Beijing Olympic Games

Basketball-Yao’s China breathe fire, U.S. win

(Adds United States win)

By Alastair Himmer

BEIJING, Aug 14 (Reuters) – A chest-thumping Yao Ming relentlessly powered hosts China to their first victory in the Olympic men’s basketball competition on Thursday.

Title favourites the United States booked a quarter-final place with a 92-69 win over Greece featuring a dizzying array of acrobatic dunks from Kobe Bryant and LeBron James.

Screaming constantly at his team mates to get him the ball, China’s giant centre scored 30 points in a 85-68 Group B triumph over Angola to boost their hopes of advancing.

“I think that’s our chemistry,” said Yao. “It feels great to win at the Olympics. It’s a totally different feeling to win on your home court but we still have a long road to go.”

A thunderous slam dunk by Yao gave China a 24-8 lead in the first quarter but Angola stormed back and cut the deficit to just two on a buzzer-beating Eduardo Mingas three to end the half.

Fuelled by Yao’s energy, the Chinese extended their lead again in the third quarter, Yi Jianlian’s breakaway dunk making it 61-47 and reigniting the crowd of 17,000.

In the United States-Greece game, Bryant scored 18 points, while James chipped in with 13 as the Americans gained a measure of revenge for a semi-final defeat by the Greeks in the 2006 world championships.

The highlight was a Bryant catch-and-dunk after Dwyane Wade picked off a Greek pass and, while hurtling into the press seats, somehow shovelled a perfect alley-oop pass to his team mate.

“We’re 10 times better than we were in ‘06,” James told Reuters. “We don’t have weakness but we know if we don’t come out with intensity and play how we know we can play we can lose.”

World champions Spain secured their place in the quarter-finals with a 72-59 Group B victory over Germany helped by 15 points from Toronto Raptors guard Jose Calderon.

Los Angeles Lakers forward Pau Gasol added 13 in Spain’s third straight win.

Lithuania upset European champions Russia, the three-times Olympic bronze medallists, winning 86-79 in Group A to book their spot in the last eight and leave the Russians at 1-2. (Additional reporting by Jason Subler; Editing by Alex Richardson)