On June 30th, Beijing time, the men's basketball World Cup preliminaries began. the Chinese men's basketball team challenged the Australian men's basketball team away. The Chinese team had previously won 2 games (defeating Japan in a row) and was temporarily ranked third in the group. This time it challenges the Australian second team, which is considered the strongest opponent in this group. Australia's 12-man roster this time is not considered the strongest main force. It is worth mentioning that this time the Australian men's basketball team will play at the Melbourne Phoenix home court where Zhou Qi plays, and Zhou Qi is very familiar with it. The starting lineup of the Chinese men's basketball team is: Zhao Jiwei + Guo Ailun + Zhou Qi + Hu Mingxuan + Shen Zijie . The three guards will be Du Feng to guide the key drills. Australia started with Meike and Dellavedova leading the way.
Australia took the lead in hitting a three-pointer at the start. Zhou Qi attacked with the ball and broke the scoring drought with a hook. Australia Field made a move, Guo Ailun made a mistake, and Dellavedova assisted teammate McCarron for a layup. Zhao Jiwei made a mistake, Dellavedova had no touch, Shen Zijie missed a layup, and Zhou Qi made a tip-in! Sun Minghui and Zhao Rui made consecutive three-pointers. The Australian team's offense came to a standstill. Zhao Rui found the touch and hit a three-pointer. Guo Ailun stepped on the line and hit a long two-pointer. The Chinese team gradually widened the point difference. However, the Chinese team's offense failed in the second half. McVay scored a three-pointer, and then stormed 2+1. Zhao Rui and Gu Quan continued to hit three-pointers. Dellavedova scored a three-pointer. At the end of the quarter, Hu Mingxuan and Field competed. Three-pointer, Sun Minghui hit a three-pointer at the buzzer, and the Chinese team temporarily trailed Australia 15-17.
Back in the second quarter, Guo Ailun made another mistake and Australia scored two more points. Hu Mingxuan stopped the bleeding with a mid-range shot. Shen Zijie fouled continuously. Jack White and McCarron led the team to widen the point difference. Fortunately, Gu Quan hit a three-pointer. In the middle, Field and McVay hit consecutive three-pointers, and the Chinese team made consecutive mistakes. After Zhou Qi stopped the bleeding with a dunk, Australia Endel scored another three-pointer, already leading the Chinese team by 10 points. Gu Quan made a three-pointer to stop the bleeding, and Dellavedova used free throws and three-pointers to widen the point difference to 13 points. At the end of the quarter, Zhou Qi grabbed an offensive rebound and completed a dunk. Gu Quan scored another three-pointer. The Chinese team fell behind 34-43 at halftime. In the entire first half, the Chinese team made 10 mistakes and made 5 of 17 three-pointers. They relied entirely on Zhou Qi and Gu Quan to support themselves and played relatively passively.
Back in the second half, Dellavedova led the team to continue to widen the point difference. Sun Minghui hit a three-pointer, Meike made a reverse layup, and White hit a three-pointer. The Chinese team was already 16 points behind. Australia's shooting percentage also dropped in the second half, and some players even dived. Wang Zhelin succeeded in a strong attack at the basket. Shen Zijie made two free throws. Dellavedova hit another three-pointer. At the end of the quarter, Guo Ailun and Wang Zhelin stood on the free throw line. After Zhou Qi scored a layup, Gu Quan received Xu Jie passed the ball and hit a three-pointer at the buzzer. After three quarters, the Chinese team caught up with Australia 55-57. Overall, the Chinese team absolutely suppressed its opponents in rebounding, but too many mistakes gave Australia a chance to counterattack.
In the decisive battle in the fourth quarter, Zhou Qi took the cake, Wang Zhelin hit the basket to complete 2+1, and the Chinese team evened the score difference! Australia's Florin continuously attacked the basket and succeeded, Guo Ailun scored a jumper, and Endel hit another three-pointer. Guo Ailun stopped the bleeding with a layup. Zhou Qi held the ball and was surrounded by many people. Zhou Qi blocked White. Guo Ailun was flanked and made a mistake. White counterattacked and dunked. In the last minute, Zhou Qi defended Florin and Xu Jie scored a three-pointer, catching up to only 4 points, but then White's three-pointer sealed the victory. In the last 32 seconds, Sun Minghui also made a mistake in serving from the sideline. The Chinese team gave up pressing and fouled. In the end, the Chinese men's basketball team unfortunately lost to the Australian men's basketball team 69-76.
data, on the Australian side, Dellavedova had 16 points, 7 rebounds and 4 assists, McCarron had 13 points and 6 steals, McVay had 11 points, and White had 10 points and 4 assists. For the Chinese men's basketball team, Zhou Qi had 16 points and 17 rebounds, Gu Quan had 12 points and 3 rebounds, Guo Ailun had 12 points, 5 rebounds and 2 assists, and Wang Zhelin had 7 points and 4 rebounds. The Chinese men's basketball team made 18 turnovers, while Australia only made 8 turnovers.
The Chinese team made too many overall mistakes today. In the words of teacher Su Qun, the Chinese men's basketball team has too little communication with teams around the world, and the intensity of training and competition has lost its normalcy. In today's game, Guo Ailun, Zhao Rui and others all had too much stopping time, and many of the passes were rushed, which was equivalent to being sent directly to the opponent. Zhou Qi was double-teamed when he got the ball, and there was even a 1V4 scene. But I have to say that Zhou Qi's performance today was very good. He adapted to the opponent's offensive and defensive intensity and had an absolute advantage in grabbing rebounds. In addition, Gu Quan hit consecutive three-pointers at the end of the quarter, catching his opponent off guard. Overall, it is true that Du Feng hopes to practice a three-back lineup, but the current team's execution is not that good, and the defense of the back line is obviously not strong enough. In addition to Zhou Qi and Gu Quan, others should contribute some energy. Let’s take advantage of this opportunity of the World Preliminaries to hone our lineup!
