U.S. 121, China 90
U.S. 121, China 90
By BRIAN MAHONEY, AP Basketball Writer
August 20, 2006
SAPPORO, Japan (AP) -- The United States hardly gave
Yao Ming a chance.
Using a swarming defense and their huge advantage in depth to make life miserable for China and its All-Star center, the Americans rolled to a 121-90 victory Sunday night to remain unbeaten at the world championships.
You must be registered for see images
Dwyane Wade scored 26 points for the Americans, who needed less than four minutes to build their first double-digit lead and led by as many as 36.
Carmelo Anthony and
Dwight Howard had 16 points each,
Chris Paul 13 and
LeBron James 11.
The U.S. headed into Group D's off day with a 2-0 record, tied with Italy for first place. China (0-2) is tied with Senegal at the bottom. The top four teams in the six-team pool advance.
Yao led China with 21 points, but the Americans made him work for all of them. He had only one field goal in the first half, when the game was decided, and finished 5-of-8 from the field before fouling out with 6:08 remaining.
Yao didn't play in the Americans' 119-73 victory in this month's exhibition game at Guangzhou, China, because he was recovering from a broken left foot. His return in time for this tournament gave plenty of hope to the Chinese, who had a large contingent of fans at the game waving flags and holding large pictures of Yao.
The 7-foot-5 center predicted China would advance out of pool play -- he was quoted in a story in the China Daily before the tournament as saying, "China will enter the last 16, I promise." Then he scored 30 points in China's opening loss to Italy.
But the U.S. never let him be a factor when the game was still in doubt, delivering a couple of hard fouls when he had a clear path to the basket and even playing two centers together at times. Still not fully fit, Yao didn't even make it across midcourt at times after Chinese turnovers.
Meanwhile, the Americans displayed the balance that makes them one of the tournament favorites, with coach Mike Krzyzewski using all 12 players in the first half.
Leading by 14 points midway through the second quarter, the Americans used a 12-0 run to break open the game and build a 54-28 lead.
Wade then scored the Americans' final 11 points of the half, including a drive just before the buzzer that gave the U.S. a 63-38 lead. China had more turnovers (12) than baskets (11) in the first 20 minutes.
Yao hit a jumper to open the third and Wang Shipeng scored the next eight points as the Chinese pulled within 63-48, but James scored seven points during a 10-3 surge that pushed the lead back to 22, and the Americans were never threatened again. The United States improved to 5-0 in world championships play against China, the Asian champion. Wang added 17 points for China.
