NBA | Yao gets best of rookie Yi
HOUSTON - Yao Ming thinks Yi Jianlian will be a better player than him some day.
For now, Yao still is the king of basketball in China.
Yao and Yi each had their share of highlights in the much-anticipated first matchup of the country’s greatest player and its top rising star, and Yao’s Houston Rockets beat Yi’s Milwaukee Bucks 104-88 on Friday night.
Yao, the five-time All-Star, had 28 points, 10 rebounds and three assists. Yi, the 20-year-old rookie, had 19 points and nine rebounds.
“His talent is unbelievable,” Yao said. “You ask me how good he can be? I can’t say that. But I think he’ll be better than me.”
When asked why he thought Yi would surpass him in the future, Yao thought for a moment.
“I’m older,” Yao said with a smile.
The game was an enormous event in China, where it started early Saturday morning. It was being broadcast on 19 television networks and NBA officials were expecting the largest-ever viewing audience for a game, well over 200 million.
The duo did its best to forget about the magnitude of the game back home.
“When I stepped on the court, I didn’t think about that,” Yao said. “All I saw was 18,000 fans here, that’s it. I know that there are many in China, my family and my friends. But when I play on the court, I focus on basketball.”
As a bonus, those who tuned in got to see plenty of Tracy McGrady, who had 21 points, seven rebounds and eight assists, and Michael Redd, who had 26 points for Milwaukee.
The Bucks have lost eight straight games in Houston and haven’t won there since 1999. But this one was more about Yao and Yi than the teams involved.
McGrady shadowed Yi most of the game and walked away impressed.
“He’s pretty good,” McGrady said. “He has a tremendous upside in this league.”
Yi shined in the third quarter to help the Bucks close to within six.
He banked in a straight-on three-pointer 40 seconds before halftime, drawing a disbelieving roll of the eyes from McGrady, then laid in an alley-oop pass from Redd. Yi sank another three-pointer with 5:41 left in the third quarter to cut Houston’s lead to 66-60.
“He didn’t score a lot in the first half,” Yao said, “but he turned it around in the second half. He really helped his team stay in the game.”
Notes
• Clippers guard Cuttino Mobley missed Los Angeles’ game at Detroit on Friday night because of a strained hip. He is expected to miss at least a week.
• Knicks center Jerome James will have surgery on his right foot Monday and be out indefinitely. The former Sonic hasn’t played this season because of knee and foot pain.