Game Tempo To USA's Liking In 121-90 Win Over China

Salem-News.com Sports

Sapporo, Japan - Setting the game tempo from the opening tip, the U.S. (2-0) relied on a relentless defense to help fuel its offensive effort and the result was a very impressive 121-90 win over China (0-2) Sunday night in World Championship preliminary play.

Dwyane Wade (Miami Heat) came off the bench to pace the offensive onslaught with 26 points, the team's youngest member, 20-year-old Dwight Howard (Orlando Magic) posted a double-double of 16 points and 11 rebounds, and Carmelo Anthony (Denver Nuggets) also finished with 16 points in the win that improved the USA's record in preliminary play to 2-0.

Playing China with or without NBA All-Star Yao Ming doesn't seem to make a lot of difference to the USA team. Thirteen days after defeating China 119-73 in an exhibition game in which Ming did not play, the USA was again dominant from start to finish in a game that this time featured the 7'5" Ming.

"I thought our team played extremely well and we needed to because China has improved tremendously since our game with them two weeks ago," said Mike Krzyzewski, USA head coach. "The tempo tonight is exactly what we want. I'm not so concerned about how many points we keep them (opponents) to as long as we have that margin. I thought we played really hard defensively.

"We worked very hard to defend Yao, he's a terrific player. He's just coming off a serious injury, he played with great courage."

With the USA holding a 9-6 lead, behind five points each from Chris Paul (New Orleans/Oklahoma City Hornets) and Anthony the U.S. posted a 14-2 run to open up a 23-8 lead and end any suspense about who would come out on top of this contest.

The U.S. led 32-17 at the end of the first quarter, and after Wade finished off the second quarter with 11 consecutive points the U.S. was up 63-38 at half.

Even though China started the third quarter by scoring 10 straight points to cut the U.S. gap to 63-48, the USA resumed its dominant play and at the end of 30 minutes of play the Americas were up 95-62.

In a game in which 11 of the USA's 12 players scored, a more telling stat might be that the U.S. was credited with 23 assists on 41 baskets and that the Americans were credited for 18 steals, which were distributed among 11 players.

"It's too much fun, it's been the greatest experience ever," said Paul about running the high octane U.S. offense that is averaging 116 points after two games. "You're pushing the ball up the court, you might have LeBron on one wing, Carmelo, D-Wade, Dwight Howard down low finishing, it's like a dream come true! It makes my job so much easier in that I really can't make a bad decision."

In addition to Wade and Howard's contributions, Paul accounted for 13 points and eight assists, while Joe Johnson (Atlanta Hawks), James and Elton Brand (Los Angeles Clippers) scored 11 each.

The U.S. dominated every statistical area. Outrebounding China 46-37, the U.S. forced China into 25 turnovers while committing just eight themselves, and the USA made 33-of-40 free throws.

Ming led China's effort with 21 points and 10 rebounds, Shipeng Wang added 17 points.

"We just wanted to come out from the beginning of the game and play as hard as we could and set the tempo from the beginning," remarked Howard. "It's a tough match up me against Yao. He's a lot bigger, a lot stronger and he's way taller, but I'm not afraid to play against anybody and I just want to represent my country."

Off Monday, the USA resumes World Championship preliminary play Tuesday facing Slovenia (1-1).

In the other Group D action in Sapporo, Puerto Rico (1-1) got past Senegal (0-2) 88-79, and Italy

(2-0) slipped by Slovenia (1-1) 80-76.

In other preliminary round play Sunday, Argentina (2-0) stayed perfect in Group A after pounding Lebanon (1-1) 107-72, Venezuela (1-1) got past Nigeria (1-1) 84-77, and France (1-1) bettered Serbia & Montenegro (0-2) 65-61. In Group B, Angola (2-0) remained undefeated after disposing of host Japan (0-2) 87-62, Germany (2-0) continued to roll and posted an 80-56 win over New Zealand (0-2), and Spain routed Panama (0-2) 101-57. Group C play saw Brazil (1-1) earn its first win with a 97-66 thrashing of Qatar (0-2), Turkey (2-0) out lasted Australia (1-1) 76-68, while Greece (2-0) managed an 81-76 overtime win against Lithuania (0-2).

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