47 days ago, the Chinese men's basketball team narrowly defeated Bahrain by one point with Gu Quan's quasi-kill. 47 days later, in the Asian region of the men's basketball World Cup qualifiers, the Chinese men's basketball team once again faced bahrain and lost power in the fourth quarter, fortunately, this time there is still no danger.
On the evening of August 29, the Chinese men's basketball team defeated Bahrain 80-67 and won two consecutive world preliminaries. In this game, Zhou Qi contributed 22 points and 7 rebounds, with a plus-minus of up to +21! Zhu Junlong had 14 points and 5 rebounds, Hu Mingxuan had 12 points, Xu Jie had 9 points, and Gu Quan had 8 points and 6 rebounds.
With the victory of this game, the Chinese men's basketball team temporarily ranked second in Group F with a record of 6 wins and 2 losses, only behind the Australian team, which won all 8 games. Although the fourth window of the World Preliminary Round ended with a total victory record, the overall competitive state of the Chinese men's basketball team is really unsatisfactory. From the third window of the World Preliminary Round to the Asian Cup and then back to the World Preliminary Round, the Chinese men's basketball team stumbled all the way and the performance was always unsatisfactory.
Against Kazakhstan, whose strength is far inferior to its own, the Chinese men's basketball team has only 6 assists in the whole game, but there are 21 mistakes. With a 17-point lead in the first half, the Chinese men's basketball team directly fell into a scoring drought, scoring only 7 points in the third quarter, allowing opponents to chase the score to only 3 points. Although the men's basketball team won the game in the end, the poor performance still received a lot of bad reviews.
This Bahrain team is currently in the last place in Group F, and in the last game they lost to Australia with a 54-point difference, so in the face of such a weak opponent, the Chinese men's basketball team not only needs to win the game, but also needs a big victory to restore confidence.
However, in this game, the Chinese men's basketball team repeated the last drama, and what made people who paid attention to this game feel even more angry was that the Chinese men's basketball team also "lost power" twice. At the same time, the Chinese men's basketball team also lost a lot of fouls. The first collective power outage of the Chinese men's basketball team was in the second quarter of the game. In the first quarter, the Chinese men's basketball team performed well, zhu Junlong, Gu Quan, and Sun Minghui took turns to fire and played an 11-3 start. Hu Mingxuan scored 2+1, and Zhou Qi scored consecutive points on the inside line, and the point difference widened to more than 15 points. Entering the second quarter, the game played only 1 minute and 50 seconds before the Chinese men's basketball team was already full of fouls. After falling into foul trouble, the men's basketball players shrank somewhat, and the Bahrain team dared to fight under the basket continuously, chasing the point difference. The men's basketball team's defense was weak, the attack was powered off, and the point difference was rapidly reduced.
The second power outage was in the fourth section. After stabilizing the situation in the third quarter, the Chinese men's basketball team fell into a scoring drought again in the fourth quarter, opening with a small climax of 10-1, and the lead was only 4 points. If it were not for Hu Mingxuan's three-point shot and Xu Jie's quick attack to expand the score advantage to more than 10 points, no one could decide what the final outcome would be.
Zhou Qi, the "war criminal" who was criticized by fans in the 2019 World Cup, has become the only person that the Chinese men's basketball team can rely on now. If you remove Zhou Qi, the seemingly tall "Moving Great Wall" of the Chinese men's basketball team is not too much to say that it is paper paste. In this game against Bahrain, the other two inside lines can be called walking foul machines - Wang Zhelin and Shen Zijie combined to score 2 points and 9 fouls. Wang Zhelin played 7 minutes, scoring 2 points and 3 fouls on 1 of 3 shots, shen Zijie played 5 minutes, no shots, only 2 rebounds and 5 fouls, including 1 technical foul.
In the second quarter of the Chinese men's basketball team attacked the power outage and fell into foul trouble, the team had 6 fouls, and the two had 2 each. After Zhou Qi's break of 11 minutes and 49 seconds, the Chinese men's basketball team lost 8 points (Shen Zijie 0, Wang Zhelin -8).
In the last meeting, Bahrain naturalized interior Chism jumped up and down, with 23 points, 14 rebounds, 1 assist and 3 steals. This time he met healthy Zhou Qi, who was suppressed by Zhou Qi, scoring only 7 points on 1 of 6 shots. Although Zhou Qi had foul trouble in the first two quarters, he still reflected the value of a unique gear at both ends of the attack and defense. Zhou Qi scored in double figures in the first half, repeatedly impacting the basket to create a kill. Chism was even fouled four times, and after the end of the second quarter, he failed to play in the entire third quarter.
With 2 minutes and 47 seconds left in the third quarter, Zhou Qi received the ball on his back in the low position, and sent a one-handed split buckle after a big sinking step. The flat ground thundered, instantly lifting the morale of the Chinese men's basketball team.
"Zhou Qi has been growing in the national team in recent years, and his physical confrontation has increased a lot after playing in the Australian League last year, and his improvement has great support for the Chinese men's basketball team at both ends of the attack and defense." Head coach Du Feng's statement after the last game is still pertinent in this game.
Of course, it is certainly unrealistic to expect Zhou Qi to solve the problems faced by the Chinese men's basketball team. On the inside side, Zhou Qi can still work hard, but the outside defense zhou Qi is really weak. The Chinese men's basketball team scored 44 points in the forbidden area, and Bahrain only had a pitiful 8 points, but Bahrain hit 11 three-pointers in the game, even four more than two points. In the last quarter of the game, they relied on consecutive three points to maintain the suspense of the game. The Chinese team knows that the opponent's three points are accurate, but it still can't prevent it, blocking and squeezing the cover is often to give the other side a gap, allowing the opponent to score consecutive goals.
In order to defend in terms of personnel scheduling, head coach Du Feng made major adjustments in this game. For a long time in the game, Du Feng abandoned the previously used "three-guard" lineup and used the double-forward lineup.
In this game, Du Feng gave Zhu Mingzhen a significant increase in time, and Zhu Mingzhen was also enough to cherish this opportunity. The 5 points and 5 rebounds stats may not be so eye-catching, but anyone who has watched the game will be impressed by his tough defense. Du Feng arranged and combined Gu Quan, Zhu Mingzhen and Zhu Junlong to maintain the height of the Chinese men's basketball court for a long time. In this way, the most direct benefit is reflected in the rebound protection, the number of rebounds between the Chinese men's basketball team and Bahrain is 36 to 34.
The performance of the Chinese men's basketball team this summer, although it is difficult to name the word satisfactory. The epidemic, injuries, and long-term drift overseas have all made the men's basketball team as a whole in fatigue. As bystanders, we can't really empathize with players and coaches, but to say that the Chinese men's basketball team won the World Preliminary Tournament. Now the players are relieved and, in a way, the audience is liberated. In the face of the situation that the top three of the group can qualify, the next situation of the Chinese men's basketball team is still quite good.
In the fifth window of the game, the Chinese men's basketball team will play against Iran on November 11 and Bahrain on November 14. I hope that when the time comes, the Chinese men's basketball team will be full of confidence in the appearance of playing.