The United States continued
to show its good shape in the preliminaries of the 2006 World Basketball
Championship, brushing aside Slovenia 114-95 here on Tuesday for its third
straight victory in Group D.
Dwyane Wade scored 20 points to lead four American players in double digits.
LeBron James, Elton Brand and Camelo Anthony added 19, 16 and 14 respectively.
U.S. player Carmelo
Anthony slam dunks against Slovenia during their win in the first round of
the world basketball championships in Sapporo August 22, 2006.
[Reuters] |
The Slovenians started strongly against the title favorites, fighting to a
21-14 lead in the first quarter. But the Americans answered with a 11-0 run to
overtake the lead at 27-21 before pulling away in the second quarter with a
66-49 advantage at the half time.
"Early in the first quarter, they (Slovenia) executed well," said Brand, who
was 4-for-5 from the field and 8-for-10 from the line. "Then we improved our
defense and played much better in the second."
"We should maintain the focus and keep playing well and playing hard in every
game," he added.
The American team will play on Wednesday against Italy, who also collected
its third straight win on Tuesday after rallying past Senegal 64-56, for the top
position of the group.
"They (Italy) have good shooters, they played a great basketball game with
Slovenia yesterday. It will be a big game for us," said U.S. head coach Mike
Krzyzewski.
The NBA stars from the U.S. team seemed to enjoy team work well as they
delivered 21 assists against 10 from Slovenia. The Americans also had 17 steals
and forced 25 turnovers out of Slovenia.
China, the Asian champion who lost to the United States 121-90 on Sunday,
suffered another setback with a 90-87 defeat by Puerto Rico in overtime.
Having lost all their first three preliminary matches in Group D, China is on
the verge of elimination from the second round. The Chinese will play Senegal
and Slovenia in the remaining group matches and need to win both to survive the
hope of advancing to the top 16 at the 24-team competition.
Yao Ming had 29 points, eight rebounds and two blocks to give China a 71-69
lead before receiving his fifth personal foul with four minutes and 40 seconds
left.
Du Feng made a three-pointer two minutes and a half later to give China a
76-74 lead, but Antonio Latimer had a lay-up 23 seconds from the end of the
regular time to force the overtime, in which Elias Ayuso scored eight of his 27
points to lift Puerto Rico its second victory out of three tries.
"Ask me not, ask the officials," Yao told reporters in the mixed zone before
walking straight to the team bus.
"I have nothing to say because we were playing five against eight (referring
to three officials)," he said earlier.
China's former NBA player Wang Zhizhi and Du Feng also fouled out, in the
fourth quarter and over-time respectively, and so did Daniel Santiago of Puerto
Rico.
Santiago, who scored eight points early in the fourth when Yao was forced to
rest for refreshment helping Puerto Rico rally back to 68-66 with a 10-1 run,
admitted China would have a much better chance to clinch the vctory if Yao was
not ejected.
"It's very, very, very possible," he said. "Yao is a great player and it's
very difficult to guard even when you do great defense. With Yao, the
possibilities (for China to win) are much better."
Santiago could feel Yao's feeling when he got the frustrating ejection.
"I felt for Yao, because I have the same problem," he said. "It's very
difficult for the referees because there are not many big guys like Yao and me.
If Yao moves and the guy falls down, sometimes the referee calls a foul, because
it looks like he is too strong."
"Hopefully people can work on and hopefully will get better because it's not
only the problem for Yao, but also for me."
China head coach Jonas Kazlauskas was disappointed following his side's third
straight loss.
"We gave up big advantages in short periods, so we could not compete with
best teams in the world," he said.
The Chinese started well in the Group D clash, racing to a 9-0 lead in the
first quarter. Puerto Rico answered then with a 10-0 run, but China surged ahead
again with a 15-4 run capped by two three pointers in a row by Wang Zhizhi.
Trailing 24-16 after the first period, Puerto Rico came back strongly in the
second, steadily erasing its deficit through sharp outside offense led by Carlos
Arroyo and overtook the lead 39-38 at the half time.
China rebuilt a 64-54 lead on back of a 19-3 burst connecting the third and
fourth quarter, but faded again.
Arroyo finished with 25 points, 10 assists and eight rebounds for Puerto
Rico, who was on a 2-1 record.
In Group C, Greece nipped Australia 72-69, Turkey outlasted Brazil 73-71 and
Lithuania trounced Qatar 106-65.
Teams from Group A and B had a day for break.
