Chinese star Yao Ming will not be the concern for the Australian men's basketball team in Nanjing on Wednesday, the second day of the FIBA Diamond Ball Tournament when it meets host China.
Brian Goorjian, the Austalian head coach, is putting the focus on his own team rather than 2.26m NBA All-Star Yao and the Chinese team. "We're focusing totally on us," Goorjian said before the Boomers' first game at the tournament that serves as a warm-up for the upcoming Beijing Olympics.
Yao poured in 21 points to lead his teammates in an 83-74 victory over Angola on Tuesday.
"We're working on our sets and we're trying to get Andrew Bogut and David Andersen comfortable in them and we'll make adjustments on the game against China.
"Obviously we'll try to double and rotate on Yao but, again, it isn't a focus point for us.
"We're trying to get good at what we do - we want to press them, we want to run and we want to look at our interior offense in the half court that we've worked on for eight days."
Australia, China, Angola, Serbia, Iran and reigning Olympic champions Argentina are contesting the third FIBA Diamond Ball Tournament in Nanjing, China with all teams except Serbia gearing up for the Beijing Olympics.
Argentina, a loaded team containing five NBA players, beat Iran 81-71 in the opening game Tuesday with Houston Rockets forward Luis Scola scored 23 points and San Antonio Spurs guard Manu Ginobili 15.
(Xinhua News Agency July 30, 2008)