Yao Ming, the 7-foot-5-inch first pick in the NBA draft, was seeking to explain his dominance back home.
“In China the bodies are a little size,” Yao said, struggling to choose the correct words before the U.S. met China Saturday night in the World Basketball Championship. “They can’t face me.”
The NBA bodies are much bigger, but Yao once again faced down the threat of some of the best the NBA has to offer in a solid, if not spectacular, performance despite the United States’ 84-65 victory.
Despite early foul trouble and fouling out late in the game, which figures to be a problem for him early in his NBA career, the No. 1 draft pick of the Houston Rockets had eight points on 3-of-4 shooting in the first half, including a three-pointer, and finished with 10 points and six rebounds.
Paul Pierce led the U.S. with 19 points; Shawn Marion had 15.
Although not a good rebounder for his size, Yao, like he did against the U.S. in an exhibition game last week, showed an ability to work his way toward the basket and face up for jump shots.
“He kept his composure and that’s a sign of maturity,” Antonio Davis said. “It would have been real easy for him to go out there and really go crazy, to not be patient and not do the things that help his team and to focus attention on himself.”
Defenders Davis and Ben Wallace generally overplayed Yao to keep the ball away from him, limiting him to six shots. But he came out quickly with five of his team’s first 10 points as China outplayed the U.S. early to take a 28-16 first-quarter lead and trailed by a point at halftime only after the U.S. rallied. . China trailed 58-55 late in the third quarter before the U.S. pulled away with relentless effort.
“It’s impossible for me to get used to everything right now,” Yao said. “Basketball is a culture. It’s like a foreigner trying to learn a new language and it’s hard to learn a language so it will be difficult for me to learn the culture of basketball here.”
It was the second consecutive game the U.S. team, which is offensively challenged with Reggie Miller out with a sprained ankle, struggled. Against Germany Friday, the U.S. led 52-51 at halftime without a player scoring in double figures and trailed with a little more than three minutes left in the third quarter.
Saturday night China seemed the sharper team early. China guard Hu Weidong hit a trio of three pointers in the first quarter as the U.S. sagged inside to thwart Yao. It wasn’t until right before halftime that the U.S. team pushed ahead 43-42 by forcing turnovers and regaining control of the boards after China held an 11-4 first quarter rebounding edge with 7-footer Menke Bateer (a restricted free agent) grabbing five.
Yao was coming off a 38-point, 13-rebound effort over Algeria, the weakest team in the four-team pool that featured the U.S and China. Both will move on to second-round play with Algeria being eliminated.
Yao was 12-of-15 from the field and 13-of-17 on free throws against Algeria to give him averages of 27 points and nine rebounds on 74 percent shooting entering the U.S. game Saturday.
The U.S. completed first-round play in the 11-day tournament in Saturday’s win over China. The U.S. will face the three top teams from Pool D, which are Argentina, New Zealand and Russia.
Alhough Russia features Utah Jazz forward Andrei Kirilenko, the most intriguing player may well be Emanuel Ginobili of Argentina.
The 6-6 shooting guard will play for the San Antonio Spurs this season, and some NBA scouts were predicting he could be the league’s rookie of the year. Ginobili led Argentina to a perfect 3-0 record in first-round play with an uncanny ability to get to the basket and clever play with both hands.
He averaged 21.3 points on 60 percent shooting in the first three games.
