Yao was great doing his spins, moves, and rebounding. I don't think he's troubled by the toes or anything.
Yao was having problems with one of his toes when he was here in Dallas a month or so ago. He went down in an exhibition game at Moody Collesium on the SMU campus.
The key for the CNT is Li Nan. The guy should quit thinking that this is his team and he is a star. Guy, you are not a star in international games and you should settle down as a role player to support Yao. BTW, Del and CNT did the right thing of playing Mo ahead of Yi, and Du ahead of Zhu. Zhu is a great shooter but is timid in this kind of environment. Hope that they can keep up against LTV even if it's an ugly loss. As long as they play up to their level, I am fine with a 20 point loss.
This time it's a different toe. At least he can get a month's rest after the Olympics and that should give him enough time to rest his toes and get some treatment either in China or US.
China advanced to medal round, I feel great. I wish they can give the same effort facing Lithuania. Win or lose, I will be proud of them. Now I am rooting for Team USA for the gold metal!!!
VIDeo please.. si vous plait... 謝謝.... Please someone tells me he/she has a video and can put it on the web or send it to me or something!
A few pics of the post-game celebration available here. http://2004.sina.com.cn/photo_zt/1635/index.shtml Yao Ming... wow! wow! wow!
I am not impressed how they could come back with 7 pts deficit. I wonder how we could play so great after 3 shame lost. That rocks!!!!
I know that kind of news is gonna give us Rocket fans a heart attack. I just hope for the best and tell myself that he must be ok otherwise he wouldn't have got 27 points and 13 boards against the Serbian team.
http://www.sportsline.com/olympics/story/7606726/2 Yao leads China to upset of Serbia-Montenegro Aug. 23, 2004 SportsLine.com wire reports ATHENS, Greece -- Yao Ming nearly broke into tears talking about China's 67-66 victory Monday over Serbia-Montenegro. China coach Del Harris, a veteran of 45 years on the sidelines including 14 seasons as an NBA head coach, called it the best win he's ever had. The emotional win put China into the quarterfinals, matching its best Olympic finish ever. It also meant no chance at a medal for the two-time defending world champions. Yao scored 27 points and made the decisive free throws with 28 seconds to play, leading a Chinese team that had lost three games by at least 25 points. "Today is indeed a day of great joy for us," said the 7-foot-6 Yao, who plays for the Houston Rockets. "Coach Harris has taught us the lesson of life. You should never give up no matter the circumstances." Harris took over the Chinese national program in May. It's important for China to improve toward medal contention -- it hosts the next Summer Games in four years. "I've never coached a group of players I have more respect for, the way they work and the way they are as people," the 67-year-old Harris said. Serbia-Montenegro lost a close game for the fourth time and finished last in its six-team group -- a far cry from the celebrating it did as Yugoslavia in Athens at the 1998 World Championships and again in Indianapolis in 2002. "This is a big shock for us, and for me it is the hardest moment in my career," Serbia-Montenegro coach Zeljko Obradovic said. "We wanted to win this game very much and were leading the whole game. This has happened before in this tournament. We played good games with bad finishes." China (2-3), which finished eighth in the 1996 Olympics, will play unbeaten Lithuania in Thursday's quarterfinals. "This is the Olympic stage, the setting for miracles," China guard Liu Wei said. "What we have done today can even be better." Serbia-Montenegro, which lost two games by one point and another by three, will play winless Angola for 11th place on Tuesday Yao leads China to upset of Serbia-Montenegro « Back · 1 · 2 Both teams struggled on offense in the fourth quarter. Serbia-Montenegro had four field goals in the final 10 minutes, all 3-pointers. Only two of those came in the final 7 minutes. China, which trailed 60-53 with 7:09 to play, tied the game by keeping the ball out of Yao's hands and letting others do the work. His first shot of the fourth quarter came with just under a minute to play, 45 seconds after he had tied the game at 63 with two free throws. Yao made two free throws with 28 seconds left to give China the lead for good. Serbia-Montenegro worked the shot clock down and Dejan Bodiroga's jumper with 4 seconds left bounced off the rim and out of bounds. Du Feng made two free throws with 3.2 seconds left for the 67-63 lead. When the buzzer sounded, Yao, usually so stoic on the court, ran to the center circle and jumped around with his teammates. The players from Serbia-Montenegro, meanwhile, walked off the court stunned by a second straight poor Olympic performance. It finished sixth in Sydney, but that effort was sandwiched between the world championships. Yao was 9-for-12 from the field and grabbed 13 rebounds. Predrag Drobnjak led Serbia-Montenegro with 17 points. AP NEWS The Associated Press News Service Copyright 2004, The Associated Press, All Rights Reserved
