frightfiction Chapter 581 Making Men's Basketball World Cup History
Chapter 581 Making Men's Basketball World Cup History
Huaxia South Road lost to the Spanish men's basketball team and failed to advance to the semifinals.
This defeat shattered the championship dreams of many Chinese fans. Even a player as strong as Jia Fei couldn't lead a team that was struggling to even advance from the group stage to the championship.
Fortunately, although they have missed out on the championship and are now playing in the classification rounds, they still have a chance to make history, namely, to break the previous best result of 8th place in the Men's Basketball World Cup.
In other matchups, Argentina defeated Serbia, Australia defeated the Czech Republic, and France defeated the United States.
Of these matchups, France's victory over the USA was the biggest upset. Although the USA didn't field their strongest lineup for this FIBA Basketball World Cup, they did send a group of young NBA talents, including Donovan Mitchell, Marcus Smart, Khris Middleton, and Harrison Barnes.
The loss of the US men's basketball team shows that world basketball has really developed. The scene of the Dream Team's slaughter of their opponents in the 1992 Olympics is still fresh in our minds, but the situation is different now.
For Chinese basketball fans, the US men's basketball team's loss is at least a psychological consolation. After all, the US lost too!
The matchups for the qualifying rounds are as follows: Serbia vs. USA, China vs. Czech Republic.
Many Chinese basketball fans are not very familiar with the Czech Republic men's basketball team. The Czech national basketball team was formerly the Czechoslovakian national basketball team, which won the European Basketball Championship in 1946. However, since the breakup of Czechoslovakia, the Czech Republic has never participated in the Olympics or the FIBA World Championship. The Czech Republic's most recent participation in the European Basketball Championship was in 2013.
This is a strong European basketball team, and they are obviously not easy to deal with.
On September 12, the Chinese men's basketball team faced the Czech men's basketball team at the Wukesong Arena.
If the Chinese men's basketball team wins, they will compete against the winner of another group for 5th place, according to the rules. If they lose, they will compete for 7th place.
In other words, the Chinese men's basketball team still has two games left, regardless of the outcome. If they win just one, they can make history.
Objectively speaking, the Czech Republic, Serbia, and the United States are all difficult to deal with.
Although the US men's basketball team didn't bring any superstars, all 12 of their players are NBA players, and most of them are key players on their respective teams.
Game start.
The Czech men's basketball team clearly learned from the experiences of Argentina and Spain, and also followed their example in double-teaming Jia Fei.
However, the Chinese men's basketball team has a countermeasure: they've started having Jia Fei play more off-ball. This is a strategy Jia Fei would also employ when double-teamed in the NBA.
Double-teaming an off-the-ball player is much more difficult and riskier than double-teaming a player with the ball. When two people are guarding one off-the-ball player, it becomes a 4-on-3 situation, and with the ball there, an open space is created, naturally increasing the chances of a successful attack.
The reason we didn't play like this before was because Argentina and Spain put too much pressure on China's ball handlers. Without Jia Fei, Anshan Paul couldn't effectively organize the offense. Substituting Da Nephew didn't improve much either; Da Nephew's ball-handling ability is even worse than Anshan Paul's. Da Nephew's advantage lies in individual ball-handling and attacking, but his shooting ability is limited. When he penetrates the opponent's interior, there are height and strength players, so he can't score.
Although the Czech Republic's defense double-teamed Jia Fei, it didn't put as much pressure on the ball handler, giving Anshan Paul a chance to breathe.
Jia Fei's off-ball movement helped the team create numerical advantages, which gave Zhai Xiaochuan plenty of opportunities.
The Czech men's basketball team chose not to double-team Jia Fei when he was off the ball, so Jia Fei would start attacking as soon as he received the ball, taking down his opponent before they could double-team him, making it very difficult for the opponent.
However, the Czech Republic men's basketball team is not easy to deal with. Apart from Jia Fei and his teammates, who are truly unstoppable, the others are not very efficient offensively. Despite the Chinese men's basketball team's excellent defense, the Czech team, with their outstanding teamwork, is still able to consistently score points.
This was definitely a defensive battle, with both sides struggling to score. By halftime, the combined score for both sides was less than 70.
In the second half, the Czech men's basketball team's stamina began to decline, and at this time, Jia Fei and Art Mayork's physical advantage became apparent.
The final quarter was entirely thanks to the duo of Jia Fei and Art Mayork, who ultimately defeated the Czech Republic!
Although they only won by 5 points in the end, the Chinese men's basketball team still won.
After winning this game, regardless of what happens in the next game, the Chinese men's basketball team has made history!
Even if they lose the next 5th-6th place classification game, they can still finish the Men's Basketball World Cup in 6th place.
Jia Fei remained the best player of the game, scoring 35 points, accounting for half of the team's total.
Chinese fans are ecstatic; making history is truly exhilarating. Jia Fei is phenomenal. Before, I didn't think he was invincible, but now that even the US men's basketball team lost, it proves that only Jia Fei could achieve this level of success on his own.
In the other group of the classification matches, the US men's basketball team lost to the Serbian men's basketball team and failed to qualify for the 5th-6th place classification match against the Chinese men's basketball team.
What a pity!
Chinese fans were delighted. Even if China lost the last game and the US won, the Chinese men's basketball team would still be ranked ahead of the US team. Hehe, just thinking about it is exciting!
On September 13, the semifinals began, with the Spanish men's basketball team defeating the Australian men's basketball team, and the Argentine men's basketball team defeating the French men's basketball team.
In other words, the two teams that defeated the Chinese men's basketball team will meet in the final!
The prestige of the Chinese men's basketball team's games is still rising...
On September 14th, the Chinese men's basketball team will face off against the Serbian men's basketball team.
This match was almost a carbon copy of the one against Spain.
The opposing team double-teamed Jia Fei relentlessly, putting pressure on the Chinese men's basketball team's perimeter and making it difficult for the Chinese men's basketball team's inside players to receive the ball.
This game once again exposed the weakness of the Chinese men's basketball team's guards in being unable to handle the ball under high-intensity defense. And there's only one Jia Fei; even if he can pass the ball out, if his teammates can't handle it, the offense still can't be effectively launched.
Ultimately, the Chinese men's basketball team lost to the Serbian men's basketball team by 4 points, and their ranking was fixed at 6th place.
On September 15th, the final and third-place match took place. The Spanish men's basketball team defeated the Argentinian men's basketball team to win the FIBA Basketball World Cup! France defeated Australia to finish third.
The final top 8 rankings have been released: Spain, Argentina, France, Australia, Serbia, China, the United States, and the Czech Republic.
The tournament has concluded, and the awards have been announced. The best player is Spain's golden boy, Rubio, and the best lineup includes Scola, Rubio, Jia Fei, Bogdan, and Gasol.
Thus, Jia Fei's first journey with the national team came to an end, and he helped the Chinese men's basketball team achieve its best result in the Men's Basketball World Cup - 6th place.