a 95-66 triumph.

Both players had 17 points in the first half.

“We have a great opportunity here,” Kaman said. “I think we have a great basketball team and I think we’re better than we think we are but we will see when we play against Spain."

Nowitzki, Germany’s flagbearer at the Opening Ceremony, made his much anticipated Olympic debut along with all of his teammates.

“It was good,” he said of the triumph.

“We knew we needed to win this game. We want to make the quarter-finals. We also know that we need to get a lot better. We have Greece while Spain are the world champions and they’re coming up.”

Angola, the 2007 champions of Africa, only trailed 22-21 late in the first quarter and despite scoring just six points over the next six minutes, Alberto Carvalho’s men were still only behind 33-27.

That’s when the Germans took command.

Kaman powered his way up for a basket down low before Demond Greene and Nowitzki buried three-pointers to spark Germany on a 21-7 run to close the half.

They took a 54-34 lead to the changing rooms and were never under threat again.

Angola reduced the deficit to 17 in the third quarter but Germany pulled away again for a 29-point triumph.

In the decisive first half, Kaman was eight of 10 from the floor and Nowitzki five of seven, including a perfect three of three from behind the arc.

The Germans were an incredible eight of 10 (80%) from three-point range in the first half when they also out-rebounded Angola 20-6.

Nowitzki and Co finished 11 of 20 from behind the arc compared to Angola’s nine of 29. The Germans also won the battle of the boards 39-22.

Eduardo Mingas had 24 points for Angola.

Though Nowitzki had voiced his concern after Germany’s successful but very hard run at the FIBA Olympic Qualifying Tournament that he and his teammates might be tired at the Beijing Games, the team looked fresh.

“No, not at all,” Germany playmaker Steffen Hamann said to FIBA.com.

“We had a couple of days off and were able to recuperate and we had great workouts for the summer with the coaches. As you can see, we’re not tired at all and we’ll get better from quarter to quarter, game to game.”

FIBA