Spain escapes China 85-75

Pau Gasol scored 29 points as reigning world champion Spain rallied for an 85-75 overtime victory Tuesday against Yao Ming and Olympic host China.

The Spanish will be glad to make some headlines for their on-court actions, having seen the pre-match build-up dominated by their insensitive team photo, which depicted the players making slit-eye gestures in reference to their Chinese opponents.

The teams traded baskets at the end of regulation before Spain pulled away in overtime for the win.

Spain, which trailed by 14 points at the end of the third quarter, tied the game at 70-70 on a basket by Juan Carlos Navarro with two minutes to play. But China then regained the lead on a jumper by Wang Zhizhi. Then Spain pulled even again at 72 on a fade-away jumper by Pau’s little brother, Marc.

At the start of overtime, Spain took a four point lead. With Yao, who fouled out in the extra session, on the bench and the rest of the China squad drained, the hosts crumbled after back-to-back jams by Pau Gasol. And the boisterous Chinese crowd that filled the 18,000-seat arena fell silent after having heartily booed every Spanish possession.

Rudy Fernandez scored 21 points to lead Spain. Guard Liu Wei led China with 19 points, Wang and Zhu Fangyu each added 15 and Yao finished with 11 points.

China capitalized on their size advantage at both ends of the court, with 7-foot-6 Yao of the Houston Rockets, 7-foot-0 Wang and 6-foot-11 Yi Jianlian of the New Jersey Nets.

Trailing 20-18 after the first quarter, China built a 46-39 lead at the half. But Spain stepped up its defensive pressure in the fourth quarter, forcing Yao to kick the ball back out when he did get it inside and creating turnovers that led to easy baskets.