The competition for the men's basketball qualification tournament for Paris 2024 is as fierce as usual, with 24 teams from Greece, Latvia, Spain and Puerto Rico coming together to make it to Paris. Therefore, there is no doubt about the intensity of the losing competition, and it is also followed by constant upsets. Two of the teams indirectly whitewashed the Chinese men's basketball team that failed in the men's basketball World Cup last year, created the worst results in team history, and finally did not even qualify for the qualifying tournament.
The Croatian men's basketball team ranked ninth among all 24 teams in the official FIBA ranking in this tournament, which is not particularly outstanding in the Greek region, which gathers both Greece in first place and Slovenia in second place. However, in the first round of the group stage, Puerto Rico, which has Zubac, Saric and Hezonia, defeated Doncic's Slovenia by 16 points, which immediately impressed the outside world, and they were also optimistic that they could finally compete with the Greek team led by Brother Alphabet and compete for valuable Olympic tickets.
However, in the second round of the group stage, they pulled a big lump. Against the New Zealand men's basketball team, Puerto Rico, who once led by double digits in the final quarter, actually suffered a scoring drought in the last three minutes and did not score a point, and they were upset 86-90 after only scoring 7 points in the final quarter...... It's a pity that Zubac's 29 points, 16 rebounds and a big double-double are powerless. You must know that in the battle for the third place in the German Super Cup before last year's World Cup, the Chinese men's basketball team narrowly defeated the New Zealand men's basketball team by 1 point with Zhou Qi's key free throws and Li Kaier's winning steal, and won the first victory after the Sledgehammer joined. In this way, the strength of the Chinese men's basketball team has been further whitewashed - it can also play back and forth with these strong teams.
Unexpectedly, a game in the Latvia region after that would be even more top-notch. As the host, the "European Red Devils" Latvia, who won the fifth best result in the World Cup for the first time last year, is the only strong team in its own region as the third strong team in the power list of the qualifiers, but in the battle with the Philippines, which is only ranked 20th in the power list, pulled a big hip. The Bertans brothers shot 4-of-15 from the field, and the two combined for just 15 points; On the other hand, the Philippine men's basketball team, although the biggest naturalized player Clarkson did not participate, another naturalized Brownlee handed over a quasi-triple-double report card of 26 points, 9 rebounds and 9 assists like a god, and with the 18 points and 8 rebounds of "Philippine Little Yao Ming" Soto, he overturned Latvia 89-80.
You must know that in the World Cup, the Chinese men's basketball team lost because of Clarkson's personal scoring show, which directly led to the worst result in team history; originally wanted to find a way back on the stage of the Asian Games, but Brown used the same script to complete the reversal and narrowly win by 1 point, and the men's basketball team became the target of public criticism, which also became the biggest fuse for Serbian head coach Djordjevic to get out of class. Unexpectedly, after a year, the men's basketball team has been completely whitewashed - the Philippines is also very strong without Clarkson and led by Brownlee, and Latvia can't do anything about them, we lost unjustly......
Of course, the above two so-called "whitewashing" are mainly based on ridicule, watching the Philippine men's basketball team play more and more confidently, and can play back and forth with European and American teams, it is really not a taste. Other teams are still working hard for the last train of the Olympic Games, and their own men's basketball team can only look around for warm-up games to maintain their competitive level, which is really not a taste. Just like what Zhu Fangyu said in a recent interview: "The Chinese men's basketball team now has demons, and it has no confidence in the face of strong European and American teams". This is really worth learning from the Philippine men's basketball team, no matter what, let's have the courage to compete with the opponent first.