Heated Discussion on China’s Men’s Basketball Team’s Sudden Collapse and Loss: Physical Fitness Has Improved, But Errors Are Too Costly, Lack of Experience

On September 18th, in the Quzhou station of the men’s basketball warm-up match, China’s men’s basketball team lost to Joventut Badalona with a score of 65-70. After the game, many media professionals commented on this match. Below is a summary of their discussions: Media professional “biepaogangbeizhu” said, “From the process of the game, we can see that our intensity can keep up. In terms of physical fitness, these two months have not been wasted; there has been significant improvement. However, basketball is not just about physical fitness; it’s about who can score more points. In terms of tactics and individual abilities, we still need to make further improvements. “Moreover, in terms of personnel configuration, we really need to seriously consider abandoning the use of big centers and players at the 3-4 positions who cannot handle the ball. The shortcomings at these positions are too detrimental to the overall team, and many strategies cannot be implemented. Many connecting passes and opportunities arise, but we fail to seize them. How can we compete against strong teams in such a fast-paced version of FIBA? “Additionally, I suggest the national team study advanced foreign defensive and transition strategies, especially semi-transition play. Although the zone defense is effective in this version, it cannot be used consistently; more variations are needed. Semi-transition is currently the main scoring method in FIBA, but we are still weak in this area. If we do not improve these aspects, changing as many players as possible in the next cycle will be useless.” Su Qun: “The first game of the Chinese men’s basketball team’s summer training report ended with a ‘black three minutes’ loss to Joventut Badalona. The result is not important, but the process is valuable. “I have always said that summer is the time for the Chinese men’s basketball team to catch up. The previous arrangements were disappointing, but these two additional warm-up games, with Joventut Badalona being an appropriate opponent, were added. They have two American imports, one Canadian import, and imports from the Netherlands and Hungary who are descendants of African immigrants. They also have the excellent traditional center Tomic, making their team very cohesive and in good competitive form before the league season. “China’s men’s basketball team lacks players like Zhou Qi, Zhang Zhenlin, Zhao Jiwei, and Cui Yongxi, which provides a good opportunity to exercise the new lineup and transformed perimeter players. Liao Sansheng and Yang Hanshen performed satisfactorily. Guo Shiqiang emphasized defense and transition offense, although the personal habits of the players have not yet reached the level of Joventut Badalona. “The final black three minutes revealed the old problems of the Chinese team, as they have played too few such games. The old problems include poor three-point shooting, low quality of transition offense, and poor free-throw shooting. “I hope they continue to work hard, and in the future, they should play more than ten such games during the summer.” Reporter Jia Lei: Today, China’s men’s basketball team showed some progress in offense, but the three consecutive turnovers in the last two minutes were too costly, widening the score gap. This has always been our problem. Yang Hanshen’s front-court attack skills have improved, and his three blocks on defense left a deep impression. Every game is an accumulation of experience; let’s keep cheering for the young players! Duan Ran: “Several turnovers in the last three minutes before the end of the fourth quarter became the decisive factor in this game. However, aside from these turnovers, the performance of the Chinese men’s basketball team in this game was commendable. We can clearly see that after the training camp, these young players have shown significant changes in spirit and attitude. Although their three-point shooting and free throws remain unchanged, the players were decisive when facing opportunities and handled the ball courageously. “Liao Sansheng, Wang Lanqin, and Yang Hanshen’s performances in this game were eye-catching, and Joventut Badalona will certainly implement targeted defenses in the next game. Let’s see how China’s men’s basketball team performs after having faced them once, whether they can adapt and bring something different.” Mai Suifeng: A sudden power outage in the final quarter, followed by consecutive turnovers allowing opponents to counterattack, led to China’s men’s basketball team losing to Joventut Badalona with a score of 65-70. This result and process can be accepted; the Chinese men’s basketball team mostly played what they wanted. Hu Mingxuan and Liao Sansheng were bright spots. It can only be said that we are still unable to adapt when facing European and American teams that truly increase the intensity of competition, which is a gap in hard strength. I don’t want to be pessimistic; such warm-up matches are very beneficial. Joventut Badalona is a well-chosen opponent: not too weak to create false prosperity, nor too strong to prevent the implementation of regular tactics. This Chinese men’s basketball team is rebuilding, so don’t focus too much on the results; instead, see the players’ progress. At least in this game, our intensity matched until the last three minutes, and the game felt better than when they trained in the United States. The training camp has been effective.