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BEIJING: The Milwaukee Bucks beat the Golden State Warriors 98-94 in southern China on Wednesday, in an NBA pre-season match marking the league's further expansion into the world's most populous nation.
The Bucks, who trailed most of the game, were led by Australian centre Andrew Bogut who had 18 points and 12 rebounds and point guard Luke Ridnour with 16 points and 12 assists.
Bogut did most of his damage in the second half as the Bucks and new coach Scott Skiles got their first win in five pre-season games as they clawed back from a 47-39 halftime deficit.
A subdued crowd of 13,000 at the Guangzhou stadium watched an entertaining but sloppy game as coaches for both teams went deep into their rosters, tweaking their line-ups ahead of NBA season openers later this month.
Golden State were led by shooting guard Kelenna Azubuike with 24 points while Corey Maggette chipped in 16.
Milwaukee played without All Star Michael Redd, while Golden State's star guard Stephen Jackson also sat out the match.
Except for an early lead, Milwaukee trailed for most of the game with Taiwan-born and Beijing-bred rookie Joe Alexander getting the lead back for the Bucks at 86-85 with a free throw with just over six minutes left in the game.
Power forward Alexander caused a pre-game stir by showing off the Chinese language skills he learnt as a youngster growing up in Beijing.
The two teams play again in the capital on Saturday.
The games were the third time the NBA has brought pre-season games to China since Houston Rocket's Chinese centre Yao Ming joined the league in 2002 and made basketball arguably the most popular sport here.
Even with the absence of star national team forward and local favourite Yi Jianlian, who was traded from Milwaukee to the New Jersey Nets in June, the game was sold out and televised throughout China.
Courtside seats were not cheap, selling for up to 2,800 yuan (410 dollars) each, well over the average monthly salary of an ordinary Chinese, while the cheap seats cost 380 yuan.
The match was played after the NBA, entertainment conglomerate AEG and the operators of Shanghai's Oriental Pearl Tower unveiled plans Tuesday to build an 18,000-seat arena in Shanghai by 2010.
The NBA is also in talks with the China Basketball Association to help develop the professional league here. - AFP/de
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