On August 3, Beijing time, the Chinese women's basketball team with a 0-2 loss ushered in a life-and-death battle against Puerto Rico, the last opponent in the group stage. The Chinese women's basketball team must win and strive to beat the opponent to have a chance to qualify.
Although Puerto Rico lost only three points to Serbia and one point to Spain in its two Olympic games. However, the Chinese women's basketball team is more sure of this kind of team with poor shooting ability and short height. The Chinese women's basketball team has won 8 matches with Puerto Rico in history, and the last two major tournaments, in the 2022 Women's Basketball World Cup 95-60 defeated Puerto Rico, in the 2024 Olympic Women's Basketball Qualifying Tournament, the Chinese women's basketball team defeated Puerto Rico 105-69, two consecutive 35+ defeats of opponents.
The current Puerto Rico women's basketball team is based on the same team from this year's Olympic qualifiers, with only two players. Guard San Antonio played in the 2022 Women's Basketball World Cup but did not play in the Olympic Women's Basketball Qualifiers, and she returned to the Puerto Rico women's basketball team and was an important rotation player, averaging 9.0 points per game. As for the other new post-00 center forward Perez, he is a fringe player in the team and has not scored in two games.
The overall strength of the Chinese women's basketball team is still much stronger than that of the Puerto Rico women's basketball team, especially the absolute advantage of the interior line, and the depth advantage of the squad is also very obvious. If the Chinese women's basketball team wants to beat the opponent and score enough net points in this game, one is to give full play to the advantages of the inside, and the other is to tap the offensive firepower on the bench, and it is necessary to compress the playing time of some players who did not play well in the first two games.
In the 2022 Women's Basketball World Cup, the Chinese women's basketball team has an absolute advantage in rebounding 45-29, and all 12 players of the Chinese women's basketball team are on the court and all score, Li Yueru scored 16 points and 8 rebounds, scoring first in the team and tied for first in the team in rebounding. The inside advantage of the Chinese women's basketball team has been fully reflected, and the five major inside lines Li Yueru, Han Xu, Huang Sijing, Pan Zhenqi and Di Nara have all performed well. Even Dinara at the end of the bench made 2 shots.
In the Olympic qualifying match during the Spring Festival, the Chinese women's basketball team rebounded 62-31 and crushed the opponent. Li Yueru had 22 points and 23 rebounds, Han Xu had 11 points and 8 rebounds, Huang Sijing had 10 points and 7 rebounds, and Pan Zhenqi had 4 points and 3 rebounds. The Chinese women's basketball team is also very violent. In this game, 11 players in the Chinese women's basketball team scored points, and only Wu Tongtong did not play.
Since the Chinese women's basketball team must beat Puerto Rico by a big margin, it must give full play to its internal advantages, and it is also possible to go to the twin towers of Li Yueru and Han Xu when necessary, after all, they are the two most sure scoring points of the Chinese women's basketball team.
At the same time, the Chinese women's basketball team should speed up the offensive rhythm and increase the rotation of the lineup. The Chinese women's basketball team did not use Luo Xinqi and Yang Shuyu in the first two games, these two belong to the new force. In fact, they all performed well in the warm-up games, and they are in excellent physical condition and have strong scoring ability, which is very suitable for playing against Puerto Rico, to impact the opponent, to earn more net points for the Chinese women's basketball team.
In the Olympic women's basketball qualifying match against Puerto Rico, Yang Shuyu had 5 points and 1 assist, and Luo Xinqian had 7 points and 2 rebounds. The last offensive score of the Chinese women's basketball team was when Yang Shuyu assisted Luo Xinqi to score a layup.
The Chinese women's basketball team has no way back, and the Puerto Rico women's basketball team needs to use all its energy, mobilize all its attackers, and attack more resolutely and decisively.