This is a little late because of a massive project at my work, but better late than never.

On Wednesday (China time), China lost to Australia 67-55 in a FIBA Diamond Ball tournament game in Nanjing, China.

Here Yi Jianlian and Yao Ming get pumped during the game…

And here, Australia’s Andrew Bogut hacks Yao big-time…

Here’s Raymond’s recap of the game:

Yao Ming played 30 minutes, scored 14 points (5/8 FG% 4/6 FT%)/7 rebounds/2 blocks/1 steal/1 assist/5 turnovers/4 personal fouls.

He sort of played well against Bogut and held him to 9 points (3/9 FG% 0/4 FT%)/8 rebounds/2 blocks/4 fouls in 23 minutes of play.

However, China was exposed because of the inept performance of their point guards. Yao’s friend and teammate Liu Wei got bumped in the ribs early in the second quarter and couldn’t play afterwards.

China’s backup guards couldn’t break Australia’s full-court press, couldn’t control the tempo and rhythm of the game, and didn’t know how to pass to their interior players. As a result, China had 25 turnovers, and their power forwards (Yi Jianlian, Wang Zhizhi and Du Feng) played extremely poorly, with Yi failing to score in 24 minutes of play.

Overall, it was a total disappointment for China, and the defeat means we may not see Yao Ming play against Luis Scola, unless Argentina fails to win against Serbia and finishes 2nd or 3rd in their group — a similar position as China.

Click here for more photos of the game.

This entry was posted on Wednesday, July 30th, 2008 at 7:09 pm and is filed under Rockets' off-season. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.