The Paper's reporter Hu Jie
This Asian Cup is perhaps the most tortuous event in the history of the Chinese men's basketball team.
Before the expedition, the team lost a number of core players including Guo Allen, Zhou Qi, Zhao Jiwei and Shen Zijie, and the team had to adjust the players to temporarily change the team.
Although the results of the Asian Cup no longer determine the eligibility for the Olympic Games and the World Cup, it is still related to the honor of the national team and the world ranking of the Chinese men's basketball team.
In the first game of the Asian Cup, the Chinese men's basketball team, which lacked major generals, faced the old rival South Korea, and in the case that Zhou Qi, Guo Allen, and Wang Zhelin could not play, Du Feng chose to speed up, but still regretted losing to South Korea 81-93, and did not have the opportunity to start the Asian Cup.
In this game, Zhao Rui scored 22 points, Sun Minghui had 14 points and 7 assists, Gu Quan had 22 points, Fan Ziming had 5 points and 11 rebounds, and Hu Mingxuan only had 1 point and 2 rebounds.
Zhao Rui performed well in this field.
Changing generals on the verge of battle is fraught with difficulties
"This group has encountered unprecedented difficulties, almost no one has trained some time ago, most of them are isolating fever cough chest tightness, the day before the game people are not ready, but they still go to fight! No one in such a team can say anything, cheer them on together! ”
Three hours before the game, Zhao Jiwei's Weibo revealed the difficulties of the Chinese men's basketball team.
After the End of the World Preliminary Tournament in Australia, the Chinese men's basketball team suffered from the invasion of the new crown epidemic - including core players such as Zhou Qi and Guo Allen were not spared.
There were only 7 team members left on the plane to Jakarta, and half of the team members had to stay in Melbourne for observation and treatment due to the new crown infection.
Although it is not clear how the epidemic will appear within the team, there is widespread speculation that the Chinese men's basketball team was infected during two matches with Chinese Taipei. Especially in the second game of the two teams, when the Chinese men's basketball team arrived at the venue, it was found that the Chinese Taipei team members wore masks when they warmed up, and although Du Feng immediately asked all the team members to wear masks for self-protection, the contact between the two sides during the game was inevitable.
Although the symptoms of the infected team members were generally mild, until the start of the Asian Cup, Guo Allen still failed to turn yin, and Zhou Qi even fainted due to physical discomfort.
Although the Chinese men's basketball team already had a contingency plan before the expedition, prepared a 24-person visit list, and urgently recruited 5 players to Jakarta, but such a hasty adjustment also caught the Chinese men's basketball team by surprise.
Jiang Weize, Gao Shiyan, He Xining, Fan Ziming and Zhai Xiaochuan (from left to right) competed in the Asian Cup.
There was only one left in the starting lineup
Because the list of Asian Cup players can not be changed, so in the 12-man roster, Guo Allen, Zhao Jiwei, Shen Zijie, Zhu Junlong, Ren Junwei and Lu Wenbo, who originally participated in the World Preliminary Tournament, were not selected, and among the 5 players urgently recruited, Jiang Weize, Zhai Xiaochuan and He Xining "pressed the whistle" into the Asian Cup list.
To this end, Guo Allen deliberately wrote in Weibo: "Now I still have been coughing chest pain has not turned yin, the coaching team asked about my condition and physical condition and decided to protect me, this Asian Cup is very sorry not to participate." ”
'I really want to play with my teammates, it's a really rare opportunity, it's really hard to feel good."
Guo Allen Weibo.
In addition to Guo Allen's absence, although Zhou Qi remains in the big list as an important link in the technical and tactical system, he is still in Melbourne for treatment, and whether he can catch up with the three games of the group stage is still unknown.
In this way, compared with the first game of the World Preliminary Round, the first five tigers of the Chinese men's basketball team in the first game of the Asian Cup adjusted four players, and only Hu Mingxuan was still the starter.
The change of players is a taboo on the basketball court, and the two groups of men's basketball players have only practiced together once after the Jakarta round.
This is also why in fiba's newly updated Asian Cup battle list, the Chinese men's basketball team only ranked seventh, while the first opponent South Korea ranked fourth.
China's Asian Cup squad.
The record is superior, and the front line is the key to breaking the game
Even so, Du Feng still said in an interview before the game: "Everyone doesn't have time to practice together, which may be a big challenge for this competition." Although there are many difficulties, I believe that the team will do a better job of completing the Asian Cup task. ”
This time, the Chinese men's basketball team was divided into Group B, and the opponents in the same group included South Korea, Bahrain and Chinese Taipei. In the first game, the Chinese men's basketball team will face the strongest opponent in the group stage, South Korea, so the victory or defeat of the two sides is likely to determine the first place in the group.
China and South Korea have met a total of 24 times in official matches, winning 19 of them. The most recent meeting between the two sides was at the 2019 Men's Basketball World Cup, where China narrowly won 77-73.
Although there are no new stars Lu Joon Seok and Lee Hyun Jung in the 12-man roster of the South Korean team, the South Korean team has a neat lineup, and there are naturalized players Luo Jian'er on the inside.
