Despite a 68-66 loss to European champions Lithuania at the Stankovic Continental Champions Cup on Wednesday, China's head coach Jonas Kaslauskas had a lot to celebrate in front of his Lithuanian compatriots.
Having played four times against Lithuania at the Olympic Games, China have never won a single match and only conceded an average of 37 points.
But this time, the hosts were not ready to give up as they pressed the Lithuanians from beginning to end with an impressive last-gasp fight-back and an effective defence, which limited their formidable rivals to within 70 points.
At a post-match news conference Kaslauskas, who was the assistant to American Del Harris when China reached the quarter-finals at the Athens Olympics last year, beamed "I am proud of my players tonight,"
"They were impressively united and played like a real team. This is what I have been expecting over the past months."
With journalists and fans predicting China to be crushed by a big margin, the team, without NBA All-Star centre Yao Ming, captain Li Nan and power forward Du Feng, all injured, soundly chased down the scoreboard when the European champions pulled away to lead as much as 12 points with six minutes left on the clock.
"My players played splendid last-moment basketball," said Kaslauskas. "This is what I have been teaching them - never give up before the final buzzer."
With the absence of main forces, young players like Wang Bo, national team rookies Wang Shipeng and Sun Yue were given more time in the last quarter. Kaslauskas's decision proved wise as they effectively played full court man-to-man defence, which was once the team's Achilles heel, forcing the sizzling Lithuanians two turnovers and a rarely seen air ball in their three-pointer attempt.
Spearheaded by point guard Liu Wei, who scored 10 of his 15 points in the fourth quarter, China stormed back with a 9-0 run to tie the match 66-66 with 41 seconds left on the clock.
"I didn't call on a last minute strategy and I'm happy they controlled the court for most of the time," said Kaslauskas. "We need to play big moments just like this. It is very important for young players to experience and learn from it.
"Who is able to deal with such situation except Yao in past competitions? Today, they all did it," he added.
The daring defence and never-say-die attack not only earned China more chances when the match seemed to slip away, but also won them the respect of their opponents.
"I really appreciate their performance, especially in the last minutes," said Valdemaras Chomicius, head coach of Lithuania. "I can see they displayed real sportsmanship, and the improvements under the new coach are obvious."
Lithuania's forward Martynas Andriukaitis, who sank two crucial free throws with 27 seconds remaining, also had high words to Chinese players.
"They are really aggressive in the last quarter," he said. "They are very young but already show the power to win the top-notch tournaments."
Lacklustre offence
Despite a sparkling last gasp performance, China were still struggling in attack as the team had scored only 62 and 66 points in the previous two matches at the event.
The match against Lithuania only saw Liu and forward Mo Ke scoring into double digits while Yi Jianlian and Tang Zhengdong, supposedly the backbones inside the paint, played poorly, securing just five and eight points respectively.
China embarrassed themselves even more in field shooting with only one of 10 attempts from the three-point arc on Wednesday night.
"It is really hard for us to organize offence without Yao and Li. I am sure the situation will change when he comes back," Kaslauskas explained. "Our players lack of experience and the month-long warm-up competitions made us very tired.
China play against the South America's runners-up Purto Rico tonight and face off with Olympic champions Argentina tomorrow before ending up the event with a showdown with world No 3 Australia on Sunday.
(China Daily July 29, 2005)
