¡¡¡¡TAIYUAN, Shanxi Province, July 2 (Xinhuanet) -- The NBA center duo,Yao Ming
and Menk Bateer, led China to a 92-78 victory over European champions Yugoslavia
on Tuesday at the Shuanglai Four-Nation men's basketball invitation here.
¡¡¡¡Yao Ming, who will go to the Houston Rockets as the top pick next season,
stamped his domination inside with 27 points, with his national teammate Bateer,
who played for the Denver Nuggets last season, added seven points in less than
10-minute plays.
¡¡¡¡The Chinese team learned fast from Monday's loss to Italy, setting up
better defence and shooting more long-ranged baskets tobeat the Yugoslavian
second team.
¡¡¡¡"We had only four days of practice before we came here. We are not in good
shape," said Yugoslavian coach Miodrag Baletic. "But China deserved to win. They
played better tonight."
¡¡¡¡"We are clever on defence tonight," said Chinese head coach Wang Fei.
"European teams are different from Asians. They play more aggressive defence. We
were not acquainted with such defence yesterday when we lost to Italy."
¡¡¡¡China will play Australia, who defeated Italy 79-66 in an earlier game, on
Wednesday to call up the first part of the two-stop tournament. Teams will move
to Dongguan of Guangdong provinceto continue the matches. Enditem