Yao battles for a rebound against the USA’s Dwight Howard on Sunday in both teams’ second game of the World Championships. Although he scored 21 points, grabbed 10 boards, and had 3 assists, Yao’s Chinese team lost 121-90. Click here for more photos from the game. Click here for a story on the game.

As expected, it wasn’t even close for the Chinese against Team USA in a 121-90 loss. It did get interesting when the Chinese, trailing by 25 after the first quarter, scored 10 straight points at the beginning of the second quarter to pull within 15, thanks to several three-pointers. But the USA turned on the jets and cruised afterwards.

Yao was more demonstrative than ever on some foul calls against him that resulted in him fouling out. After some of these calls, Yao trailed the ref yelling at him and holding up his arms in protest. I slowed down the replays for 3 of the fouls, and in my opinion, they all seemed to be the right call, or at least too close to call. I just think Yao was frustrated that his team was losing so badly, and had to vent somehow. But you have to give Yao credit for the passion he had in this game, even though they were trailing big throughout the entire match and had no chance of winning.

Yao’s last foul that resulted in him fouling out was an attempted block against Dwight Howard. It was tough to tell since there aren’t as many camera angles available in these broadcasts like NBA games, but it was too close to call.

The most amusing play occured about mid-way in the third quarter when Yao picked up one of his controversial fouls. Standing close to the basket on defense, Yao tipped a pass and flicked it forward to another Chinese player so that player could start a fast break the other way.

Unfortunately, the other player wasn’t expecting the pass, so Yao picked up the loose ball and basically caught his own pass — which is a double-dribble — but the refs didn’t call it, and Yao started dribbling it up the court himself. The USA’s Kirk Hinrich tried to steal it away from him, but Yao was able to fend him off and keep his dribble while still heading up court. Then seeing Lebron James in his way as he dribbled past half court, YAO IN FULL STRIDE DID A CROSSOVER DRIBBLE TO GET BY LEBRON! I couldn’t help but laugh on how wicked that move was!

That move allowed Yao to get into the paint and perhaps allow him to finish on one of the sweetest sequence of moves a 7’6″ man has ever scored on. But unfortunately for Yao, future Rocket teammate Shane Battier came into the lane and, in my estimation, established position with both feet in the lane right before Yao ran into him. But even after he made contact, Yao threw the ball up at the rim, which the ball grazed from underneath, popped over the lip of the rim, and fall through for the score! But it wasn’t meant to be after the ref called the charge on Yao.

Obviously upset that his coast-to-coast basket didn’t count, and that his team was losing so badly, Yao was really upset. But I’d rather see that then no fight at all.

Overall, Yao looked good in this game scoring 21 points (5-of-8 field goals, 11-of-13 free throws), and the U.S. ESPN2 announcers were saying the Rockets should be pleased at the progress Yao has made since injuring his foot last April.

Click here for a story on the game.

This entry was posted on Sunday, August 20th, 2006 at 9:05 am and is filed under 2006 World Championships. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.