The Chinese women's basketball team went from 2nd to 5th: 32 points in a crushing defeat to France, Li Meng won the scoring title to cover his shame
The overall performance of the Chinese women's basketball team in the Paris Olympic Qualifying Tournament in Xi'an is not good, although the 2-1 loss ranked second in the group and got the Paris Olympics ticket, but the 32-point defeat of the French team made the Chinese women's basketball team encounter a lot of doubts, as the world runner-up team, such a fiasco is unacceptable, you must know that the last time the Chinese women's basketball team played against the United States team, the net negative score was about 20 points, not to the point of defeat.
The poor performance of the game also directly affects the ranking of the Chinese women's basketball team, FIBA updated the team power ranking after the Olympic qualifying tournament, and the Chinese women's basketball team plummeted from the original 2nd to 5th.
From the ranking point of view, among the top 6 teams, the United States team is firmly in the first place, and the remaining 5 teams only the Chinese women's basketball team has declined in the rankings, and the remaining 4 teams have improved their rankings, especially the Belgian women's basketball team rushed to the second place, they lost to the United States team by only 2 points in the Olympic qualifying round, and almost staged a big upset, which also reflects their outstanding strength.
On the other hand, the Chinese women's basketball team is "declining in reputation", and was originally optimistic about the top level of the American women's basketball team, but a 32-point fiasco made them "beaten back to their original shape" In fact, today's Chinese women's basketball team is a world strong team, but there are still many opponents who are not able to win steadily, at this stage, the world women's basketball field is in a "super and many strong" situation, the United States women's basketball team is the only one, Belgium, France, Australia and the Chinese women's basketball team, Spain, Japan, these teams are in a melee situation, and the two and two battles are five or five open situations, and there is no absolute advantage.
Women's basketball coach Zheng Wei also gave an explanation for the poor performance in this Olympic qualifying tournament, believing that the team was only playing against Asian teams in 2023 and did not play against the world's strongest teams for a long time, resulting in failure to adapt to the rhythm of the game as soon as possible, and finally lost to the French team. The 2024 Paris Olympics is still half a year away, and the Chinese women's basketball team needs to make a warm-up game plan as soon as possible, need to go to Europe for training, and play with the world's strongest teams in advance to avoid another sluggish performance in the competition.
It is worth mentioning that the women's basketball ace forward Li Meng has become a fig leaf, and after the FIBA power list is updated, Li Meng represents the official poster of the Chinese women's basketball team, obviously his personal performance has been officially recognized and has become the face of the Chinese women's basketball team. In this Xi'an event, Li Meng averaged 19.3 points per game, won the title of the scoring champion in the division, and was selected into the best team with Li Yueru.
It's not enough to have only one Li Meng's outstanding performance, I hope that in the Paris Olympics, Han Xu, Li Yueru, Yang Liwei, Wang Siyu and Huang Sijing and other main players can also quickly find their form, and the ultimate goal of the Chinese women's basketball team is to hit the Olympic medals.