Despite some ups and downs prior to the 2010 FIBA World Championship, Turkey has been playing excellent basketball in the opening games of the tournament. Thus, Hedo Turkoglu and company are hoping to secure another win when they face China in Ankara on Thursday at 6 p.m. GMT.

Albeit Turkey's first game versus Cote d'Ivoire was an easy matchup, the team around Ersan Ilyasova from the Milwaukee Bucks clinched an impressive 39-point win nonetheless. However, the subsequent 65-56 victory over Russia was much more important, after all both sides are in a head-to-head race to put themselves in a good position for the elimination round. Most importantly, Turkey played some excellent defense down the stretch, holding Russia to just 32% shooting from the field. At the other end of the floor, Ersan Ilyasova turned out to be an excellent second option behind Hedo Turkoglu from the Phoenix Suns. So far, Ilyasova has been averaging an impressive 13.5 points and 9 rebounds per contest.

In contrast, China had a lot more problems securing a victory in their encounter with Cote d'Ivoire. More precisely, the team around NBA star Yi Jianlian rallied to a contested 83-73 win with a rather mediocre performance on Sunday afternoon. Nonetheless, the Chinese team showed that they can keep up with anyone on a good night as they almost overcame Greece in a tough 81-89 loss. With Yao Ming from the Houston Rockets sidelined by an injury, Yi Jianlian from the Washington Wizards has become the team's undisputed leader on the floor, putting up no less than 26 points and 11.5 rebounds per game so far. Taking the aforementioned circumstances into consideration, Turkey might have a slight edge as far as individual talent is concerned, but will have to play up to their full potential to avoid a setback in front of their home crowd.

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