Houston Rockets centre Yao Ming led all scorers with 25 points as China's national men's team defeated the Melbourne Tigers of the PBL 84-78 in the Macau Galaxy Entertainment Sino-Australian Challenge.
Yi Jianlian, the number six pick in this year's NBA draft who signed last week with the Milwaukee Bucks, added 20 points and nine rebounds to aid China's cause.
'Yao and Yi are two legitimate superstars and I think because of that China will be a top four team at the Olympics in Beijing next year,' said Melbourne coach Alan Westover.
'I had to be pleased with the fact that we were only four points down to them with 25 seconds to go.'
Although the Tigers feature two Australian national team players and are one of the top teams in the PBL, China, with two NBA players as well as two high draft picks in this year's draft, struggled to put away the rugged Australian squad.
Former NBA player Wang Zhizhi was largely ineffective, while guard Sun Jue, drafted 40th overall by the Los Angeles Lakers this year, scored zero points in 12 minutes of action.