The group stage has won consecutive victories over Australia, the world's second-largest, and the world's sixth-placed Belgium, becoming the first seed in the knockout draw, but drawing the strongest Serbia in the second half of the 8th round, and also sharing a half zone with the second-seeded American team; when the Chinese women's basketball team draws a death promotion route, perhaps the end is already doomed! It's just that the way the 9-point lead in the last quarter was overturned still makes it a little difficult for all parties to accept.
Let China, Serbia, and the United States be divided into a half-district, and China's fight against Serbia was also arranged to be played at 9 a.m. Beijing time, and the famous media person Su Qun had long questioned the arrangements of the organizing committee. The Chinese women's basketball team and Serbia are completely different teams from many perspectives.
The Chinese women's basketball team only has Shao Ting's age in 30 years old, 9 people play the Olympic Games for the first time, the average age is 25; in contrast, the average age of Serbia has passed 30, this team won the bronze medal in Rio 5 years ago, and only won the European Championship before the start of the Olympic Games this year; it is clear that Serbia's competition experience is richer than our players, but our players are more impactful and more energetic than their opponents. And our players are tall and short; the inside line Han Xu and Li Yueru are more than two meters tall, and Sun Mengran is 1 meter 97. The tallest player in Serbia is only 1.95 meters, only two people are more than 1.9 meters tall, and the Chinese women's basketball team is 5 people who are more than 1.9 meters 9, and it is clear that our interior line has a clear advantage. But our defenders are not 1.8 meters tall, and several fronts except Huang Sijing are below 1.85 meters, while serbia's several forwards are close to 1.9 meters, so the average height of the two sides can be said to be comparable. The interior advantage of the Chinese women's basketball team in this game has been reflected to a certain extent, Li Yueru has 12 points, 6 rebounds and 2 blocks, and Han Xu has 15 points, 7 rebounds and 2 blocks. Serbia's strikers and defenders are taller and stronger than our players, and opponents have been trying to get our inside line out and let their outside take advantage of their physical strengths to storm the penalty area.
When two teams with very different tactical styles play each other, the floor of the game depends on who can play their own characteristics and who can better limit the opponent. In the first half of this game, neither side played the characteristics. Neither side scored a single three-pointer in the first quarter, and our players continued the previous high-turnover game pattern. The Chinese women's basketball team swung a joint defense, a large protective frame, and the other side could not shoot outside, so in the first quarter, the two sides scored a super low score of 16 to 14. In the second quarter, both sides' three-point feelings picked up slightly, but the single quarter was 19-19, and the attacks of both sides were the same. By the third quarter, the physical fitness of the serbian group of veteran players had begun to have problems; and our attack was blossoming inside and outside, 25-14 in the single quarter, and the Chinese women's basketball team turned the game over.
When the opponent has fought to the point of physical fitness to sound the alarm, the Chinese women's basketball team entered the final quarter with a 9-point advantage, and it seems that it is natural for the Chinese women's basketball team to take the game down. However, in the fourth quarter, the Chinese women's basketball team suddenly confused, two and a half minutes by the other side to play 11-0 to surpass the score, and finally lost 16 points in the last quarter, was overturned by the other side.
In the process of being overturned by the opponent, the Chinese women's basketball team exposed a number of problems:
1. Ideologically, I want to win and fear loss, and I carry a heavy burden. After the other side suddenly went to the full court in the fourth quarter, our players were afraid of mistakes, but the more afraid of mistakes, the more they were afraid of mistakes, the more mistakes the Chinese women's basketball team made on the court. The opponent attacked 11-0, 1 was a long-range three-pointer, and 4 were fast-attack counter-attacks after the break. After the other side scared us, the Chinese women's basketball team was more hesitant to send the sideline ball and the bottom line ball, either 5 seconds violation, or 5 seconds fast to throw the ball to the opponent; even if a teammate was found, the ball was also on the verge of mistakes...
2. Lack of leaders, no one can stand up and stabilize the situation. In the case of crazy mistakes and continuous counterattacks by opponents, it is reasonable to say that this time should be the leader players standing up to stabilize the situation. But it is clear that this young Chinese women's basketball team, which lacks experience in international competitions, does not currently have a player like Chen Nan and Miao Lijie who can stabilize the situation by standing on it in the past.
3. Thinking too much about limiting the opponent, losing their advantage points. Continuous pressing is also a huge drain on the serbian group of old comrades; after playing for half a quarter, the other side's defensive strength has declined, and Serbia has begun to fight with us. In order to limit the opponent's firepower, Xu Limin removed Li Yueru and let Han Xu and Sun Mengran, who moved more flexibly, participate in the infinite change of defense. However, the two big ones are thrown out, and the other party can casually burst and grab the offensive rebound at will. And Han Xu and Sun Mengran do not have the advantage of tonnage, and his grasp of the two low positions is far less than that of Li Yueru, so that the Chinese women's basketball team did not play the interior advantage at the offensive end in the last quarter, but frantically beat three points. However, even though Han Xu, Sun Mengran, and Shao Ting once stabilized the situation with consecutive long-range shots, in the end, when our outside line was rushed to shoot three points after aimless dribbling again and again, the Chinese women's basketball team's attack in the last two or three minutes could not see any tactics at all.
There were 22 turnovers, of which nearly half were in the final quarter. Of course, since the group stage, the number of mistakes of the Chinese women's basketball team has been far ahead in the Olympic Games; but Serbia's old spicy and aggressiveness in defense are obviously stronger than several opponents in our group, making the Chinese women's basketball team pay a painful price.
The whole team is afraid of pressing, will not send the sideline ball, the defender control and pass is not good, which is a common problem in the past few years led by Yao Ming and Yi Jianlian in the Chinese men's basketball team to play international competitions; this also makes Liu Wei, who has been an organizational defender in the national team for ten years, almost escape being criticized for every international competition. But the peak Of Liu Wei can at least attack and know how to pass the ball to Yao Ming, and after Liu Wei, Guo Allen and Zhao Jiwei play international matches far worse than Liu Wei... And the women's basketball team's guard line, Miao Lijie has also carried ten years before; but Miao Lijie has been retired for so many years, our defenders have changed wave after wave, but like the men's basketball team, it is also worse and worse to seriously drag the team's hind legs...
In any country, the gap between the level of the men's team and the women's team is too large in itself to be unreasonable; looking at the women's basketball team, these defenders have almost no bright spots on the court, and the root of their problems is that they are young? Will these defenders go to Paris in three years, and they will definitely perform better than they are now? Perhaps we should also slowly get used to it, the Chinese women's basketball team will lose the game more in the way that the men's basketball team is used to in the past few years on the international stage!