NBA's King of Talking

Chapter 580 Time to Go Play Ranked Matches

Many Chinese basketball fans are already looking forward to the knockout stage. Many are particularly optimistic, believing that the current Chinese men's basketball team can crush anyone they face. What are Poland? What are Russia? We've already defeated two strong European teams like Poland and Russia, so what are you, a once-powerful South American team, to us?

Furthermore, in their past encounters, the Chinese men's basketball team has defeated the Argentine men's basketball team, not in the Stankovic Cup, but in the actual Olympic Games.

At the 1996 Atlanta Olympics, the Chinese men's basketball team reached the quarterfinals for the first time in history. In that Olympics, they defeated the Argentine men's basketball team.

But time flies, and this happened more than 20 years ago...

Chinese fans' confidence isn't without reason; the leaders of the two teams are simply not in the same league. While Scola is known as "The Diamond" and his Dream Shake is incredibly explosive, even at his peak, he wasn't considered a superstar in the NBA, at best a competent starter. Jia Fei, on the other hand, is currently one of the NBA's top superstars, and he's the most promising player to challenge Jordan and GOAT.

The Chinese men's basketball team is not only composed of Jia Fei, but also includes NBA No. 6 draft pick Yi Jianlian, Art Mayok, one of Jia Fei's right-hand men and a beastly inside player, the NBA draft pick Da De Wang and Grandma Wang, Anshan Paul, and so on.

Apart from the peak Chinese men's basketball team led by Chairman Yao in 08, the current team is the strongest in its history.

After the game started, the Chinese men's basketball team showed great enthusiasm and wanted to crush their opponents in one fell swoop.

But this Argentine men's basketball team are all seasoned veterans, playing with great experience, so it won't be easy to defeat them in one fell swoop.

On the defensive end, the Argentine men's basketball team constantly switched between zone defense and individual defense. Unlike Russia, they didn't foolishly stick to one-on-one defense against Jia Fei; they double-teamed him from the very beginning.

Argentina's double-teaming strategy was very clever. First, they defended Jia Fei smartly before he even received the ball, making it uncomfortable for him. After Jia Fei received the ball, they double-teamed him decisively, cutting off his passing lanes as much as possible, rotating quickly, and leaving some players open when necessary.

When other players on the Chinese men's basketball team are attacking, they should be subjected to physical contact to force them to take shots that are uncomfortable.

The Chinese men's basketball team's offense was indeed limited. Jia Fei created many opportunities, but their other players failed to capitalize on them, resulting in a significant increase in turnovers.

Fortunately, they did a good job on the defensive end, so the score remained close.

This was destined to be a defensive battle, with neither side performing well offensively.

Scola played exceptionally well in this game. In the low post, neither Art Mayork nor Yi Jianlian could stop him one-on-one. His footwork was incredibly smooth, with all sorts of spinning turns and delicate finishing moves. Even the legendary Luka Doncic and Luka Doncic couldn't stop him; they could only manage to stop this veteran by fouling him.

The Chinese men's basketball team began to double-team Scola, but this guy is very cunning and has excellent playmaking ability.

This game exposed the problem that, in a game of this level, the Chinese men's basketball team has no reliable ball-handler other than Jia Fei.

The Argentine men's basketball team also handled the ball better than the Chinese men's basketball team after Scola created the opportunity.

The Chinese men's basketball team gradually fell behind, and that's when Jia Fei stepped up his game. He held off two defenders and forced his way to points, almost turning the tide of the game.

In the final stages, the Chinese men's basketball team made mistakes and ultimately lost the game.

Throughout the game, the Chinese men's basketball team only lost by 3 points, but those 3 points ruined all their efforts in the entire game.

贾飞虽然全场被疯狂夹击，可依然还是贡献了全场最高的33分，外加11个篮板5次助攻3次抢断2个盖帽的全面数据。

This narrow defeat served as a wake-up call for Chinese basketball fans. While this men's basketball team is strong, they are not strong enough to easily defeat the world's top teams. Basketball is a team sport; no matter how strong one player is, without sufficient support, they cannot defy fate.

Fortunately, even though the Chinese men's basketball team lost this game, they still advanced to the knockout stage. That's good news!

The knockout stage, or quarterfinals, will officially begin on September 10th, with the following matchups: Argentina vs. Serbia, Spain vs. China, USA vs. France, and Australia vs. Czech Republic.

The winning team in the quarterfinals advances to the semifinals, while the losing team enters the placement matches.

For the Chinese men's basketball team, their worst result has already tied their best-ever FIBA ​​Basketball World Cup finish of 8th place! From this perspective, even if they lost the last game, they still have a chance to make history.

September 10th arrived in the blink of an eye, and the Chinese men's basketball team faced off against the Spanish men's basketball team at the Wukesong Arena!

Chinese basketball fans are naturally familiar with the Spanish men's basketball team. In the 08 Beijing Olympics, the Chinese men's basketball team narrowly lost to Spain. That game remains a painful memory for Yao Ming and the other members of the golden generation, and a lingering regret for Chinese fans.

In this game, the Chinese men's basketball team has a chance to avenge their defeat. The difference is that the glory of the Spanish men's basketball team over the past 11 years is unmatched by the Chinese men's basketball team. Even with Jia Fei now, the Chinese men's basketball team has no confidence to say that they can definitely defeat this old rival.

The Spanish men's basketball team is incredibly strong! Chinese fans have to admit that. This team is the only one in recent years that has truly been a threat to the Dream Team.

After the game started, the Spanish men's basketball team clearly adopted the strategy used by the Argentine men's basketball team to defend Jia Fei: preventing him from receiving the ball, double-teaming him early, and forcing him to pass. Then, through rotation, they prevented him from having an easy jump shot opportunity.

The Chinese men's basketball team seemed to have few options, as the Spanish men's basketball team had a very strong interior defense, and their interior advantage was not really an advantage at all.

Anshan Paul and his nephew were simply unable to effectively organize an attack in this level of competition. Apart from Jia Fei, who could hold the ball on the flanks, none of the others, whether it was Zhai Xiaochuan, Abudushalamu Abudurexiti, or Kelanbaike Makan, could effectively damage the opponent.

In the end, the Chinese men's basketball team lost, but by only 5 points.

Jia Fei still managed to score 30 points, but it was still not enough.

This loss cost the Chinese men's basketball team the chance to enter the semifinals, and they will have to play in the classification games next.

On the positive side, they only lost by a narrow margin to the two world's top teams and still have a chance to make history; on the negative side, it was a pity that they lost both games, and it would have been better if they had won.

Jia Fei was also helpless. The development of world basketball is really too fast. Even the Dream Team can't expect to win the championship easily if they don't send out their strongest lineup.