The Chinese men's national basketball team fell to Team USA, 119-62, in their opening game in the 2016 Rio Summer Olympics' Men's Basketball tournament held at the Carioca Arena 1 in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil on Saturday.

It was expectedly a blowout match similar to the first two exhibition games the two teams had played prior to the Olympic tourney. China previously lost by 49 points and 50 points in their two recent encounters with the Americans at the Staples Center and Oracle Arena.

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However, China forward Yi Jianlian, who was drafted sixth overall in the 2007 NBA Draft and had played five seasons in the world's premier basketball league, managed to match the American's top scorer Kevin Durant with his own 25 points in the contest.

Chinese point guard Zhao Jiwei led the country in rebounds and assists with 6 and 5 respectively as head coach Gong Luming was clearly overmatched by the star-studded USA squad.

It was the 18th consecutive win for Team USA in Olympics competitions and the 69th overall in international games in 10 years, as per the Los Angeles Times.

The US built a 20-point lead after the first quarter, 30-10, which Team Dragon never recovered from. It ballooned to 59-30 at the halftime break and the rout was on until the final buzzer sounded.

The third and fourth quarters were also lopsided with scores of 32-17 and 28-15 respectively.

The Guardian noted that while the Chinese players were "young and fast and have some intriguing players", like every team in this summer's Games, no one is considered as a threat to the mighty Americans to again capture the gold in this edition of the Olympics.

Head coach Mike Krzyzewski's boys actually started slow, having only a two-point lead in the opening minutes, 6-4, before they turned on the ignition and made it a 22-6 lead with five minutes left in the first period.

China made a mini-run minutes before halftime which initiated a chant of "China! China!" in the Brazilian arena. However, the cheers were short-lived as USA began its run again. 

TagsRio Olympics 2016, 2016 Rio Olympics, 2016 Rio Olympics basketball, china, USA