Chinese basketball coach says team going forward

Chinese coach Bob Donewald said Wednesday China's national team is moving forward despite losses at the men's basketball world championship.

"We got probably the youngest team in the world championships and seven brand new players ... Chinese team is going forward and all this will make us better," Donewald told a press conference after China's 80-89 loss to Russia.

He congratulated the Russian team, saying they had an outstanding game plan and pulled away down the stretch while the Chinese team ran out of gas in the last minutes.

Former NBA player Wang Zhizhi, who is having his last world championships, said he still saw hope from the games.

"I will do my best as the oldest player in the team. I hope we can improve as much as possible through these games," he told reporters. "I'm just a paving stone for the growth of China's basketball. I hope we can some day become one of the strongest teams in the world after generations of efforts."

Russian coach David Blatt said he was proud of his players, who played hard defense and never gave up.

"China played hard. We could have lost by nine or 10 points and still qualified but we kept our foot on the gas pedal and kept pushing," he said.

Guard Evgeny Voronov said the game was very important for Russia, which is for sure going to Istanbul for the next round after Wednesday's victory.

Russia rallied to the win on Wednesday, scoring their third victory at the worlds.

Playing without NBA star center Yao Ming, who is recovering from a foot injury, China has a record of 81-89 with Greece, 83-73 with Cote d'Ivoire and 76-84 with Puerto Rico in previous games at the worlds. It will fight Turkey on Thursday.

Russia has defeated Puerto Rico 75-66 and beat Cote d'Ivoire 72-66 but lost to Turkey 56-65. It faces Greece on Thursday.

Source: Xinhua