China is host of the 4-Nation tournament, the 2016 Stankovic Cup which is being played in Beijing.
The coach of the Chinese team, Gong Luming blamed the loss on the absence of his key player and former NBA star, Yi Jianlian.
However, Team Nigeria also played without Al-Farouq Aminu and his brother Alade.
NBA star, Festus Ezeli and new NBA draft, Mike Gbinije also did not feature for Nigeria.
The quartet are expected to join their D’Tigers team-mates in Las Vegas after the Stankovic Cup to continue preparations for the Olympics despite the lack of funds from the sports ministry towards this end.
D’Tigers’ next game comes up on Wednesday against Argentina while China play France who beat Argentina 64-57 yesterday.
“The opening of the game was not good, we didn’t play as a team in offence and there are too much individual play,” said Gong Luming, the coach of Chinese team.
