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The tactics of American head coach Del Harris might be hard for the Chinese men's national basketball team to execute, according to NBA center star Yao Ming.

"Del made some plans in our defense against Argentina, such as changing from one-on-one to zone or from one-on-one to zone half way in the defense," Yao told Xinhua after China's 82-57 loss to world runner-up Argentina in a preliminary group A match of the Athens Olympic men's basketball.

"I think those are very good plans, and I was told to do similar things when playing in the NBA with the Rockets."

"However, such plans seemed to be hard for the Chinese team to execute because of various reasons," added Yao, who had 15 points and seven rebounds in the game. "It was very noisy in the game, and it was hard for the players to concentrate on the 'commander' in court."

"I think it also has to do with the team's general ability to execute the coach's plans," Yao said. "Maybe the ability of the Chinese team was not as good as the coach has expected."

Harris, assistant coach of the NBA Dallas Mavericks, was the first international to coach the Chinese men's national basketball team.

China played sluggish defense in the game against Argentina where the South Americans easily established a 20-point lead at the half time and went on to trounce the Asian champion.

With one win and two losses in hand, China, whose best finish at the Olympics was an eighth, faces Italy on Saturday.

Editor: Catherine