What is it like to be an Asian team that can beat the top teams in Europe and the United States?
Thank you. People in Japan, returning from studying in the United States. Just yesterday beat the 2019 World Cup bronze medalist, ranked 7th in the world, France, I don't know if there is a say? Anyway, he led by up to 16 points, and casually challenged the best defensive player in the NBA, as if the French team is not difficult to play.
On July 18, the Japanese men's basketball team played the last Olympic men's basketball warm-up match with the French men's basketball team in Saitama Prefecture before the opening of the Tokyo Olympic Games. In the end, the Japanese men's basketball team, ranked 42nd in the world, defeated the high-ranking French men's basketball team 81-75.
Even if it was just a warm-up match, this unexpected victory was also a historic victory for Japan. Because this is the first time in the history of Japanese basketball to beat the French team, who doesn't like this kind of drama on the following grams?
"I want to inject confidence into the team." After Yamura returned to the national team, he replied when talking about his duties.
Hachimura played for the Japan men's basketball team for the first time since the 2019 World Cup, where he scored 19 points and seven rebounds, while Yuta Watanabe, another NBA player who played for the Toronto Raptors, contributed 18 points and nine rebounds.
With 5 minutes and 07 seconds left in the third quarter, Yuta Watanabe cut in with the ball and met center Rudy Gobert with a 2.36m arm span. I saw him make a shot fake action without hurrying, and then immediately increased the arc of the shot, and the ball grazed Gobert's fingertips and flew to the rebound.
This high hit board, the skill is amazing four. Cheers exploded and resounded throughout the venue.
Before the match, the Japanese team sent Daiki Tanaka, Yudai Baba, Yuta Watanabe, Yamura Lei and Gavin Edwards to start the lineup. When it comes to playing against France, the real powerhouse of the Olympic Games, any player on the Japanese team is full of fire from the first round of the game, and each one is like an all-out engine. Yuta Watanabe and Yudai Polo Scored, and Edwards fought the inside to protect the basket. Key figure Yamura entered the penalty area and walked to the free throw line one after another. With Watanabe scoring three goals in a row, Japan took the lead in one fell swoop, ending the first quarter with a temporary lead of 18-14.
After looking at the technical statistics, we can see that the 18 points of the Japanese team in the first quarter of the game are all from the "overseas group". Even so, in the second quarter of the game, when the "overseas group" sat on the bench to rest, the momentum of the Japanese team was not interrupted. Kosuke Kanemaru scored a three-pointer, and after Edwards grabbed an offensive rebound, Toki tomaki played a wonderful match with the former, which was often seen in the Chiba Jets they played for.
During the breaks between Watanabe and Hachimura, Edwards led the Japanese team to score. By the time Watanabe returned to the court, the lead had widened to 35-22. Japan's "domestic group" also wants to tell people that we are also combat effective.
Just 1.67 meters tall, Vincent Poirier, who was just 1.67 meters tall, was just outside the three-point line, and he looked at the former Boston Celtics center Vincent Poirier, who was 50 centimeters taller than him but could not come forward to defend him, and decisively shot three points.
Overall, France's attention on the pitch was too inattentive. The team made 13 turnovers and was snatched by the Japanese team on 8 occasions. In the first half, Japan led by as many as 16 points. France began chasing points in the second half, with Japan leading just three points in the third quarter at 61-58. In the final quarter of the match, france once chased the score to 74 draws, but soon after, the racecourse Xiongdalian threw a free throw to help Japan establish a four-point lead, and the Japanese team regained the initiative.
In an interview after the game, Hachimura commented: "I and the team are very motivated. The first half of the game felt good, but the second half was disrupted and the victory was achieved thanks to the excellent performance of their teammates. ”
"At the end of the first half, everyone talked together to think that the 16-point difference did not exist and carry out their basketball to the end." Yuta Watanabe recalled after the match.
The French team has a total of 5 active NBA players in the lineup: Nicholas Batum, Evan Fournier, Rudy Gobert, Frank Nilikina, Timothy Lovał-Carboro. However, france have been careless to varying degrees in their three warm-up matches. In their first two warm-up matches they lost to Spain 77-86 and 79-87 respectively. In the second game in particular, France's outside defense was like a papier-mâché window, breaking it with a poke that allowed Ricky Rubio to score 23 points in 19 minutes.
'We conceded some good chances and it changed the game against Japan.' France head coach said. If the warm-up loss to Spain is acceptable to the French team, then the loss to Japan should allow the French to start paying attention to the next game. The French coach stressed: "This time is a reminder, a warning that must be taken seriously. ”
In June 2016, Japan lost 74-91 to France, the most recent meeting between the two teams before the match on the 18th.
Five years ago, when Japan's B-League officially opened, Masaaki Okawa, then chairman of the Provisional Council, set a goal of making the Japanese basketball national team a first-class team in Asia. After 5 years of hard work, more and more players of the Japanese team have begun to go to the international league, and the level of the Japanese men's basketball team has also risen. After this historic victory, it is no exaggeration to say that the Japanese men's national basketball team is already the representative of Asia's top team.
In the face of strong opponents, the host of this Olympic Games ended the warm-up match in the form of two consecutive wins and entered the main event of the Olympic Games. Yuta Watanabe replied cautiously to the team's shortcomings: "The part that gained confidence through today's victory, and the part that has not yet been done well, are very many, and we must strive to improve." Although there is little time left before the Olympic Games, if you can follow through on your own basketball style (you can do it). ”