HIROSHIMA, Aug 21: Spain underlined their gold medal credentials and gained a measure of revenge by crushing Germany 92-71 at the world basketball championship on Monday, clinching a spot in the final 16.

Led by a 27-point effort from Eduardo Mingas, African champions Angola also booked their spot in the knockout round cruising past winless New Zealand 95-73 to maintain their 100 percent record and grab a share of top spot in the group B standings alongside Spain.

In Sendai, Olympic champions Argentina also improved to 3-0 after dumping Venezuela 96-54 to go top of Group A while defending champions Serbia and Montenegro finally notched their first win of the 24-team tournament pounding Lebanon 104-57.

Japan finally gave the home fans reason to cheer, stopping Panama 78-61 to keep alive their hopes of advancing while France beat Nigeria 64-53.

The victory moved France into second place in Group A with a mark of 2-1 followed by Serbia and Montenegro, Lebanon, Venezuela and Nigeria all on 1-2.

With the United States and other teams in groups C and D getting the day off, the spotlight was firmly focused on a top flight Group B clash between unbeaten Spain and Germany and a much anticipated showdown between their NBA all-stars Pau Gasol and Dirk Nowitzki.Widely regarded as the two best players from outside the United States, Gasol and Nowitzki were expected to light up the championships in a match-up of European rivals.

But their meeting failed to produce any real fireworks after Gasol ran into early foul trouble and was anchored to the bench for most of the opening half.

Still, the Memphis Grizzlies power forward contributed 16 points to the win as Spain avenged a semi-final loss to Germany at last year's European championships and a quarterfinal defeat the 2002 worlds.

Jose Calderon, who will play next season for the Toronto Raptors, led Spain with 20 points while Nowitzki had a team high 14 for Germany.

After reaching the final four at the 2002 worlds, New Zealand is in danger of failing to advance out of the preliminary round following three straight defeats.

New Zealand's final two preliminary round games are against Japan and Panama which they must win to have a chance of advancing.

Serbia and Montenegro were also in danger of slipping to 0-3 but got double digit efforts from seven players to get a big win over Lebanon to keep their title defence alive.—Reuters