Yao gets ready to throw one down on Italy in China’s first game of World Championship play in Japan. Despite Yao scoring 30 points on 70% shooting from the field and grabbing 9 boards in just 31 minutes of play, the Chinese were still overwhelmed 84-69 by Italy, who hit 13-of-25 three-pointers. Click here for more photos from the game.

Things didn’t look good Saturday night in Japan for the Chinese national team. They got overwhelmed by Italy on gimmicky 3-pointers (13-of-25) that are kind of a joke because they are so much shorter than the NBA 3-point distance. But it’s not good news that Italy still was able to dominate without #1 NBA draft pick Andrea Bargnani, who is sitting out the Worlds to prepare for the upcoming NBA season.

For a story on the game, click here.

This entry was posted on Saturday, August 19th, 2006 at 12:46 pm and is filed under 2006 World Championships. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.