World champions Spain nearly paid a heavy price for over-confidence, needing a dramatic fourth-quarter rally against China before escaping with an 85-75 over-time victory over the hosts.
Los Angeles Lakers star Pau Gasol scored nine of his 29 points in the extra five-minute period to give Spain the victory after they fell behind 61-47 after three quarters.
“We thought it could be a very easy game for us. Obviously that was a misunderstanding,” Spain coach Aito Garcia said after yesterday’s hard-fought win. “We were over-confident.”
China nearly proved it before the Spaniards rallied to finish regulation time level at 72-72 thanks to a Marc Gasol lob over Chinese star Yao Ming with 19.7 seconds left.
Yao fouled out trying to stop Gasol with Spain leading 72-70 in over-time. The call was a turning point as China faded once Yao went to the bench, having missed its best chance in regulation time.
China used a 14-4 second-quarter spurt to seize a 39-30 edge and Zhu and Liu hit back-to-back three-pointers to open the second half and put Spain in a 15-point hole.
Chinese captain Liu Wei scored 19 points while Wang Zhizhi, China’s first NBA player, and Zhu Fangyu added 15 points each to the delight of a noisy sell-out crowd.
Lithuania and Croatia remain undefeated to share the Group A lead.
Marko Popovich scored 22 points and Zoran Planinic added 20 as Croatia beat reigning European champions Russia 85-78.
Meanwhile Sarunas Jasikevicius scored 20 points and Rimantas Kaukenas added 14 to lead Lithuania past Iran by the comfortable margin of 99-67.
In other matches yesterday the US beat Angola 97-76 and Greece defeated Germany, 87-64.
In yesterday’s late game Argentina played Australia.
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