Yao Ming and Yi Jianlian faced each other for the first time in an NBA game on Friday night in Houston. Yao got the better of his protege, leding the Rockets to a 104-88 win over Yi’s Milwaukee Bucks. Click here to see more photos from the game.

With the enormity of the viewing audience for the Rockets-Bucks game on Friday night (for obvious reasons), it’s almost impossible to write anything here worthy of matching the size of the Yao Ming and Yi Jianlian fan base in China. But I’ll try my best.

Watching the game, it felt a lot like a playoff atmosphere (try a few Super Bowls all rolled up into one) and you could sense that both Yao and Yi felt the eyes of the world on them.

I guess Yao was a little nervous, only hitting 1-of-6 shots in the first quarter, most of them around the rim, including a missed dunk that caromed out of bounds. But as much as Yao struggled on offense, he was very good on defense, coming up with 2 blocks in the first quarter and numerous intimidations. He also didn’t foul that much, never getting in foul trouble, and finishing the game with only two personals.

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Our Raymond has translated an interview from Titan Sports of Yao Ming and Yi Jianlian before tonight’s big game in Houston between the two Chinese countrymen.

In the photo below, Yao is seen picking up Yi on Thursday night at the Houston Four Seasons to go to dinner.

The interview questions were asked separately of both players, and they meshed the responses into one article.

I don’t know about you, but through Yi’s responses, he doesn’t have near the personality that Yao does. He’s kind of a dud in how he answers the questions. That’s not good in building his persona here in the U.S. Here’s the translation:

Yao Ming and Yi Jianlian have never donned different jerseys and confronted each other in any regular basketball competition. But now the time has come for that to materialize. November 10, 2007. Houston Rockets versus Milwaukee Bucks. Those experiences of playing against each other in team scrimmages of the national team suddenly become meaningless, because this is going to be a NBA regular season game, a genuine match-up. So right before the clash of the titans, Titan Sports conducted the following interview by asking the same questions to the 2 of them (at different locations).

Yi Jianlian: (After pondering for a long while) Long time no see.

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