CHN – Harris likes what he sees in Kazlauskas’ China

BEIJING (Olympics) - Former China coach Del Harris has sounded an optimistic note for the Olympic hosts ahead of the Beijing Games by saying Jonas Kazlauskas has turned the national side into a more competitive group than the one that reached the quarter-finals in Athens four years ago.

Harris and Kazlauskas teamed up to make the Chinese one of the surprise teams in Greece, when they beat Serbia & Montenegro in the last preliminary round game to reach the quarter-finals.

“Of course, much better,” Harris said, when asked if this China team is better.

“China now has six key players who played at the Olympics, and they’ve also played in some other major tournaments together.

“Yao (Ming) has become one of the best players in the world. It was Yi’s (Jianlian) first Olympics four years ago, but now he has NBA experience. Wang Zhizhi has come back, who we didn’t have that year.

“Li Nan has returned after an injury. Now they must do better as their rivals, the US team, has improved.”

Yi missed the last several games of the NBA campaign with Milwaukee because of injury but he is expected to link up with Kazlauskas’ team for the friendlies against Croatia from June 12-16.

Yao, who is recovering from foot surgery, will return by the end of June.

Harris thinks Kazlauskas’ decision to play a more up-tempo game will benefit the Chinese.

“It’s easy for a team to slow down the speed,” Harris said, “but speeding up will make it more difficult for your rivals. Yi’s speed is not slower than any other big players, Yao is slower, though.

“If Yao can control the rebounds, the other players can easily release on the fast-break and get some (open) shots.

“It’s very good. You don’t have to wait to attack until your opponents are in defensive position.”

China, meanwhile, beat the Conference USA all stars 91-68, giving Kazlauskas’ team a 3-0 sweep of the friendly series.

Zhang Kai and Zhang Qingpeng each had 18 points to pace the Chinese.

FIBA