China's Yao Ming used finesse to thwart New Zealand's body-bumping defense and also showed the Kiwis he can bang with the best of them on his way to 39 points in a 69-62 Olympic victory August 17.
Bouncing back after losing a preliminary-round opener to Spain, Yao made 15-of-20 shots from the field and grabbed 13 rebounds, sparking China down the stretch after the Kiwis rallied within four points in the final minute.
"Yao Ming was incredible. He dominated the whole game," New Zealand forward Dillon Boucher said.
"We had a game plan against Yao and we didn't execute it. We went out to muscle him, play a physical game, and he turned it around on us, played a finesse game with those turnaround jump shots. At 7-foot-6 he's hard to stop."
The 2.26m NBA All-Star shoved Boucher to the court with 7:27 remaining after Boucher knocked the ball from Yao's grasp and Kiwi centre Sean Marks stuffed in a two-handed slam dunk over Yao.
Marks glared at Yao, who was then bumped by Boucher. Responding to intimidation in an NBA-like manner, Yao shoved Boucher down. No foul was called on either player.
"I was just trying to get the guy to react. We wanted to get in his head a little bit, stop him from scoring so much," Boucher said. "I can't say what I thought. Let's just say, 'He's a big boy'."
New Zealand coach Tab Baldwin said several key calls went China's way but Chinese coach Del Harris, an assistant coach with the NBA Dallas Mavericks, said, "I thought the referees did a fine job of controlling the game."
China's next game is against Argentina tomorrow. The Chinese, 1-1, must finish in the top four of their preliminary group to reach the quarter-finals. They face Italy on Saturday and world champion Serbia and Montenegro on Monday.
"I'm proud of how the players responded under a pressure situation," Harris said. "Everyone realized if we lost, we would not have an opportunity, or only a remote opportunity, to go beyond the preliminary round."
Yao scored 16 points in the first half, giving China a 29-20 lead at the break, then poured in 19 more in the third quarter only to watch the Kiwis, led by 23 points from Phil Jones, trim China's lead to 54-51.
But Yao sparked an 8-2 Chinese run and Guo Shiqiang sank 5-of-6 free throws, all of his scoring, in the final seconds to seal the triumph.
"Yao was just terrific," said Harris. "In the first game he tried to involve his teammates too much. He agreed. They agreed. He was more aggressive this time, took more shots."
Yao, who vowed not to shave for six months if China misses the quarter-final round, did not speak with reporters.
But Chinese captain Li Nan said players have developed passion to cope with the pressure.
"We played very badly in the previous game and we felt a lot of pressure. We played with a spirit of never giving up," Li said. "We played with a great passion. From now on it's a matter of boosting our confidence."
(China Daily August 18, 2004)
