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Tuesday, September 19
Team USA breaks down Chinese twin towers
Associated Press
U.S.-China box score
SYDNEY, Australia -- Foul trouble made the "Great Wall"
crumble, and the United States overran China once the height
difference was gone.
China actually held a six-point lead in the early going, but its
three big men picked up four fouls apiece in the first 18½ minutes
to end whatever slim chance it had in a 119-72 loss to the U.S.
men's basketball team Sunday.
|  | | Ray Allen gets two of 21 point the easy way -- off an alley-oop. |
For the limited time they were on the floor together, 7-footers
Wang Zhizhi and Yao Ming made things a bit difficult for the U.S.
team. But Wang, a second-round draft pick of the Dallas Mavericks
in 1999, did little after drawing four whistles in the first 5½
minutes, and Yao fouled out with 18:50 left in the second half.
"In the future, those guys are really going to make their
mark," U.S. coach Rudy Tomjanovich said.
Ray Allen had several highlight-reel dunks en route to 21
points, Vince Carter had 16, Tim Hardaway and Steve Smith added 12
each and Vin Baker 11 for the Americans, who did as they pleased
for most of the game to open Olympic competition with a runaway
victory.
Much like four years ago when the Americans beat China by 63
points, the talent difference between the teams was huge. This
time, though, the Chinese had a brief moment of glory by scoring 13
of the first 20 points behind the talents of their giants.
"They surprised us," Gary Payton said. "We came out sluggish,
but that happens. Being up by 25 two minutes into the game -- we
can't do that."
Carter made his first dunk less than two minutes into the game
for a 5-3 lead, but then it was a chance for Wang and Yao to show
their stuff. Yao rejected Carter's next drive, leading to a fast
break layup by Wang, and Wang added a 3-pointer moments later to
make it 12-7.
Yao, listed as 7-foot-5, made a foul shot for a 13-7 lead before
order was restored to the basketball world.
Kevin Garnett had an alley-oop dunk to get the U.S. team
rolling, and Allen made a 3-pointer to give the Americans a 17-16
lead with 14:15 left. By then, Wang had already picked up his
fourth foul on a push-off under the basket.
China's other big man, Menkbater, went to the bench with four
fouls with 3:20 left in the half, and Yao picked up his fourth less
than two minutes later. Of China's 14 fouls in the first half, 12
were called against the three big men who are known in their
country as the "Walking Great Wall."
"It was a wonderful learning experience for us," China coach
Zingquan Jiang said through a translator. "We had a lot of fouls
inside and that had an impact on the guards. The speed of the
Americans and the play of the guards are all what we can learn a
great deal from. We started off well and the gap widened."
The Americans built their lead to 60-38 by halftime despite two
missed alley-oop dunks by Carter, and the second half was devoid of
suspense as the Americans padded their lead and surpassed the
100-point mark with 6:36 left.
Wang led China with 13 points.
Carter, Allen and Garnett put on a show when the U.S. team came
out for warmups, lobbing alley-oop passes to themselves and
throwing down a succession of high-velocity dunks. Garnett was
especially animated, hopping and bopping around the court with
unbridled youthful exuberance.
Tomjanovich went with a starting lineup of Carter, Jason Kidd,
Mourning, Payton and Garnett, but it would be more than 5½ minutes
before the Americans went ahead to stay.
Canada 101, Australia 90 -- Canada put an early crimp into
Australia's Olympic basketball party.
With Michael Meeks scoring 27 points and Steve Nash adding 15
points and 15 assists, Canada beat the host country 101-90 Sunday,
a defeat the sellout crowd of 8, 353 at The Dome certainly wasn't
prepared for.
"We're very disappointed," said Australia's Andrew Gaze, who
is playing in his fifth Olympics. "Canada played an outstanding
game and shot the ball well and beat us at our own game, running up
and down the court."
It certainly started Australia's way as the hosts led by as many
as nine points in the first half before Canada was able to close to 51-48 at halftime. Canada then opened the second half with a
13-4 run that included two 3-pointers by Meeks and a basket and
3-pointer by Nash.
"That was a great stretch," said Meeks, who played at
Canisius. "We stopped them the first couple of possessions and we
fed off our defense. Then Steve gets so much attention he just
finds you."
