Chapter 257 Our goal this time is to win the championship!
On August 29, the Men’s Basketball World Championship was held in Indianapolis, USA.
Indianapolis is the largest city and capital of the state of Indiana in the United States, and the fourth largest state capital in the United States.
It's very close to Chicago, only 240 kilometers away.
But the fans here don't like Bulls players because they have their own team, and it's the Indiana Pacers, who have a deep hatred against the Bulls.
And this time the spiritual leader of the US men's basketball team is none other than the Pacers' star, Reggie Miller!
This World Championship is divided into four groups ABCD, with 4 teams in each group, and a total of 16 countries participating in the competition. Each team in each group has three games. A win will get two points, and a loss will get one point. Three games.
After the game, the top three teams in the group advance and are divided into Groups E and F again. Points from the first round will not be carried over to the next round.
If the points are the same, it will be counted as a small score.
The eliminated teams will compete for the 13th-16th place in the rankings.
In the next round, there will be two groups of six teams in each group, and each team in each group will have five games. They will still get two points for winning a game and one point for losing a game.
After the five games, the top four teams in each group will advance to the next round.
The eliminated teams compete for the 9th-12th rankings.
The eight teams that advance are the quarterfinals of the World Championship.
The top eight teams will play cross-match between Group E and Group F. The top team in Group E will play the fourth-place team in Group F, the second-place team in Group E will play the third-place team in Group F, and the third-place team in Group E will play against the second-place team in Group F.
, Group E ranks fourth in points and Group F ranks first in points.
Win or lose is decided in one game. If you win, you will advance to the semi-finals. If you lose, you will compete for 5-8th place.
Among them, the winner of the first place in Group E and the fourth place in Group F, and the winner of the third place in Group E and the second place in Group F will become their opponents after advancing to the semi-finals.
The other two teams become rivals.
The winning side advances to the finals.
The loser will play in the semifinals.
The schedule is probably like this, because the competition time starts from the opening ceremony on the 30th and ends on September 9th. With such a tight time, the team that reaches the finals is equivalent to playing 11 games, one game a day.
Rhythm is a great test for the body and physical strength.
Group A is: Spain, Yugoslavia, Angola and Canada.
Everyone speculates that Angola will be eliminated this time because compared to other teams, Angola has no advantage at all.
Group B is: Brazil, Puerto Rico, Türkiye and Lebanon.
To be honest, this group is the weakest in this group. Every team regards their opponents as their own prey, but they don't know that they are also prey in the eyes of other teams.
Group C is: United States, Germany, China and Algeria.
There is nothing to say, the Algerian head coach has already passed out in the toilet crying.
Group D is: Argentina, New Zealand, Russia and Venezuela.
There is nothing controversial about this group. The Venezuelan beauty pageant is okay, but playing ball is probably not that interesting.
The only basketball player who can take action may be the aging Carl Herrera, but even Carl Herrera has left the NBA for two years.
Even in the NBA these years, he was only a fringe player averaging 5 points and 5 rebounds per game.
Fortunately, he followed the Rockets and won two championship rings.
The game started immediately, and officials from FIBA and the tournament organizing committee, as well as representatives and coaches of the teams participating in the World Championships, participated in the celebration ceremony.
Local high school cheerleaders and bands performed impromptu performances at the ceremony.
Reporters, tourists and team members who volunteered to participate in the ceremony were free to watch performances, walk around or chat with friends in the square. The whole ceremony presented a relaxed and lively scene.
The honorary governor and mayor of Indiana and officials from FIBA took the stage and gave brief speeches.
The celebration ceremony also invited 4 famous star guests in the history of world basketball.
They are: Quinn Buckner, who won the national championship for Indiana University and later became famous in the NBA, Oscar Smits, the famous Brazilian star and world championship and Olympic scoring record holder, Oscar Robinson, the legendary NBA guard born in Indiana, and Indiana
Former Pacers head coach and NBA legendary shooter Larry Bird.
The host is former NBA star and current TV broadcast consultant for CBS and ESPN, Karak Crouch.
After a lot of forcing, the game finally officially started.
China's first game is against Germany.
China's three opponents in the group stage are Germany, Algeria and the United States.
From a physical point of view, China does not have to win every game, as long as the final points are higher than Algeria, especially in the game with the United States, there is no point in winning after exhaustion.
It's just the group stage.
But in the first game against Germany, we still have to fight for it and score two points first.
