China and the United States produced one of the most meaningful matches at the Olympics when the US beat China 101-70 Sunday in a men's basketball match at the 2008 Games.
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China and the United States produced one of the most meaningful matches at the Olympics when the US beat China 101-70 Sunday in a men's basketball match at the 2008 Games.
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Countless fans poured into the Wukesong Stadium, which has 18,000 capacity, with many standing to watch the whole game. Billions of fans were expected to watch the game live on television late in the night.
Dwayne Wade was perfect in the field (7-7) and on the foul line (7-7) to score 19 points, pacing the way for the US team, while LeBron James adding 18.
This was the fifth Olympic meeting between the two teams, with the US winning all, and was almost sure to be the most-watchable one in the history.
Chinese superstar Yao Ming led with 13 points and 10 rebounds, with guard Zhu Fangyu chipping in 11 points and eight rebounds.
China had a brief lead at the beginning of the game, thanks to Yao's 3-pointer to kick off the matchup, but the fast-paced Americans took the control from the second quarter.
In today's other matches, Rudy Fernandez stole the show from several star teammates as the guard scored 16 points to lead Spain to a 81-66 thrash over Greece.
Fernandez, leading scorer of Spanish league last season with Badalona, signed a multi-year contract with Portland Trail Blazers which starts from next season.
In the re-match of the final of the 2006 World Championships, Spain proved there was no luck for their world title as they bettered off on every aspect of the court.
Vasileios Spanoulis led Greece with 15 points and Dimitrios Diamantidis added 14 points.
Denver Nuggets Linas Kleiza stopped a 11-0 rally from the defending champion Argentina with a go-ahead 3-pointer with 2.1 seconds left to give Lithuania a 79-75 win.
Ramunas Siskauskas secured the victory with a free-throw with 1.5 seconds to go.
Kleiza scored 11-out-of-13 points in the fourth quarter. Manu Ginobili had 19 points and Andres Nocioni adding 15 points and nine rebounds for Argentina.
Germany overwhelmed Angola 95-66 thanks to Christopher Kaman's 24 points in 18 minutes and Dirk Nowitzki's 23 points.
This was the first Olympic appearance in 12 years as Germany failed to qualify for the 2004 Athens and 2000 Sydney Olympic Games.
Eduardo Mingas had 24 points for Angola, which was beaten up on the board by 39-22.
European champions Russia crashed Asian champions Iran 71-49 on the debut of competitions.
Dzhon-Robert Kholden led Russia with 19 points, five steals, three assists and three rebounds, while Utah Jazz's forward Andrey Kirilenko adding 15 points, five rebounds and three blocks to dominate the game.
Croatia's sharp-shooters were 12-out-of-16 from behind the arc to beat Australia 97-62 in a Group A match.
Nikola Prkacin and Marko Banic scored 16 points apiece while Marko Tomas shot 4-out-of-4 on 3-pointer to have 12 points for Croatia.