Media Figure: Women’s Basketball Team Has Too Many Turnovers & Poor Perimeter Defense; Our Second Unit Lacks Quality

On July 22, in the early hours of today, China’s women’s basketball team lost to France’s women’s basketball team with a score of 76 to 93. After the game, media figure @BallCircleZhaoTanzhang discussed this match on social media.

The original post reads as follows:

76-93, China’s women’s basketball team had a big collapse in the final quarter and lost their last warm-up game before the official start of the Olympics. Han Xu may have had some physical issues, as she did not play in the second half.

The following data points highlight the differences between the teams:

One is the number of assists, France had 25, while we had 21. Their ball movement was very smooth, whereas our assists were mainly due to feeding the ball to our inside players.

Secondly, the number of turnovers, France had only six, while we had as many as 22 (actually 21), with 14 steals by France. They scored an alarming 33 points off our turnovers. This shows that handling the ball by our guards and forwards is a weakness, including several instances where guards were dispossessed one-on-one.

Thirdly, points in the paint, despite having Han Xu and Li Yueru as our main frontcourt players, we only scored 38 points in the paint, compared to France’s 52. Why? Not because they scored more in the paint, but because our perimeter defense was too weak.

Fourthly, bench scoring, France scored a high 51 points from the bench, while we had only 22. This highlights the lack of quality in our second unit.

However, there were positive aspects. Although we lost, I believe this was the best game played by China’s women’s basketball team this summer, especially in the first three quarters. To reiterate, Coach Zheng Wei’s lineup adjustments are commendable. I think the five players—Li Yueru, Sun Mengran, Zhang Ru, Li Meng, and Wang Suyu/Li Yuan—can be set in stone.