China lose to Lithuania in World Championships warm-up

Wang Zhizhi clinched 24 points and 10 boards but found he could not single-handedly lift the Chinese basketball team over Lithuania when they lost 96-75 on Friday in a World Championship warm-up in Strasbourg, France.

Wang, rejoining the national team after four years of stint with NBA teams Dallas Mavericks, Los Angeles Clippers and Miami Heat mainly on the bench, anchored Chinese attack.

But a Chinese squad without injured top star Yao Ming found themselves no match for the Lithuanian team. Their head-to-head record is 3-1 in Lithuania's favor in the past 12 months.

In the first match of the Four-Nation friendly, China got off to a good start as they soon took a 10-4 lead early in the first period.

With Japan World Championship on mind, Chinese head coach Jonas Kaslauskas entered several institutes in the second period and saw his home country team started to turn things over, leading 43-36 into the second half and widened their advantage until the end.

Saturday China takes on Senegal as the latter were pitted in the same group with China at the World Championship from August 19 to September 3. France also compete in the build-up event.

Source: Xinhua