From fiba.com ATHENS - The totally unpredictable Olympic Men¡¦s Basketball Tournament sprung its biggest surprise yet when YAO Ming and China knocked two-time defending world champion Serbia and Montenegro from the competition with a come-from-behind 67-66 victory in their fifth and last preliminary game. YAO (see photo) calmly buried four free throws in the closing two minutes, while his teammate DU Feng sank two with 3.2 seconds left to stun the 1998 and 2002 world champs. With the victory, China finished 2-3 and fourth in Group A, and therefore will face Group B winner Lithuania in the quarterfinals on Thursday 26 August at a new venue, Olympic Indoor Hall. Serbia and Montenegro (1-4) finishes sixth and last in the group and must play Angola on Tuesday to decide 11th or 12th place. China¡¦s defense, anchored by YAO, starred as Serbia and Montenegro failed to score on anything but three-pointers in the last quarter. China played a zone late in the game that repeatedly left Serbia and Montenegro little or no time to shoot. Before DU¡¦s decisive free throws, Dejan BODIROGA tried a go-ahead three-pointer over YAO with the shot clock expiring, but it rattled out. In their only other previous Olympic match-up, in the Atlanta 1996 quarterfinals, Serbia and Montenegro (then Yugoslavia) won by 67 points, 128-61. This time, despite 10-point deficits early in each of the first three quarters, China found ways to stay in the game. YAO inspired China throughout, playing all 40 minutes to score 27 points, capture 13 rebounds, dish a couple sweet assists and foul out two opposing centers. LI Nan was his partner in the first half, hitting all four three-pointers among his 14 total points. In the second, DU came up with big plays to finish with 12 points. Predrag DROBNJAK, whose fifth foul put YAO on the foul line for go-ahead free throws with 28 seconds left, led Serbia and Montenegro with 17 points. Milos VUJANIC reached 12 with a 3-pointer on the final buzzer that was rendered unimportant when DU made both his free throws moments earlier. In the first quarter, between six lead changes and two ties, LI ¡¦s pair of 3-point shots kept China in the game until YAO started seeing the ball. His first basket put China ahead 10-9, but it was followed by the first triple from VUJANIC. When VUJANIC popped another three, Serbia and Montenegro lead 21-16 after 10 minutes. VUJANIC¡¦s third 3-pointer to start the second quarter plus consecutive inside baskets by Nenad KRSTIC boosted the advantage to 29-19. But then KRSTIC got his fourth foul, and China started to come back behind LI¡¦s third and fourth 3-pointers. YAO fed MO Ke for an open dunk that cut the difference to 31-29, but Serbia and Montenegro hung onto a 34-31 edge at halftime. Two inside shots by DROBNJAK helped reestablished Serbia and Montenegro¡¦s 10-point lead at 41-31 early in the third quarter. Again, China resurged. YAO and DU combined on 14 points to tie 47-47, then Feng hit the free throws for China¡¦s first lead of the half, although Serbia and Montenegro went ahead 54-51 by the 30-minute mark. Back-to-back 3-pointers by Vlado SCEPANOVIC seemed to put the world champs in control at 60-53 with 7:06 to play. Instead, China¡¦s defense took over. Serbia and Montenegro waited almost four minutes for another shot to fall, a DROBNJAK three, then until the buzzer for another. In between, China and YAO scored 14 points, including eight perfect free throws, to reach their dream, the quarterfinals. From Jeff Taylor, PA International, Athens Flash quotes: Ke MO, forward (CHN) On the game: "We are very happy about the result, which gave us our berth to the quarter-finals. We didn't play well in defense so far in this tournament, and we said before the game that first of all everybody has to give everything defensively. In offense we tried to play with YAO who played an excellent game and carried us until the end. These three final minutes, when we fought back and we took the lead are our best memories so far in the Games. I wish we can make it also to semi-finals."
Good for Yao. I'm glad he showed up, those last 2 games he played were horrrrrible. 27/13/2/2 with 3 TOs in 40 mins. Not too shabby.
Wow! I'm pretty surprised by the win but it's so obvious that Serbia isn't playing well. At least Yao is getting what he deserve is to finish in the top 8 or better.
Right on. Yao with a bunch of YMCA players has defeated a team which has won the last two world championships.
