Original title: The Chinese men’s basketball team lost the Lebanese team and stopped in the quarter-finals of the Asian Cup – the Chinese men’s basketball team must try hard
When the final whistle blew, the miracle did not happen.
On July 20, Beijing time, the Chinese men’s basketball team lost 69-72 to the Lebanese team and missed the semi-finals of the 2022 Men’s Basketball Asian Cup held in Jakarta, the capital of Indonesia.
Since the Asian Championships were restructured into the Asian Cup, the Chinese men’s basketball team has been blocked from the top four for two consecutive sessions.
Although the results are not good, the Chinese men’s basketball team is not completely without gains in this Asian Cup.
First of all, Zhou Qi finally proved through the game that he is gradually becoming the real core player of the current Chinese men’s basketball team.
In the game once morest Lebanon, Zhou Qi scored 22 points, 21 rebounds, 3 blocks and 2 assists, helping the Chinese men’s basketball team to stabilize the situation many times in the game. His personal ability is already at the top level in Asia. Even though he has not reached his best in the Asian Cup due to physical reasons, his influence on both ends of the offensive and defensive ends is obviously superior.
Secondly, Gu Quan is another surprise for the Chinese men’s basketball team this year. He was criticized when he entered the squad, and he is one of the more stable players in the Chinese men’s basketball team in this tournament. We can expect his performances on the international stage in the coming years.
Thirdly, in the case of encountering extensive injuries and being forced to make substitutions, the unity and tenacity of the Chinese men’s basketball team in the Asian Cup also made people see the hope of the team’s re-emergence and return to the top.
Compared with the inventory of harvests, what the Chinese men’s basketball team needs to do is to summarize and reflect.
After losing to Lebanon in the quarter-finals, Du Feng, the head coach of the Chinese men’s basketball team, said that the responsibility for the loss lies entirely with the coach. Indeed, the Chinese men’s basketball team exposed technical and tactical problems in this Asian Cup. In the absence of small forwards, the Chinese men’s basketball team has been practicing and using three-back tactics. Facts have proved that this tactic is still more effective once morest weak teams, but not effective once morest strong teams.
In addition, the team itself has certain shortcomings. The lineup defect of the striker has always been the “pain point” of the Chinese men’s basketball team in recent years, and this problem has not been solved in the Asian Cup. Most of the defenders who are in full bloom in the domestic league can’t guarantee stable shooting ability in the international arena with higher confrontation intensity. In addition, players are deeply troubled by turnovers. In the game once morest Lebanon, the Chinese men’s basketball team made 22 mistakes. As coach Du Feng said, the Chinese men’s basketball team “beat itself”.
After the end of the Asian Cup journey, the Chinese men’s basketball team will go to Europe for training and competition, preparing for the second stage of the men’s basketball World Cup qualifiers. In the second stage of the world preliminaries, the Chinese men’s basketball team and Australia, Kazakhstan, Iran, Japan and Bahrain were divided into Group F. On August 25th, the Chinese men’s basketball team will face the Kazakhstan team and on August 29th the Bahrain team. These two games are likely to be the key two battles that determine whether the Chinese men’s basketball team can qualify for the World Cup.
For the Chinese men’s basketball team, the most important thing at the moment is to reintegrate the team, sum up the gains and losses in a timely manner, play the next World Preliminaries, and strive to qualify for the 2023 Men’s Basketball World Cup. If you want to return to the top, the team has to work hard and catch up with the pace of the development of world basketball.
Above: On July 20, Chinese team player Zhou Qi (third from left) competed in the game. Published by Xinhua News Agency (Xu Jingbo and Yu Xiongping)
