The Chinese women's basketball team ushered in the second opponent of this Olympic Games, Serbia, the Chinese women's basketball team only played a good half of the ball, and the third and fourth quarters of the second half directly collapsed. Several of the team's biggest attackers were almost out of shape and eventually lost to Serbia 59-81. Serbia won both games and qualified with Spain.
Only 3 players in the Chinese women's basketball team scored double-doubles, Han Xu and Wang Siyu each scored 11 points, Li Meng 10 points, Li Yueru 8 points and 11 rebounds, Yang Liwei 5 points and 5 assists, and Huang Sijing 6 points. Four Serbia women scored in double figures, with Anderson scoring 15 points, four rebounds and five assists, Krajišnik 12 points and 11 rebounds, Jenkovic 13 points and seven rebounds, Nojik 11 points, Djojevic and Raqqa each scoring eight points.
Before this game, the Spain team in the same group narrowly defeated the Chinese women's basketball team in the last round, and narrowly defeated Puerto Rico by 1 point in this round, winning two consecutive victories and advancing one round in advance. Serbia won Puerto Rico in the first round, won 1 game, and temporarily overwhelmed the Chinese women's basketball team. Therefore, this game is very important for the Chinese women's basketball team to qualify. As long as they win, they will be more active in the final round against Puerto Rico, which is on the verge of exiting. And once you lose, you can only compete for the third place in the best group, and the decision is not in your own hands.
After the opening kick-off, both teams were quick and intense, with Serbia taking advantage of strong defensive counter-attacks to score two points. Wang Siyu used free throws to help the Chinese women's basketball team break the scoring drought, Li Yueru had an obvious advantage under the basket, and the scores of the two teams were very close. Huang Sijing passed Han Xu wonderfully, and scored easily under the basket. After Anderson scored a basket, Zheng Wei hurriedly asked for a timeout to adjust. After the timeout, Huang Sijing hit the outside line, but the Serbia women's basketball team was also hot on the outside, and at the end of the first quarter, the Chinese women's basketball team temporarily fell behind at 17:23.
At the beginning of the second quarter, Serbia still maintained a high-intensity defense, and it was difficult for the Chinese women's basketball team to receive the ball easily. Han Xu used the height of the inside line to continuously create kills, Anderson used his personal ability to respond to a 4:0, Yang Liwei hit a three-point shot, Wang Siyu hit two free throws, Li Yueru scored two points, and the Chinese women's basketball team equalized. After the pause, the two sides paid more attention to the scramble for rebounding, and the score took the lead alternately. In the last minute, Serbia's hot hand pulled the score away slightly, and finally the two teams drew in this quarter, and the Chinese men's basketball team still trailed by 6 points.
Throughout the first half, the Serbia women's basketball team used high-intensity defense as a foundation to drive the team's offense, coupled with the team's ultra-high shooting rate on the outside, which was an important guarantee for the team's lead. Although the Chinese women's basketball team once took the initiative in the game, the familiar tactics were played more jerky, Li Yueru and Han Xu were in order, and the outside scorer Li Meng was fully restricted, and only relied on free throws to get a few points. During the halftime period, Zheng Wei needed to further adjust tactically, give full play to the advantages of the inside line, and further strengthen the defense.
Coming back in the second half, Serbia scored four points in a row to stretch the margin to double digits. At the critical moment, Wang Siyu hit three points to help the Chinese women's basketball team stop the decline. However, Serbia, which became more and more confident in the fight, used active running to find misplaced opportunities in a row, and Zheng Wei had no choice but to use a timeout to stabilize everyone's mentality. But the effect is not too good, even if it can create scoring opportunities, everyone's confidence is low, and the outside line is often ironed. At the end of the third quarter, the Chinese women's basketball team had fallen behind by 12 points.
At the beginning of the decisive quarter, the Chinese women's basketball team made continuous mistakes, offensive violations, broken passes, etc., and the score was further expanded. Li Meng hit two three-pointers in a row to stop the bleeding for the team, but in the face of such a big point difference, it was a drop in the bucket. Serbia held the big score, lowered the tempo and reduced mistakes, and finally the Chinese women's basketball team was unable to return to the sky and lost to the opponent by 22 points.
After the 22-point defeat, Yao Ming hugged his head helplessly after the game, head coach Zheng Wei looked helpless, and the players of the women's basketball team also bowed their heads and remained silent. As the team's scoring weapon and core, what happened to Li Meng? The whole audience sleepwalked, he was barely visible, as if he was invisible, and the plus/minus was -24! The lowest in the audience!
We had a big advantage on the inside, but we conceded 11 fewer rebounds than our opponents; 35 three-point shots 8 shots, if it were not for the magic strokes of Li Meng and Huang Sijing in garbage time, then the shooting rate would be even worse, but it was relatively scary compared to Serbia, almost open your hand to score. In addition to rebounding and three-point shots, the Chinese women's basketball team also has a serious problem, that is, the problem of blocking and dismantling has not been solved throughout the game, and it is always easily scored by the opponent.
The Chinese women's basketball team, which has lost two consecutive games, has no choice, and under the current situation of qualification, it must win Puerto Rico in the final round, and it must win by a big win to be able to advance to the third place in the best group. But is it that easy? You must know that Puerto Rico faced the Spain women's basketball team, and it only lost one point.