The Chinese men's basketball team, which was forced to the edge of the cliff, finally failed to win this "unaffordable" game.
Beijing time this afternoon, the Chinese men's basketball team faced the second opponent of the World Cup group stage, the South Sudan men's basketball team, although once let people see the dawn of victory, but the opponent's terrible "three-point rain" doused all hopes, the Chinese men's basketball team helplessly lost 69-89, suffering two consecutive group stage losses.
After the defeat, the Chinese men's basketball team must beat the Puerto Rican men's basketball team in the last game to have the possibility of qualifying, but this is almost impossible to achieve. With other Asian competitors in a better position, the chances of the Chinese men's basketball team entering the Paris Olympics have become very slim.
Li Kyle scored 0 points on 0-of-9 shooting in his World Cup debut, and Chinese men's basketball coach Jordjevic said after the game: "Li Kyle has been defending, he just didn't shoot." Kyle Lee needs time, and we all know what he can do. ”
Facing South Sudan today, fans are expecting Li Kyle to find his touch in attack. In the game, Li Kyle also responded positively to such expectations. In the whole game, Li Kyle scored 22 points, 5 rebounds and 3 assists. Unfortunately, his return did not help the team at the crucial moment, and the Chinese men's basketball team could not limit the opponent's outside shooting percentage, resulting in the team ultimately failing to win this game with no way back. "A Li Kyle may be the icing on the cake, but it can't be the icing on the cake." There are post-match reviews from fans.
From the process point of view, the opening Chinese men's basketball team was a little disconnected from the inside and outside attacks, and Zhou Qi basically couldn't get the ball on the court. At the end of the first quarter, the Chinese men's basketball team trailed by eight points at 14-22. The entire South Sudan team started early on the outside: 6-of-10 from three-point range, and Jones, the team's top star, scored seven points and three assists.
At the beginning of the second quarter, Hu Mingxuanli scored 5 points on a sudden outside shot, Wang Zhelin dunked inside, and the Chinese men's basketball team once chased the score to 1 point. However, then there was a defensive problem, and the South Sudanese team fought back in succession. The Chinese men's basketball team wanted to drag the game into positional warfare, but South Sudan's outside line was too accurate — 9-of-18 from three-point range and 7-of-11 from the free throw line. At the end of the first half, the Chinese men's basketball team trailed by four points at 40-44.
In the second half, relying on Li Kyle's three-point shooting and Zhou Qi's barrier role on the defensive end, the gap was narrowed to only 1 point. But just when the Chinese men's basketball team was expected to overtake the score, several key penalties from the referee extinguished the counterattack: Zhao Jiwei was hit in the face by the opponent and was only sentenced as an ordinary foul; On the offensive end, he was awarded a controversial offensive foul... The South Sudanese team, which survived the difficulty, once again used three points to open the gap.
The Chinese men's basketball team was unable to close the gap and lost the game, with South Sudan's team shooting 15 of 30 from three-point range. The overall performance and condition of the Chinese team in this game were better than the previous game, but the failure was that it never limited the opponent's outside shooting percentage.
In the first two games of the World Cup group stage, the Chinese men's basketball team has a net minus of 62 points, and there is only a theoretical possibility left to qualify from the group. Not only to win the last game against Puerto Rico, but also to win big opponents in order to advance by small points in the case of three teams winning and losing. But this is almost an impossible task.
If Puerto Rico fails to win the final game of the group stage, the Chinese men's basketball team can only hope that other Asian teams will go out of the group together and strive for the maximum number of wins in the subsequent qualifying rounds. Because the Japanese men's basketball team has now won 1 win, if the next game plays Cape Verde, the Chinese men's basketball team will definitely not have a chance to go directly to the Olympics.
Editor-in-chief: Chen Hua
图片来源：新华社 Source: Author: Yao Qinyi