In the previous life, the Chinese men's basketball team lost the first game of the World Championships to its opponents by a huge score of 76-88.
In this game, we often see the thin Yao Ming dribbling the ball through.
226cm small forward?
Due to a premature foul, Yao Ming only played 18 minutes in this campaign. He made 5 of 8 shots and a shooting percentage of 63%. He made 6 of 7 free throws and a shooting percentage of 86%. He scored 16 points, 5 rebounds, 1 block, and 1 shot.
Turnovers, 4 fouls.
Battle scored the highest score of the Chinese team with 23 points, 3 of 4 three-pointers, 7 rebounds, and 4 fouls. The other two players in the Chinese team who scored in double digits were Hu Weidong and Li Nan, with 14 points and 4 fouls respectively.
13 points.
Hu Weidong made one two-pointer and ten three-pointers, scoring 14 points. Li Nan made 2/2 two-pointers and 2/3 three-pointers, scoring 13 points. In addition, he made 5 turnovers.
Before the game, Gong Xiaobin admitted that it was difficult to guard against the driver. Sure enough, it was the same breakthrough, but Lao Hu was already old.
The power forward position that year was China's pain. Gong Xiaobin played 21 minutes, 0/4, a backcourt rebound and 2 fouls. Du Feng played 11 minutes, 0/3, scored one point on free throws, and had 2 fouls.
, Liu Yudong 6 minutes, 0/3.
The three power forwards added up to 1 point, 2 rebounds, and 4 fouls, while Nowitzki scored 30 points and 5 rebounds alone.
At the end of the third quarter, the Chinese team trailed its opponents by 24 points 48 to 72. The two major centers of the Chinese team, Yao Ming and Battelle, both had four fouls.
The power forward position was completely paralyzed, so the bus was asked to guard against the driver, but the speed of the bus?
There were a lot of fouls, but he didn't give up
The Chinese team started off with a 13-1 spurt in the fourth quarter, rewriting the score to 61-73 with more than 5 minutes left in the game. The Chinese team still had a glimmer of hope. But the Chinese team failed to perform well after that.
After controlling the situation, the score gap widened again.
In the end, the Chinese team failed to narrow the gap of more than 10 points and lost to their opponents 76 to 88.
In this game, the Chinese team only had 4 assists, Guo Ba, Da Bin, Lao Hu, and Daba each had one assist.
However, this time the Chinese team is different.
The Chinese team has Wang Zhizhi and Lu Yu joining. Wang Zhizhi can play with Nowitzki at the power forward position for a long time. The two are teammates in the Mavericks, and each is very familiar with the other. Wang Zhizhi is familiar with Nowitzki's various skills.
For singles action, Nowitzki is familiar with Wang Zhizhi's footsteps. How he plays depends entirely on his condition on the spot.
But the German team only has Nowitzki, and the Chinese team also has Yao Ming and Lu Yu.
Yao Ming guarded the inside, preventing Nowitzki from easily entering the basket.
During the substitute time, Battelle performed well, constantly crushing the opponent's offense in the interior, and even led the substitute lineup without losing points during the rotation period.
The main lineup fired hard both inside and outside, and made many achievements. In the third quarter, they already led the German team by 12 points.
In the fourth quarter, the German team launched a counterattack, but the wave was not big and was directly suppressed by the Chinese team.
At the end of the game, the Chinese men's basketball team won the game 97-86.
Lu Yu scored 17 points and 9 assists, Yao Ming had 20 points, 2 assists and 9 rebounds, and Wang Zhizhi had 12 points and 11 rebounds.
Although Wang Zhizhi didn't score high, he out-rebounded Nowitzki. Nowitzki scored 21 points and 6 rebounds. The data looked pretty good, but his shooting percentage was impressive.
Other members of the Chinese team also performed well, especially the young player Yi Jianlian, who was eye-catching. In his short playing time, his American-style violent aesthetics made fans who watched the broadcast of the game enthusiastic.
Of course, the one that fans talk about the most is Lu Yu’s dunk on Nowitzki’s head.
The newspaper headlines that day appeared on the news that Chinese gentleman Lu Yu had buckled a German tank.
In another match in Group C, the United States beat Algeria by 50 points!
110 to 60
After the game, Pierce said with a smile: "The opponent was very tenacious and persisted until the end of the game. I admire such an opponent very much!"
Stubborn ass.
It's exactly like hitting a high school student.
Is Algeria really that weak?
Or is it because the American team is too strong?
