Well, the game between China and the USA turned out as expected, with the Americans winning 101-70.

But I really enjoyed watching it because the pace of the game at the start was pretty frenetic. Here are a few other reasons:

First, Yao Ming‘s intensity. In the game’s first few minutes, he dove for a loose ball going out of bounds to save the possession while crashing into a row of photographers:

(Click here for more photos from the game)

Later he would draw a ton of cheers when Kobe Bryant took the ball into the lane and swatted it away for a demonstrative block.

Even near the end of the game when his team was down by 35 points, Yao battled hard for a couple of rebounds, was fouled, and the crowd cheered in appreciation for his effort.

After Yao checked out of the game with 13 points, 10 rebounds, and 1 block, he was up off the bench when any of his teammates did well on the offensive end. That’s the most intense I’ve seen him when a game has been so out of reach! It was great to see Yao so “into” the game after not seeing him play for 6 months since suffering the stress fracture in his foot.

And let’s not forget there was that first shot he hit to start the game: a 3-pointer! That made the Chinese crowd go nuts!

The beginning of the game was fantastic, with both teams running up and down the floor. It was like an NCAA Final Four game, and much better than an NBA All-Star game, which is kind of a joke with nothing at stake. It’s great to see a talented team playing to its fullest ability.

Very early both teams’ players were sweating profusely, maybe in part because the temperature may have been a little warm in the arena. None of the dignitaries, like President George Bush, were wearing suits. They all looked like normal fans in regular dress shirts.

A few minutes after Yao hit that 3-pointer, he tried a fancy no-look pass over his head to a cutting Liu Wei, but the pass didn’t connect. If they had connected for a score, that would have been one of the most spectacular shots in Chinese basketball competition we’d have seen in years.

NBC analyst Doug Collins was surprised with Yao’s conditioning, saying, “I’m really impressed with him. He’s a lot more active and mobile than I thought he was going to be, and he’s kept his weight down.”

The Chinese stayed close for the first 1 1/2 quarters, relying mainly on 3-pointers, hitting eight of their first 12 attempts, with Sun Yue‘s 3 tying it at 29 with 6:09 remaining in the second quarter.

But then the Americans’ pressure on the Chinese guards started taking its toll, making them turn over the ball, leading to 10 straight points off layups and dunks. It was downhil from there for the Chinese.

With that said, I believe the Chinese showed the rest of the world the following:

They can hit 3-pointers, which always give you a chance. Remember when Greece beat the USA in the World Championships a couple of years ago? If they can get hot from behind the arc, watch out – they could advance to the next round.

Although he didn’t do much statistically in the first half (0-for-8 from the field) because of LeBron James’ stifling defense, Yi Jianlian showed some good moves late in the second half, hitting a couple of jump hooks in the lane, and one time skying high to pick an offensive rebound out of the air with one hand and slamming it through! That got the fans off their feet.

And backup point guard Chen Jianghua took Kobe to the hole, showed some speed and scoring on a layup.

I would have more commentary if I had a boxscore for the game, but I’ve looked all over the Internet and I can’t find one. Surprising for a such a high-profile game.

There’s tons of photos from the game, though.

Here’s Raymond’s photos in the forum.

And here are photos from the NBC Olympics site.

This entry was posted on Sunday, August 10th, 2008 at 1:23 pm and is filed under 2008 Beijing Olympics. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.