Lebrone James scored 22 points to lead the US team to a 119-73 crash over the depleted Chinese team 119-73 in Guangzhou on Monday.

 

The Cleveland Caveliers' guard also had six rebounds in 17 minutes while Carmelo Anthony had 18 points in 18 minutes.

 

China played without pivot Yao Ming, who joined the team for training on August 1 after foot surgery during the off season, or forward Wang Zhizhi, who injured his knee in a warm-up against France two weeks ago.

 

Yao and Wang are the two Chinese who have NBA experiences and the undoubted leaders of the Chinese team. The two has never played together in the national team since it was formed up in June.

 

Forward Du Feng led China with 18 points while center Yi Jianlian had 14 points and nine rebounds.

 

"No. 11 (Yi) impressed me a lot," said Antawn Jamaison. "The Chinese played hard and some good basketball. They've got improvement."

 

"I'm not thinking about winning the world championships in Japan, or even the 2008 Beijing Olympics. I just want to win every game and do my best," said James.

 

It was China who took the opening lead at 3-0 but the Americans used an 11-0 run to overtake and never trailed after that.

 

Yi powered inside the key to keep China into the game when the US led 24-19 in the first quarter.

 

James stepped up in the second quarter to herald the Americans to 36 points in 10 minutes to build up a 60-37 lead before the break.

 

China, who never beat the US at internationals, had 34 turnovers and let out 21 steals to the much faster and stronger Americans when clasped in the second half.

 

China and the US are bracketed into the same group for the World Championships, which will start on August 19 in Japan.

 

(Xinhua News Agency August 8, 2006)