Australia's Matt Nielsen (L) and Mark Worthington (R) try to stop China's Sun Yue during their men's preliminary round Group B basketball match at the Basketball Arena during the London 2012 Olympic Games August 2, 2012. Australia beat China 81-61 in an Olympic men's basketball Group B game on Thursday.[Photo/Agencies]

LONDON - China lost their third straight match in the men's basketball tournament, falling to Australia 81-61 on Thursday when they saw hopes of next stage diminishing at the 2012 London Olympic Games.

China had to win both of the last two matches in the preliminary round when they face Brazil and the hosts Britain to take a berth in the knock-out round.

Former center Yao Ming, who is invited as a commentator by the Chinese Central Television, said, "Australia is a better team, physically and technically. The Chinese team has tried the best. Wang Shipeng shot really well, but was not well enough to save the game."

Guard Wang Shipeng buried seven 3-pointers and scored a game-high 21 points for China, but the rest of the team shot poorly in the field under the pressure of suffocating defence.

"I made some shots in the first half when the offence ran smoothly.  But in the second half, their defence cut down our connection. I cannot do it again without the support from big guys inside the paint," Wang said.

"Rebound is a big problem as we don't have real post guys to protect the board. There is no problem for the outside shooters," he added.

China had 36 rebounds, the most in three matches, but were outplayed by the Australians by 51-36.  China were beaten on the board by an average of 22 rebounds  in the games against Spain, Russia and Australia.

The Asian champions managed a 22-21 lead in the first quarter when Wang chipped in four 3-pointers before the Australians stiffened the defence.

Australia won the second quarter 28-11 when the Chinese were overwhelmed in the paint.  The Aussies scored 30 points in the paint and 14 second-chance points in the game.

Wang again stepped out to make another three in a row from downtown to cut the deficit to 61-52 at the end of the third period.  But the Chinese were too tired to gather up for a decisive-quarter showdown, beaten by 20-9 in the last 10 minutes.

"China is a quick 3-pointer shooting team. You have to keep a mind on them for the whole team, no matter how many points you led. Today we've given everything we have, especially to defence Yi Jianlian," Australia's coach Brett Brown said.

Point guard Patrick Mills, who played for Xinjiang Guanghui of the Chinese Basketball Association last season, scored a team-high 20 points for Australia, while David Andersen added 17.

Yi Jianlian, who had 13 points and 12 rebounds for China, seemed to have sprain his foot as he was benched over one minutes before the end of the game. Team doctor will examine his injury while no details were revealed.