OAKLAND, Calif. -- His fists were pumping as he turned toward the bench and shouted in delight. Yao Ming blocked shots and the adrenaline almost showed. He saw teammates score meaningless baskets and he roared happily.

Yao seemed to relish every moment, to cherish every second.

China trailed the United States by 40 at the time with 80 seconds left. It hardly mattered.

Yao had gotten his chance to face the United States and the best its young centers could throw at him. He showed just what the Rockets wanted. He belonged. He was a factor, and occasionally special. And he seemed to love it.

"Very impressive, very impressive," Rockets coach Rudy Tomjanovich said, fighting his urge to gush. "Those were great shots. And he showed his emotion for the game. He has a love for the game. Charles (Barkley) had it. Dream (Hakeem Olajuwon) had it. He has it."

Yao could not do enough to change the inevitable. The U.S. rolled with little difficulty, 84-54. Michael Finley led the U.S. with 19 points, but the U.S. centers that had pledged to measure the first player taken in the NBA could not expose him.

More than that, he did something that might be more impressive than the turnaround jumpers or blocked shots.

"He earned our respect," Mavericks guard Michael Finley said. "To play against him was eye-opening. He was a lot better than I thought."

Yao finished with 13 points, on 5-of-12 shooting. But he had 11 rebounds, three assists, three steals and six blocked shots. He had just two points in the second half when Ben Wallace and Antonio Davis fronted him and the United States even threw a few double teams at him, keeping the ball out of his hands as they had not in the first half.

But even that was a sign that he had earned respect.

"We talked about him at halftime," USA coach George Karl said. "Our big guys all shook their head. He's pretty good.

"His size is very intimidating, bot defensively and his ability to shoot and pass over people. I think he'll get better and better. You're going to have to get near his shot to make him miss it and that's a very difficult thing to do.

"He had a double double with a lot of blocks. No question he was a major factor around the basket. Offensively it looks like he's going to be very difficult to be covered. It looks like he always will be able to shoot and get over the top of you."

But with that, Karl went further, several Yao-sized steps further.

"His size reminds me of Wilt Chamberlain's size when Wilt Chamberlain had a lot of size on people," Karl said. "Wilt had that fade-away on the backboard. No one could block it. No one in the league could get near it.

"Wilt had more athleticism. This kid is not a bad athlete. He's more of a basketball player than an uncoordinated big man."

To the USA centers, he was more of a U.S. player than a China-caliber player. They had called him out on Wednesday, promising to beat him up.

That plan was quickly revised.

"After he turns and scores in your mug a couple of times, you have to try something else," Antonio Davis said. "I think he did a good job under the circumstances. There's a lot of pressure on him and he handled it pretty well."

There were all sorts of signs of the attention Yao will command. If nothing else, his appearance drew a rare sellout to The Arena, with the large Chinatown communities of San Francisco and Oakland helping to fill the arena the way Kings fans travel from Sacramento during the season. (There were promotions in English and Chinese for a "Great Walking Wall Pack" of tickets to Warriors games against Yao and the Rockets and Mengke Bateer and the Nuggets.)

"It felt like my home game," Yao said.

The crowd called for the Chinese guards to get Yao the ball. There was a buzz with his every touch of the ball, no matter how inconsequential.

After his 6-of-6 sharp-shooting in Vancouver, Yao missed his first shot, but then hit his next three attempts, twice hitting jumpers.

Yao slammed in an offensive rebound, made a sharp pass out and of a double team and in the second quarter made a quick turnaround jumper from 16 feet.

Most of his shots had to come on rapid turnarounds, the Olajuwon shot he said he most admired. Yao's turnaround was not that quick and there was nothing in the vicinity of a Dream Shake. But he was able to get his own shot, a talent he did not get his hands on the ball enough to show in Vancouver.

There was no sign at the game of Mavericks free-agent forward Wang Zhi Zhi. Absent from training with China all summer, Wang met with the Chinese delegation at Thursday's practice, but no changes to the roster for the World Championships next week in Indianapolis have been announced.