China beat Iran 75-46 on Friday in the FIBA Diamond Cup tournament in Nanjing, finishing third overall and the top team in Asia. Because it was such a blowout, Yao Ming only played 19 minutes and scored 12 points (4-of-8 FGs), grabbed 4 rebounds, but missed 3-of-7 free throws.

Yao contained the top scorer in the tournament, center Hadem Ehadadi, drawing 2 quick fouls from him within first 5 minutes of the game.

Liu Wei returned from his rib injury the other day, controlling the tempo and and setting up Yao nicely on offensive sets, allowing China to take a 19-11 lead by the end of the first quarter.

China played much better defense than they did against Australia, as did the power forwards. Wang Zhizhi finished with 15 points and 6 rebounds assist in 25 minutes. Yi Jianlian also played 25 minutes, scoring 8 points (4-of-7 FGs) and grabbing 9 boards. Du Feng only played for 10 minutes, but scored 9 points (3-of-4 from 3-point land).

Zhang Qingpeng, one of the backup point guards, played most of the 2nd and 3rd quarter. He played okay except for getting too excited and fouling out early in the fourth quarter. He dished 4 assists, but only scored 1 point in 11 minutes, missing his two 3-point attempts. He also had 3 turnovers.

The other backup point guard, Chen Jianghua, seemed to have his confidence shaken. After Zhang Qingpeng fouled out, he played at the point the rest of the game. In 19 minutes, he scored 3 points, missed 3 layups, had no assists, and one steal.

Click here for more photos from the game.

This entry was posted on Friday, August 1st, 2008 at 9:17 am and is filed under Rockets' off-season. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.