There isn’t much going wrong for Serbia & Montenegro these days.

A difficult start to the summer with several players making themselves unavailable for national team duty was followed up by an ugly defeat to Greece and coach Dusko Vujosevic asking Dejan Koturovic to leave the team following a spat during the loss.

The coach eventually welcomed Koturovic back, and harmony has returned to the team that has dominated the world game in recent seasons.

Serbia & Montenegro are in Istanbul taking part in the Efes Pilsen World Cup II this week and in two matches they have swept aside Italy and New Zealand.

They took control early against the Azzurri and held on for an 82-74 win on Wednesday and then hammered New Zealand 86-64.

Former Partizan Belgrade and current Virtus Bologna guard Milos Vujanic led the way against the Italians with 16 points while Predrag Drobnjak was a dominate force inside with nine rebounds and six points.

Milan Gurovic and Peja Stojakovic combined to score a total of 27 points while Koturovic scored eight of his in the fourth quarter.

"We controlled the game from the first to last minute of play, but that fast lead made us think it could be an easy victory," the coach said.

"It wasn't easy at all, as the Italians fought bravely for all 40 minutes.

"Still, even we've been too inconsistent in our play, it’s normal in this phase of our preparations.

"We've came to Istanbul to check what have we done so far, and I must say that we are going on the right way."

The Kiwis, who were surprise semi-finalists at the World Championships last summer in Indianapolis, hardly challenged the Blues.

Vujanic, Stojakovic, Gurovic, Drobnjak and Koturovic, took control early and though the Tall Blacks pulled level at 24-24 at the end of the first quarter, the rest of the match was pure domination by Serbia and Montenegro.

Sacramento Kings star Stojakovic scored 18 points and grabbed four rebounds and had four assists.

With Koturovic’s presence under the basket (17 points, six rebounds), and Vujanic scoring 13 points and dishing out five assists and coming up with three steals, the Tall Blacks had no answers.

"After this game I must say that I'm more and more satisfied with our play, as the team is showing prosperity in every segment of game," Vujosevic said.

"New Zealand is a good team, they've tried all types of defences, and even they were brave all 40 minutes, we simply couldn't be stopped in this match.

"It was much easier than at World championships semi-final game against the same opponents.

"Maybe it is because we entered this game with full knowledge of who they are and what they are capable of doing. We are in good form, which is improving, but sincerely - we still have lot to do, too.”