Argentina-China Goes Down to the Wire
When China Thought They Were safe, Argentina Fight Back
By WILL SIT, AP Writer
August 30, 2006
CHN: 27 - 21 - 14 - 25 - 87
ARG: 11 - 25 - 24 - 23 - 83
JAPAN (AP) -- Argentina thought they had China figured out. Boy, were they wrong.
Lucky for the Argentineans, the Chinese let their inexperience and lack of strength be exploited and nearly let the win get away. Please note, ‘nearly’ because it was very close.
Yao Ming had another big game with 27 points (12-18 FG), 15 rebounds and 5 blocks. The Houston Rockets centre has had a stellar tournament thus far and in this game, it was only fitting that he was the one to seal the win with two free throws with 4.6 seconds left. C Wang Zhizhi had another near triple double with 13 points, 9 rebounds and 8 assists. Li Nan and Liu Wei both chipped in 16 points apiece after beginning the game on fire from long range.
PG Pepe Sanchez and PF Luis Scola helped Argentina come back from a double digit deficit after halftime to make the game competitive again. Sanchez had 17 and 11 aisssts while Scola had 17 and 8 rebounds. Manu Ginobili struggled with 10 points on 4 for 12 shooting. He and fellow NBA player Nocioni both fouled out in the second half of the game and this dealt a huge blow to the Argentineans.
China came out of the blocks with a flair and intensity no one has ever seen from the team. Yao started the scoring with a thundering dunk before Liu Wei sunk a deep three. Yao then scored two more baskets before the Argentineans put their first points on the board. The Chinese went on a tear with Wang Zhizhi scoring a lay up, Zhu scoring back to back jumpers and Liu scoring on the fast break.
Argentina tried to get back in it with a short 6-0 run but China’s Coach Kazlauskas called a timeout and the team went back out to watch Li Nan sink a three pointer at the buzzer to keep China in the lead 27-11. The second half began with China continuing their dominance with another two treys from Li Nan and helping China continue a 14-0 scoring run.
Argentina then was called into a time out and came out more focused. The team was led by Luis Scola who out muscled the Chinese on defence while Sanchez leant a hand in scoring. China’s inexperience was exploited and Argentina looked like a far more superior team than they did at the start of the game.
As halftime approached, China struggled to score as Argentina continued to roll on. The third period was no different as Argentina stretched their scoring run to 16-0 over the two quarters. The South Americans also took their first lead of the night midway through the quarter after a Manu Ginobili dunk. Sanchez and Scola continued to burn the Chinese defence as China struggled to keep their opponents at bay. China regained control of the tempo of the game by the end of the quarter.
The fourth quarter was a run and gun affair as China went to Yao on every possession and the Argentineans went gunning away from behind the arc. Argentina took a 7 point lead but with 5:32 left, Nocioni fouled out and then 2 minutes later, Ginobili followed him to the locker room with his own fifth personal foul.
At that stage, China was trailing by 5 and took advantage of Argentina missing two of its better players. Liu Wei made a jumper from near the baseline and Wang Zhizhi made a three pointer on the following play to even the scores at 83-83 with 1:15 left. Scola tried to get around Yao but went out of bounds before Liu Wei was fouled on a three pointer. The Chinese PG scored two of his three free shots before the Chinese scrambled back to the other end and held Argentina for the full duration of the shot clock. SG Carlos Delfino took a tough shot from close to the top of the key and it was an air ball.
China took one last time out with 5 seconds left and Yao was then fouled with the ball. He made both free throws to ice the game.
Coach Kazlauskas was extremely proud of his side but also noted that here was plenty of room for improvement, “If we want to contest for the gold medal, we need to play a lot harder and keep our intensity at a high level for the whole game and not for certain parts of it. Maybe we should have won by 20 points but I must say that I’m not complaining.”
San Antonio Spurs star SG Manu Ginobili was a bit shocked with his team’s shock departure but was honest with himself and the media, “Tonight, we underestimated our opponents and we lost to a team that simply played a lot harder tonight.”
Box Score
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Argentina
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