RIO DE JANEIRO — Throughout its preparation for the Olympics and its first two games in Rio, Team USA pointed to four-time Olympian Carmelo Anthony as the unquestioned leader on a team filled with NBA All-Stars.

It's easy to be a leader when your team is throttling China and Venezuela without much interference.

But when the nervous Americans needed someone to take the reins in their first challenge of the Rio Games, Anthony was happy to oblige.

The New York Knicks forward saved his team Wednesday night in a 98-88 win over Australia by scoring 31 points, including nine 3-pointers. Anthony, who shot 11-for-21 overall, broke LeBron James' U.S. Olympic career scoring record in the process.

“I was in my zone,” said Anthony, who was raised in Baltimore and attended Towson Catholic. “My teammates found me when I was open. I didn't try to go get it. Everything happened in the flow of the basketball game.”

With Team USA trailing 72-70 early in the fourth quarter, Anthony scored 14 of the next 18 U.S. points as the Americans grabbed an 88-80 lead with 3:43 remaining. His mastery behind the 3-point line (he made nine of 15) caused an audible reaction from the pro-Australian crowd inside Carioca Arena 1.

“We expected a game like this,” said Anthony, who was on the last U.S. team to lose a game in the Olympics, in 2004. “It was a physical game, a grind-out game. We knew it was going to come down to the end of the game, where we'd have to buckle down and make plays down the stretch.”

It was mostly Anthony doing so. He had help from Kyrie Irving (19 points), but when Anthony wanted the ball, he got it.

“If he doesn't make the shots he made, we lose tonight,” forward Paul George said. “His shots were big. He took it upon himself to lead us, and he's been doing this for many years. He's special. We don't get this without him.”

The Australians — and their “Boomers” lineup of NBA players, including Patty Mills, Matthew Dellavedova and Andrew Bogut — gave Team USA plenty to think about in its next practice session. Their motion offense filled with off-ball screens and back cuts shredded the U.S. defense, especially in the first half, when Australia shot 68 percent and led 54-49.

Mills was a problem for Team USA on the outside. The San Antonio Spurs guard led Australia with 30 points.

But the U.S. defense improved and contained Bogut, who scored just two of his 15 points in the second half, enough to allow Anthony to take over.

Crisis averted.

“That's the first real international game we had,” coach Mike Krzyzewski said. “This is the real world now.”