Pau Gasol scored 29 points to lead world champions Spain to an 85-75 overtime victory over Yao Ming and hosts China in Olympic men's basketball yesterday.

Spain, which finished out of the medals at Athens in 2004, remains unbeaten in Group B with four points and next faces Germany tomorrow. China is without a win after two games, including a 101-80 drubbing at the hands of tournament favorites the United States.

The Spaniards showed their quality in a dramatic game that had them trailing for much of the last three quarters.

Battling back from a 14-point deficit at the end of the third period, Spain's Juan Carlos Navarro tied the score at 70-70 with two minutes to go.

China then went ahead on a jumper by former Dallas Maverick Wang Zhizhi, but Spain pulled even again at 72-72 on a fadeaway jumper by Pau's little brother Marc.

Spain raced to a four-point lead at the start of overtime, and with Yao of the Houston Rockets on the bench and the rest of the squad drained, China crumbled in the face of back-to-back jams by Gasol.

The Spanish display of grace under pressure spread a final hush over the boisterous Chinese crowd that filled the 18,000-seat Beijing Olympic Basketball Gymnasium and had heartily booed every Spanish possession.

In yesterday's other Group B game, Vasileios Spanoulis and a dogged Greek defence curbed the Mavericks' Dirk Nowitzki in a 87-64 win over Germany, setting the stage for a much-anticipated clash with the United States tomorrow.

In Group A play, Linas Kleiza scored 22 points to lead unbeaten Lithuania to a 99-67 victory over Asian champions Iran. Sarunas Jasikevicius added 20 points while Hamed Ehadadi had 21 points for Iran, which is winless after two games.

World 20th-ranked Croatia, meanwhile, defeated European champions Russia 85-78. Marko Popovic led scoring for Croatia with 22 points, while captain Andrey Kirilenko led Russia with 18.