Suffocated and stifled by an impressive Greek defense, Yao Ming
struggled to notch 10 points and eight rebounds as China crashed
out in the second round of the World Basketball Championships in
Saitama, Japan, losing to Greece 95-64.
Greece, led by Theodoros Papaloukas's 19 points, six assists and
five steals, go on to face France in the quarter-finals.
Yao, who averaged 23.7 points and 7.7 rebounds in the previous
five games, was 3-5 from the field and 4-4 from the line, receiving
two fouls in 31 minutes.
Greece intelligently cut the connections from the guards to Yao,
a tactic that helped produce 13 steals from China's 24
turnovers.
"Greece played the best all-out defense in the tournament. We
didn't expect it be so difficult to pass the ball to Yao," said
guard Zhu Fangyu, who scored 12 points.
"It's quite frustrating to lose the game. We wanted to go
further in the tournament. Entering the second round was just our
lowest goal. We did not push ourselves to the utmost," Yao
said.
"Our players had not played against defense like this, which, I
have to say, is commonly found in the European leagues. We
committed too many mistakes, and lost confidence," said China's
coach Jonas Kaslauskas, trainer of Greece's Olympiakos last
season.
China had started the game well with a opening 12-2 rally and
had continued the trend into the second quarter at 23-11.
After 10 minutes of poor shooting, the European champions
focused on defense to create a series of turnovers for some easy
baskets, making a 11-0 run to take the lead 28-27, midway through
the second quarter.
Greece never looked back after that and took a commanding lead
at 78-53 with a 28-6 run in the third to secure the game.
China's six guards committed 17 turnovers and produced no steals
while Greece had 58 points inside the paint despite the 2.26-meter
Yao's presence.
(Xinhua News Agency August 28, 2006)
