Dwyane Wade enters the Beijing Olympics with a chip on his shoulder and the confidence that he will exit with a gold medal around his neck.

Heading into Team USA's exhibition game this morning against Turkey, Wade said he is equipped with all of the intangibles he needs to make his second Olympic experience far more successful than his first.

Four years ago, Wade was a young member of a disappointing USA basketball team that emerged from the Athens with the bronze. This time, the Miami Heat guard is a perennial All-Star, an Olympic team veteran and a player scorned.

"I'm just out there playing angry more than anything," Wade said from Macau, China during a conference call yesterday morning. "That hasn't gone away. I have a lot of reasons. I don't know how much I can say with words. Only way I can show it is with my play."

Wade's play spoke volumes in last week's exhibition opener, when the U.S routed Canada, 120-65, in Las Vegas. Playing his first game in four months, Wade made his first five shots, was 7 of 10 from the field and tied for the team lead with 20 points.

That performance included two emphatic dunks, with Wade intent on showing his explosive form had returned. He spent the past four months rehabilitating an injured left knee that sidelined him for the final 21 games of Miami's disastrous 15-67 season.

Wade, who started at shooting guard last week because LeBron James sat out with an ankle injury, is expected to settle into his sixth-man role for Thursday's game. The national team is scheduled to play Lithuania on Friday in Macau and two more tuneups in Shanghai before it opens Olympic play Aug. 10 against China.

Wade said he has made it through USA training camp, an exhibition game and a flight halfway around the globe without any problems with his knee.

It's no longer an issue, he said.

"I'm good, man," Wade said. "I really did a lot of things explosively — not just dunking but moving freely. It was my first game in four months. I look forward every day to see how it's going to respond. And it's been responding well."

Wade said playing alongside Chris Paul, Jason Kidd and Deron Williams in the backcourt "frees me a lot" to play off the ball and focus on his primary strengths.

"I can do a lot of different things," Wade said. "I really don't get to show it too much in Miami, but I'm pretty good at cutting behind the defense, sneaking behind guys and getting easy baskets. I'm a finisher."

Being a finisher also would apply to Wade's goal with the team. Wade also addressed criticism he received nationally for comments in his latest Olympic diary, which he periodically writes for The Associated Press.

In the entry, published earlier this week, Wade wrote: "We are going to win the gold medal. When I get back with my gold medal, I'm going on an Olympic tour, hitting all the hot cities, doing Olympic parties."

Although some viewed the comments as cocky, Wade said they represent the confidence the U.S. team has in its ability.

"I never used the word 'guarantee,' " said Wade, who suggested there is a double standard with how the U.S. team is criticized. "We have all the confidence in the world we're going to win. When we say something like that, it's looked at as being cocky and overconfident. If some other international team says that, it's looked at as being great, they have pride, and they're going to fight."

Team USA coach Mike Krzyzewski also addressed the cocky-versus-confidence issue early yesterday in China.

"We're trying to be very confident — that doesn't mean overconfident, but confident," Krzyzewski told reporters before practice. "I want to make sure everyone understands the difference."