Liu Wei Is Responsible for China's Loss

Tom.com--China's basketball team had a narrow loss to Australia at 63-64 on July 28th in its first game at Stankovic Continental Cup. China's center Yi Jianlian, who plays for China the first time of this year, contributed 17 points and 10 rebounds. Backup center Wang Zhizhi added 12 points and 9 rebounds.

China's team leader Liu Wei had quite unexpected performance. In the first half, he did fairly good offense--panetrations, three-pointers and fast breaks. He drew fouls on Australia a number of times and added points with free-throws. Liu also gave 1 brilliant assist when he timely passed the ball to Yi who then went for a two-handed in-the-face dunk. By half-time, Liu already scored 11 points.

In the second half, however, the same Liu Wei fell sluggish and even threw an air ball. Staying off court throughout the third quarter, Liu was sent on with 5 minutes to go of the fourth quarter. But he fell short of Donewald's expectation: instead of helping keep China's lead, he gave 0 points and no effective offense or organization--a completely different person.

Australia caught up and secured the lead till the end. If he is not to blame, Liu Wei is definitely responsible for China's loss.