Everyone has this question in their mind. Only Lu Yu knows that Algeria is really so weak.
However, everyone knew this answer after the Chinese team played Algeria the next day.
The Chinese team defeated Algeria 113-62.
Beat the opponent by 51 points!
One point more than the US team yesterday.
Lu Yu only played three quarters and clocked out after scoring 24 points. The rest was all played by his teammates overpowering their opponents.
In Lu Yu's previous life, the Chinese team also led its opponents by 20 points in the first three quarters.
However, they were counterattacked by their opponents in the fourth quarter and only won by 14 points in the end.
But this time, Lu Yu and his teammates led their opponents by 40 points in the first three quarters, blinding the Algerian players. Not to mention counterattack, they put on substitutes and surrendered early.
The Chinese team has also replaced substitutes, but these substitutes are Yi Jianlian, Zhu Fangyu, Liu Yudong, Gong Xiaobin, Battelle, Hu Weidong, and Guo Shiqiang. Except for the young Zhu Fangyu and Yi Jianlian who plays in the NCAA, who is not a big-shot player in the CBA?
.
If Lu Yu and Wang Zhizhi hadn't returned, many of them would have been regular starters for the Chinese team.
In the end, the Chinese team won Algeria and advanced to the next round first.
The other game is between the American team and the German team.
Germany lost again.
Lost to the United States by 17 points.
104 to 87
The German team must win their next game against Algeria to advance.
However, judging from Algeria's performance in the first two games, it shouldn't be a big problem for the German team to win against them.
The focus of the Group C match is on the Chinese team and the American team.
Many local Chinese fans in the United States even said that the Chinese team was better than the American team because the American team only beat Algeria by 50 points, while the Chinese team beat Algeria by 51 points.
Who is the top of the group?
The Chinese team is also in a dilemma. They don't know whether to give up this game tactically and save their strength for the second round, or to fight with the American team. After all, that is the dream team, and everyone wants to compete with the dream team.
Fight with real swords and guns.
If it had been before, the Chinese team would have given up.
Because everyone knows they can't beat it.
But now, all the team members are full of confidence. Not only the players, but also the coaching staff feel that the Chinese team has the strength to challenge the American team.
To fight or not to fight?
Fans naturally don't know what's going on in the middle. They are all looking forward to the collision between China and the United States.
However, some basketball experts have given pertinent advice.
For example, Zhang Weiping.
When Zhang Weiping broadcast the game between China and Algeria, he said: "In fact, the game against the US team does not require the main players to play for too long. The substitutes can be trained more and retain their strength for the next round. After all, the opponents in the second round are
The strength is stronger.”
Xu Jicheng agreed with Zhang Weiping's point of view: "I also feel that there is no need to play seriously. If you win, you will not win the championship. It is thankless. It is better to give up tactically and wait until the team is sure to enter the quarterfinals, and then fight with real guns."
Have a fight."
The voices of fans and the voices of basketball experts are very different.
There are also two voices in the Chinese team. The players and head coach Wang Fei want to play, but the basketball association officials accompanying the team asked the players to give up the game.
For basketball association officials, getting a good ranking is the most important thing.
The team held an internal discussion meeting to discuss whether to play the next game or not.
The players obviously want to play.
Head coach Wang Fei is in a dilemma.
At this time, Lu Yu stood up and said: "Coach, I would like to ask, what is our goal for this World Championship?"
Wang Fei was stunned.
Lu Yu didn't wait for his answer, and continued: "If our goal is only the top eight, then we don't need to play tomorrow's game to save our energy, but if our goal is not just the top eight, if our goal is the championship...
…”
Wang Fei was completely stunned.
The team members were also stunned.
They wanted to compete, but they never thought about the championship.
"If our goal is the championship, then the United States team will become our opponent sooner or later, so why don't we take a look at the real strength of our opponents in the group stage, or take a look at our real strength?"
champion?
champion……
These three words kept echoing in Wang Fei's mind. Before this, no head coach of the Chinese men's basketball team had ever dared to say that the Chinese men's basketball team would win the world championship.
But, this time?
He looked at Lu Yu, Wang Zhizhi, Yao Ming, Battelle, and Yi Jianlian. This time the Chinese men's basketball team has so many players with NBA level strength. This may be the best chance in his career to be close to the world championship.
If you don’t even dare to think about it now, then when will you have to wait?
"Okay, let's play the American team!"
Wang Fei looked at the team members with eyes full of hope, "Our goal this time is to win the championship!"
