On July 28, Beijing time, in the first match of the women's basketball group stage of the Paris Olympics, the Chinese women's basketball team experienced an overtime battle and finally lost to the strong Spain women's basketball team 89-90.
According to the schedule, the Chinese women's basketball team will face the strongest opponent in the group stage Serbia at 19:30 Beijing time on July 31.
On July 28, Beijing time, in the first match of the women's basketball group stage of the Paris Olympics, the Chinese women's basketball team lost to the Spain women's basketball team, and Li Yueru's performance was eye-catching.
The first battle is a tough battle
Recently, FIBA updated the women's basketball power ranking of the Paris Olympics, the Chinese women's basketball team rose from sixth to fifth, and the Spain women's basketball ranking also rose one place to seventh.
Although the Chinese women's basketball team ranks higher than the Spain women's basketball team in the power rankings, the Spain women's basketball team defeated the Chinese women's basketball team by 24 points in the warm-up match in June this year.
In the run-up to the Paris Olympics, both teams organized a number of warm-up matches. Spain had a record of 4 wins and 2 losses in 6 warm-up games, and conceded no more than 50 points, while the Chinese women's basketball team had a record of only 2 wins and 11 losses in 13 warm-up games, during which it also suffered 7 consecutive defeats.
Looking back at the history of the two teams, the Chinese women's basketball team and the Spain women's basketball team have played each other 11 times in official matches, with a record of 4 wins and 7 losses. The last time the two sides met in an official match was in the Olympic qualifying match on February 8, 2020, when the Chinese women's basketball team narrowly defeated the Spain women's basketball team 64-62 to get a direct ticket to the Tokyo Olympics in advance.
Coach Zheng Wei said before the match: "The match with Spain is a tough battle, the opponent is strong, and it is a big challenge for us. Team member Han Xu also emphasized: "The Spain women's basketball team conducts the ball quickly, plays very overall and teamwork, and although the interior height is not high, the flexibility is very good. ”
In order to seize more time to prepare for the competition, the Chinese women's basketball team did not even participate in the opening ceremony of the Paris Olympics, but continued to stay in Lille to prepare for the competition.
grabbed the start, Li Yueru performed brilliantly
In fact, in the warm-up game, the downturn of the Chinese women's basketball team in the warm-up game is not unrelated to the team's injuries.
During the warm-up game, the main player Li Yueru competed in the WNBA, Han Xu and Li Meng suffered injuries of varying degrees, and the Chinese women's basketball team only ran in the warm-up game with a full lineup after arriving in France.
However, in a recent interview, Li Yueru affirmed the state of the team: "Everyone has played together for a long time before, and the warm-up game feels good, and the whole team is in full spirit. ”
In this game, the Chinese women's basketball team sent the starting lineup of Li Yueru, Sun Mengran, Li Meng, Yang Liwei and Wang Siyu.
At the beginning of the first quarter, the Chinese women's basketball team put enough pressure on the opponent on defense, barely giving the opponent easy shooting space, limiting Spain's shooting rate to 25%, and at the same time causing many mistakes by the opponent through defense.
On the offensive side, Li Yueru played very actively, scoring 8 points, 3 rebounds and 1 assist on 3-of-4 shooting in the first quarter, and the Chinese women's basketball team also used its advantage to start 14-9, even if the Spain women's basketball team called a timeout after that, it still failed to interrupt the offensive rhythm of the Chinese women's basketball team, and the Chinese women's basketball team led the opponent 22-13 in the first quarter.
At the beginning of the second quarter of the game, the Spain women's basketball team made adjustments, forcing the Chinese women's basketball team to make many mistakes. In the entire first half, the Chinese women's basketball team made 14 turnovers, 9 more than its opponents. However, Spain's outside shooting was poor, shooting 1-of-7 from three-point range at halftime, and the Chinese women's basketball team led 37-33 at halftime.
A battle of revenge, a battle of life and death
In the second half of the game, Wang Siyu helped the Chinese women's basketball team take the lead in breaking the deadlock through a three-point shot, and then Sun Mengran first broke through inside, and then hit a three-point shot to help the Chinese women's basketball team take the lead.
Although Spain women's basketball Arauyo's three-point shot at the end of the game closed the score for Spain, Han Xu's continuous scoring stabilized the situation for the Chinese women's basketball team, and the Chinese women's basketball team beat the Spain women's basketball team by 2 points in a single quarter. The Chinese women's basketball team controlled the number of turnovers in this quarter of the game, and the number of turnovers dropped to 3. At the end of the third quarter, the Chinese women's basketball team led the Spain women's basketball team 59-53.
Compared with the Spain women's basketball team, which was inaccurate on the outside and the three-point shooting rate fell to 20%, the Chinese women's basketball team performed significantly better on the outside, Yang Liwei, Wang Siyu, Sun Mengran, Huang Sijing and Li Meng all hit three points, and the three-point shooting rate once approached 50%.
In the last five minutes, the Chinese women's basketball team held a seven-point advantage, but the Spain women's basketball team continued to fight back, first hitting three points, and then completing a breakthrough in the offensive and defensive transition, closing the difference to 2 points. At the critical moment, the Spain women's basketball team continued to chase points, and finally the two sides tied in regular time. In overtime, the Chinese women's basketball team did not withstand the pressure and lost to Spain 89-90.
According to the rules, the top two teams in each group and the two best third-place finishers in each group will advance to the quarterfinals. In this case, the Chinese women's basketball team can only meet a more favorable opponent in the knockout round if it strives for a higher ranking and more net points in the group stage.
According to the schedule, the Chinese women's basketball team will play Serbia at 19:30 Beijing time on July 31. The last time the two sides met at the Olympics was during the Tokyo Olympics, when the Chinese women's basketball team, which was the first in the group, suffered a reversal in the knockout round, losing 70-77 to Serbia and missing out on the Olympic semi-finals.
This means that the next game against Serbia is not only a revenge battle for the Chinese women's basketball team, but also a life-and-death battle related to the qualification of the Chinese women's basketball team.