Yao Impresses in China Defeat

Well, it wasn’t the Toni Kukoc treatment after all.

Maybe this guy is going to make it.

China’s Yao Ming withstood the threats from the NBA-stocked Team USA--even if his team didn’t--during the Americans’ 84-54 romp over China in an exhibition game here Thursday in preparation for next week’s World Championships in Indianapolis.

Yao, China’s 7-foot-5 star, finished with 13 points, 11 rebounds and six blocks. In the first half he had 11 points, five rebounds, two blocks and two steals, while the U.S. rolled to a 51-28 lead.

As Michael Jordan and Scottie Pippen did to Kukoc in the Olympics a decade ago, U.S. players said they were prepared to test the much-discussed Chinese giant.

But Yao didn’t panic, displaying a soft shooting touch and resolve that even helped his team to an early lead.

The game opened with Antonio Davis, who defended Yao, and Jermaine O’Neal driving unsuccessfully at Yao, whose size seemed to disturb just about all the Americans.

But not rookie Jay Williams.

Coming in late in the first half, Williams, the former Duke standout, drove on and almost succeeded in an attempt to dunk on the huge center, drawing the crowd’s biggest reaction and his teammates’ cheers.

“People are always going to come after you,” Williams said. “You have to be ready.”

The U.S. team was ready and blew away the Chinese team with a 16-3 run to close the first quarter and 14-2 to open the second quarter. The principal contributors were Michael Finley with 12 points, Shawn Marion with 10 and O’Neal and Ben Wallace controlling the backboards. Finley finished with a game-high 19 points.

But China’s team, which is not considered a serious medal contender in next week’s 16-team tournament and will play the U.S. again Aug. 31, was not the story. It was Yao, the NBA’s No. 1 draft pick with the Houston Rockets.

It was reminiscent of the Dream Team’s game in 1992 against Croatia and Kukoc, then regarded as Europe’s best player. The Bulls were coming off their second consecutive title, and Jordan and Pippen weren’t happy about the Chicago management’s love affair with Kukoc.

The locker room was quiet as the U.S. team was about to face Croatia when Jordan spoke.

“Kukoc is ours,” Jordan said.

No one said anything.

“You guys take who you want, but he’s ours,” Jordan said. “Anyone got a problem with that?”

Jordan and Pippen then practically picked up Kukoc heading out of the locker room, holding him to an embarrassing four points in a 33-point U.S. win.

There was no Jordan or Pippen Thursday, but this is a hard-working if not star-laden U.S. team.

It took a 5-0 lead, but Yao, moving easily around the basket, made two of turnaround jump shots, a face-up jump shot and followed a miss with a slam dunk when China took that 11-8 lead.

The U.S. pressure quickly opened up the game, but the only U.S. dunk in the first half with Yao in the game was when the center changed Paul Pierce’s shot and O’Neal followed the shot with a slam. Yao later blocked an O’Neal drive before Williams came closest to putting one in over him.

Yao, wearing No. 13 in the burgundy and gold of the Chinese team, didn’t back down or back off. He scored only five points and was in quick foul trouble against the U.S. team in the 2000 Olympics. But now, at about 300 pounds, he absorbed the blows on screens and kept his shot high, where defenders couldn’t get to it. He made his future coach, Houston’s Rudy Tomjanovich, sitting courtside, smile.

“I’ve liked what I’ve seen,” Tomjanovich said.

And the NBA probably has as well, which may be the point everyone is missing about Yao.

The Warriors, getting a rare sellout in this area with an estimated 1.5 million Asian-Americans, began selling their three-game and 11-game “Great Wall” ticket plans to see Yao and teammates Mengke Bateer (Denver) and Wang Zhi Zhi (Dallas), the latter not playing Thursday because of a dispute with the Chinese team.

The NBA is expecting huge revenues from previously untapped China with Yao, as the NBA players test this man some regard as the league’s next great force.

“People are going to come after you when you are a top pick,” Williams said.

“But it’s great to be a target. You prepare much more.”