Brisbane Bullets gear up to face Chinese national "blue" team in Gold Coast

By Will Koulouris

GOLD COAST, July 18 (Xinhua) -- Fans of basketball on Australia's Gold Coast are eagerly anticipating the upcoming action on Tuesday as China's national "Blue" team prepares to take on the Brisbane Bullets in the popular tourist destination later tonight.

Both Chinese and Australian fans will be heading to the stadium on Tuesday night, for the second of the two-game series being played by coach Du Feng's team, with the first having been on Sunday against Melbourne United at Rod Laver Arena.

Coach Du spoke to Xinhua ahead of the match against the Bullets, and said that the game tonight will be a "hard fight" for his up-and-coming squad.

"I think they did a lot of research on us, while we did not have as much previous knowledge about these two Australian teams," Du said.

"The players in our team, a lot of them are still young, and this is the first time they have been picked in the team - so it will be a good chance for them to get some valuable experience," Du added.

Ahead of the matchup, Xinhua also sat down with the coach of the Bullets, Andrej Lemanis (who is also the head coach of the Australian National Basketball team) and asked how he has prepared his team for the upcoming game.

"We are still in our offseason at the moment. We've just been having individual workouts with our guys, and it will be a good opportunity now for us - after just being in practice mode and offseason mode for a little while - to get together and have a chance to play against a quality team," Lemanis said.

The coach has been watching the Chinese team closely, he said, and undertook detailed scouting of not only the game that was played in Melbourne on Sunday, but also the previous series that saw the All-NBL team play three games in China recently.

"We saw the games against the NBL all star group, and then obviously the game against Melbourne United as well. What is evident is that they are very aggressive defensively, they are certainly a team that is up the floor now, and really tries to disrupt you in the back court, so it is something we have got to be prepared for," Lemanis said.

"And I think they do a good job at going at their advantages, they have got some set plays, but they will milk something for a certain amount of time if they think they have got an advantage," he added.

"We have to be prepared for that and be prepared to make adjustments on the fly, and to deal with their size as well I guess."

The general manager of the Brisbane Bullets team, Richard Clarke, was present at China's morning training session on Tuesday morning, and told Xinhua there that the Chinese team looks "very organized" ahead of the game tonight.

"They have obviously been together for a month or more, played the All-NBL team, so they look as we would have expected them to be. Well drilled, some great athletes, a lot of size, so they will be a challenge for our guys tonight," Clarke said.

But Lemanis, in his role as the coach of the Australian team, is also using this matchup as a means of assessing the big challenge the Australians will face, if the draw sees them play against the quality team from China in the upcoming games at the Asian Cup in Lebanon in August.

"We have played against China a lot in the past, so I have got a pretty good feel for where the Chinese team is at," Lemanis said.

"I get a chance to see them first hand (tonight), compete against them, in case we face them in the Asian Cup" he concluded.