Throughout the history of China-South Korea showdowns, the South Korean men's basketball team has a lot of experience in limiting the inside line of the Chinese team, but the defense on the front line is easy to become a breakthrough.
The Korean men's basketball team watched the video of the Chinese players before the game.
In the 2017 China-South Korea World Preliminary Tournament, Ding Yanyuhang scored 30 points on the road to help the Chinese men's basketball red team win the victory.
However, for this Chinese men's basketball team with weak forward ability, how to break the game has become the key.
In the case of the Chinese men's basketball team changing players and running into disarray, the South Korean team also smelled a glimmer of hope for victory. Before the game, the South Korean media posted: "Guo Allen's absence, the combat effectiveness is inevitably weakened." Zhou Qi is also unable to participate in the game, which is good news for South Korea, if the team wants to ensure that the group qualifies, it must beat China. ”
South Korea's Jumpball website also published an internal photo of the team's preparations, in addition to watching the CBA Finals game, but also studied the previous East Asian Premier League game video.
However, the only players who have participated in this event are Sun Minghui, He Xining and Fan Ziming.
Coach Du Feng.
Lost under the basket, speeding up the outside line
What is unexpected is that in addition to core players such as Zhou Qi and Guo Allen, Wang Zhelin, the inner strength of the team in this game, also sat under the field.
The starting inner line of the Chinese men's basketball team is composed of Zhai Xiaochuan and Fu Hao, and the defender line is composed of Sun Minghui, Zhao Rui and Hu Mingxuan. Du Feng's strategic intention is quite obvious, hoping to catch the counterattack of the South Korean team by speeding up.
So the first two attacks of the Chinese men's basketball team were all won by Zhao Ruiqiang. Five minutes into the game, Zhao Rui scored 10 points.
But such a lineup also allows the South Korean team to see the opportunity of the inside line, after Luo Jian'er scored three points, he once again forced Fu Hao to succeed in the inside line, which also allowed Du Feng to replace him with a tall interior Fan Ziming.
Even if he is replaced by Fan Ziming, Du Feng still emphasizes the acceleration of the team and ensures the conversion speed on the field through continuous substitutions. This also made the two sides play wrong in the game - the Chinese team made eight mistakes in the first quarter of the basket, while the South Korean team even had four walk violations in the first quarter.
Different from the impression of previous Sino-Korean matches, because Zhou Qi and Wang Zhelin failed to play in this game, the Chinese team's previous internal advantage was gone.
Not only does Fu Hao have a certain gap with Luo Jian'er in terms of strength confrontation, but even in the height of the outside players, the Chinese team is not dominant. When the South Korean team breaks through the defense outside, the Chinese men's basketball team, which lacks the height of the basket, is difficult to interfere with the opponent's layup.
This also allowed the South Korean team to play a wave of offensive climax in the second quarter, but when the Chinese team was 6 points behind, Du Feng did not jump like before, but calmly stressed to the players: "It is all opportunities, as long as you shoot in." ”
As Du Feng said, after the suspension came back, Sun Minghui first shot three points, and then Gu Quan hit two consecutive three-pointers to retake the score and lead the South Korean men's basketball team 45-43 in the first half.
In the third quarter, the decline in physical fitness made the Chinese men's basketball team 6 baskets in the last moment fruitless, the Lack of interior baskets of the Chinese team, once let the South Korean team play a continuous breakthrough point, the South Korean team also took this to open up the point difference.
Then Du Feng replaced Jiang Weize, although he once achieved good results, but still failed to surpass the score.
In the fourth quarter, Sun Minghui hit three points at the beginning, and the Chinese team chased all the way to the 2-point gap, but then the South Korean team contracted the basket, and the Chinese men's basketball team's offensive efficiency was still not high, and it was blossomed inside and outside the Korean team, and finally lost the game...
Fu Hao (left) struggled a bit in this game.
It is not difficult to qualify, and the schedule is not easy
Prior to this match, Chinese Taipei and Bahrain in the same group had completed the match, and Chinese Taipei won easily 102-84.
Unlike the World Preliminary Tournament, the Chinese Taipei Asian Cup lineup ushered in a major change of blood, and three players who played in the CBA, Chen Yingjun, Lin Tingqian and Liu Zheng, will play. In addition to this, Chinese Taipei also naturalized white center Artino.
However, compared with the victory or defeat of the game, time is the biggest opponent of the Chinese men's basketball team.
The Asian Cup is divided into 4 groups, the first place in each group directly advances to the quarterfinals, and the second and third teams of each group will play a knockout match to determine the other 4 places in the quarterfinals.
Judging from the comparison of strength and historical record, the Chinese team can enter the knockout round as long as it wins the next game, so it is not difficult for the Chinese men's basketball team to qualify. Even if it qualifies second in Group B and wins third in Group A, the Chinese men's basketball team can avoid being in the same half zone as Australia.
However, from the schedule, the Chinese men's basketball team, which lacks major generals, will play against Bahrain two days later, and then against Chinese Taipei the next day.
In the face of a two-day and one-game schedule, whether the Chinese men's basketball team can get rid of the impact of the new crown epidemic as soon as possible is the key factor that determines how far the team can go in this Asian Cup.
Editor-in-Charge: Ascendas
Proofreader: Ding Xiao