The Chinese men's basketball team will face Japan tomorrow, and the comparison of the strength of Chinese and Japanese basketball should have a conclusion

When the official FIBA website released a preview article titled "Three Reasons Why Japan Can Achieve a Historic Victory over China", the Sino-Japanese matchup has also become the most watched match in the first stage of the Asian preliminaries.

At 13 o'clock on the 25th, the Chinese men's basketball team will visit the Tokyo Ariake Stadium to deal with the challenge of the Japanese men's basketball team away.

On the one hand, the Japanese men's basketball team has vowed revenge, and on the other hand, the Chinese men's basketball team has been updated and looks to the future - in the eyes of the outside world, this contest seems to be the closest game between the two teams on paper in recent years.

After passing the baptism of the men's basketball World Cup, the Japanese team went straight to the Paris Olympics.

It is both revenge and preparation for war

As early as before the start of the Asian preliminaries, the head coach of the Japanese men's basketball team, Tom Horvas, had announced in a high-profile manner that he hoped to defeat the Chinese men's basketball team at home.

Since the 1936 Olympic Games, the Chinese men's basketball team has never lost to the Japanese men's basketball team in the Asian and above competitions held by FIBA. Judging from the Asian Cup match, the Chinese men's basketball team has won all 16 games against the Japanese men's basketball team.

The last time the Chinese men's basketball team lost to the Japanese men's basketball team was the 2014 Incheon Asian Games men's basketball rematch, the Chinese men's basketball team lost 72-79, when the Chinese men's basketball team experienced a fiasco in the 2013 Asian Championships, and was also in a low period.

The reason why Horwass is so high-profile this time is because he coached the first two games of the Japanese team, against the Chinese team, when the Japanese team lost by 16 and 33 points respectively.

Japan men's basketball head coach Tom Horvas.

"The two games against the Chinese team in 2021 woke up everyone involved in Japanese basketball and made us realize that change is imperative. Horvath recalled.

Two years later, when the Japanese men's basketball team held the only direct ticket to Paris in Asia, Horvas also hoped to take revenge.

Not only that, these two Asian preliminaries are also the first shot of the Japanese men's basketball team to prepare for the Paris Olympics, "Although the team has a good World Cup performance, we still have a lot of shortcomings, and if we don't solve these problems, we can't play the Olympics." ”

Yuta Watanabe will miss the game against the Chinese men's basketball team.

There were a lot of problems with Japan's debut

In the training camp list announced by the Japanese team, 10 of the 12 players who participated in last year's World Cup will participate in the Asian Cup qualifiers, and only Yuta Watanabe and Keisei Tominaga, who play in the United States, are absent.

According to Horvas, "Even though Yuta Watanabe and Keisei Tominaga are gone, the system and standards I have set have not changed, and our goal is to qualify for the quarterfinals of the Olympics. ”

Due to the growing popularity of Japanese basketball in the past two years, the enthusiasm of fans has gradually increased, and the ticket sales of the Japanese B-League have more than doubled, and the tickets for the two Asian preliminary matches have long been sold out.

One staff member said, "It's not common for Japanese basketball to be treated like football, so we're all grateful. ”

However, in the first game against the Guam men's basketball team, ranked 76th in the world, the Japanese men's basketball team was also in poor shape, once trailing the opponent by one point 35-36 in the first half, and it was not until the second half that it won the game 77-56.

The three-point shot is the deadliest weapon of the Japanese men's basketball team.

In the whole game, the Japanese men's basketball team made a total of 45 three-pointers from the outside, accounting for more than 60% of the team's total shots, but the three-point shooting rate was only 26.6%.

Although the Japanese men's basketball team won back-to-back victories over Finland, Venezuela and Cape Verde with three-pointers in the World Cup, the over-reliance on three-point shots also upset the team's balance.

After the game, Yuki Kawamura analyzed the first game of the Japanese men's basketball team: "There are too many three-point shots, and some of them break the balance between the three-second zone and the three-point shot, and this is what Horvas cares about the most. We only had three-point shots in the first half and we had to score more points in the three-second zone. ”

Kawamura stressed that if the Chinese men's basketball team still performs similarly, then the Japanese team will not be able to win.

18-year-old Yang Hansen in the game.

The strategic focus of the Chinese men's basketball team has shifted

Completely different from the Japanese men's basketball team's style of play, the Chinese men's basketball team's first game against Mongolia accounted for 52% of the shots under the basket, higher than the previous 99% of games, of which the sports and offensive rebounding rates were 57.9% and 41.4%, respectively, much higher than Mongolia's 43.1% and 29%.

However, for the Chinese men's basketball team, the first game of the new year in 2024 is not perfect - the whole team only scored 1 point in the first 5 minutes, the guard line shot a total of 7 shots in the first half and 0 shots, and was grabbed 6 frontcourt rebounds by Mongolia, which is 1.94 meters tall on average, in the first quarter......

Speaking after the game, coach Djordjevic said: "The first game of every major tournament is the most intense, but in the second half we gradually came out and executed our pre-match plan well. ”

Djordjevic revealed that the team has been preparing for this game against the Japanese men's basketball team, "Our last 7 to 10 days of intensive training, including information gathering and other preparations, are all for the next game against the Japanese men's basketball team, and I am looking forward to what kind of response my players will make at that time." ”

Compared with the Japanese men's basketball team's focus on the Paris Olympics this summer, the Chinese men's basketball team has set its goal in four years, "At the first meeting after the team was assembled, Chairman Yao Ming said at the meeting that the team's goal is the next 2028 Olympic Games. ”

Therefore, when the 18-year-old Yang Hansen scored 13 points, 3 rebounds, 4 assists and 2 steals in the first game of his national team career, Djordjevic did not hesitate to praise him.

'I'm happy to give young people opportunities and I believe young players need to grow out of the pitch and also make mistakes. Yang Hansen is definitely one of the pillars of the future of the Chinese national team, and we will develop him well. ”

Djordjevic even quipped that Jansham already owes himself 10 push-ups for failing to dunk the ball, "I think it's good for him, he can work his muscles with push-ups." ”

Chinese men's basketball coach Djordjevic.

Slow heat + frame protection, the lifeline of the Chinese men's basketball team

However, for the Chinese men's basketball team, the slow start and rebounding protection will become an urgent problem for the team to solve.

The warm-up game against Qingdao scored only 33 points in the first half, and only 39 points in the first half against Mongolia.

At the same time, how the Chinese men's basketball team, which was robbed of 6 frontcourt rebounds by Mongolia in the first quarter, can not fall behind when fighting with Japanese naturalized player Hawkinson, and how to receive the long rebounds that pop up when the opponent shoots from a distance, will also become the winner or loser of the Chinese men's basketball team.

After the game against the Mongolian men's basketball team, a reporter suggested that the twin tower combination of Hu Jinqiu and Yang Hansen could be posed, but it was vetoed by Djordjevic.

"They've been playing together for too short a time, and at the moment, the team doesn't have enough time to get together. During the summer training camp, I asked Hu Jinqiu to shoot outside the three-point line every time, but he still needs to continue to polish himself. ”

Djordjevic, who is quite stubborn in the rotation of the lineup, may continue his employment strategy.

And in the post-match press conference against Mongolia, a noteworthy detail is that when the reporter's question session was over, Djordjevic said something to himself:

'If you lose the game, it's all my fault, you can criticize me, and if you win, it's the players' credit because they played well. ”

Perhaps, Djordjevic has learned from the old man Jiang Xingquan.