Even Kobe Bryant’s teammates kept waiting for that look, that competitive countenance that fuels one of his scoring barrages.

When it finally came, during the second half of the U.S. men’s basketball team’s 119-86 quarterfinal victory over Australia, nobody seemed surprised. But some tried to take credit.

“I was on him the whole game: ‘Wake up!’ He looked a little sleepy out there,” Carmelo Anthony said. “I guess I woke the Mamba up, and he got it going in that third quarter.”

Bryant, who entered averaging a meager 9.4 points and failed to score in the first half, dropped a 3-point barrage on the pesky, physical Australians, sinking six en route to his team-high 20 points Wednesday.

via K.C. Johnson of the Chicago Tribune