CHN - China feeling good about themselves

WUHAN (FIBA Asia Championship) - China completed their preparation for the knockout rounds with an impressive 84-58 win over a courageous Japan team who fell away late in the game.

Bob Donewald and his men got the tough workout they had gone without over the first five days of the tournament, as Takuya Kawamura scored 17 first half points in an amazing individual display and his teammates constantly took the challenge up to their bigger opponents.

For Donewald, the game capped what has been a steady and meticulous build up throughout the tournament. "We have come in old at certain positions so we have really tried to balance minutes, judging when to condition guys and when to rest guys," he said following the game against Japan.

"Today, Japan's a good team, they are well coached so we had to push our minutes up a bit, but some of those other teams you saw me playing 12 guys for considerable minutes."

Rather than try to run up enormous winning margins against some of the lower ranked teams, Donewald has insisted his team treat every game and every possession like it is a knockout game.

"We have been trying to maintain a balance of execution, we feel our strength is our size, and we are posting people up, we're getting in the paint. That is what we are trying to do possession by possession," he said.

"And then to talk defensively, we are not pressing people, we are sitting back in the half court and concentrating on our execution and our assignments and our focus to game plans."

Despite this, China has won by an average of over 28 points through the first two rounds, and comfortably dispatched of medal contenders Japan and the Philippines.

Their three-point shooting has been outstanding, connecting on almost 40% of their triples to punish any defence that dares swarm Yi Jianlian or Wang Zhizhi. Wingmen Sun Yue (41%), Yi Li (43%), Zhu Fangyu (41%) and Zhang Bo (48%) have all been deadly when left open.

China next face Lebanon in a Quarter-Final they are expected to win handsomely. That will produce a sterner test in the Semi-Finals against either Korea or Japan, but the way China are playing they seem destined to appear in their 16th FIBA Asia Championship final.

FIBA