Gaze, who finished with 24 points, was impressed with Nash, who
plays for the Dallas Mavericks.
"He certainly controlled the game," he said. "Fifteen assists
in international basketball. I've never seen that before. We
weren't able to get the ball out of his hands."
Australia's last lead was 76-74 with 7:02 left. Meeks then
scored 11 points in a 15-3 run and the crowd was no longer a
factor.
"This is the Olympics and you are playing with the elite of the
elite in the world," Meeks said. "It was time to step it up and I
made some shots."
The defeat certainly didn't end the medal hopes of Australia,
which most experts had pegged as silver medalists.
"This is very, very disappointing," Gaze said. "Probably the
worst feeling is that's not the way we play. I don't feel that was
a true reflection of our capabilities."
Italy 50, Lithuania 48 -- Andrea Meneghin's 3-pointer with 25 seconds to play -- his only
points of the game -- gave Italy the victory in a tense,
possession-by-possession game between the teams most consider the
second and third best in Group A behind the United States.
"The first game is always the most important. That's why we're
so happy," said Italy's Carlton Myers, who had nine points in a
foul-plagued 22 minutes, referring to a wild midcourt celebration.
"It was very tense, close and ugly, but at the end we won it and
that's what's important."
Meneghin, whose father, Dino Meneghin, is considered the
greatest player in Italy's history and is an assistant coach, had
missed all six shots he had taken, including two 3-pointers in the
previous 45 seconds.
But he made the one that counted. And when Lithuania misfired on
two 3-point shots in the final 12 seconds, Italy won its first
Olympic game since 1984 when Dino Meneghin was the star of the
team.
Mindaugas Timinskas, who played at Iona, made a driving layup
with 41 seconds left to give Lithuania a 48-47 lead. They were his
only points of the game.
"I can't believe we scored 50 points. There were no easy
baskets," Italy coach Bogdan Tanjevic said. "I didn't think we
played that well, but we were fortunate and it was a game of good
defense."
Italy finished with a better shooting percentage, 32.6 (15-for-46), as Lithuania managed a 13 for 50 effort (26 percent).
France 76, New Zealand 50 -- France, making its first appearance in men's Olympic basketball
since 1984, used its speed advantage to pull away.
Yann Bonato and Cyril Julian each had had eight points in a 26-4
run that gave France a 35-19 lead with 2:32 left in the first half.
France held New Zealand to one field goal over that stretch as
it overcame a six-point deficit and went on to a 38-23 lead. France
then scored the first nine points of the second half and the rout
was on.
Bonato finished with 16 points for France, which hadn't been in
the basketball competition for 24 years before competing in Los
Angeles and finishing 11th.
Sean Marks, who played at the University of California and for
the NBA's Toronto Raptors, had 12 points to lead New Zealand, which
was making its first appearance in the basketball competition.
Yugoslavia 66, Russia 60 -- Zeljko Rebraca scored 18 points and fellow center Dejean
Tomasevic added 13 as Yugoslavia took advantage of Russian center
Sergei Panov's foul trouble in the second half.
Russia's last lead was 36-34 with 15:48 to play and that's when
Panov went to the bench with his third foul. Rebraca and Tomasevic
then combined for 10 points in a 12-2 run that gave Yugoslavia the
lead for good.
Panov, who finished with 13 points, fouled out with 5:08 to play
and Russia trailing 58-48 and it never got closer than six points
the rest of the way.
Predrag Danilovic, who played for the Miami Heat, added 14
points Yugoslavia, which won the silver medal in the 1996 games and
has won a medal in the last five Olympics in which it has competed.
"We can play much, much, much better than we did today and we
will show that," Danilovic said.
Spain 64, Angola 45 -- Roberto Duenas scored 13 points to lead Spain, which opened the game with a 19-2 run only to see Angola get back to 30-22 at
halftime. Angola got as close as six points twice, the last time at
39-33 with 11:14 to play, but Spain's size allowed it to pull away
again.
Spain, led by Alfonso Reyes' 15 rebounds, finished with a 44-30
advantage on the boards.
Victor Muzadi had 13 points for Angola, which was 1-for-18 from
3-point range.
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