Chapter 984: Chapter 410: From Playing Dream Eight to Finishing Dream Eight
At 8 PM, the match between the Chinese Team and the Australian Team started.
The Chinese Team’s starting lineup remained the sa, while the Australian Team also kept their original starters from the group stage: Patty Mills, Joe Ingles, Brad Newley, David Anderson, Bogut.
Bogut beat Yao Ming to win the tip-off, Mills pushed to the frontcourt, encountering Sun Yue’s close defense.
Mills turned to protect the ball, but despite Mills backing into Sun Yue with his rear, Sun Yue managed to reach out and snatch the ball!
At 202 cm tall with a wingspan of 206 cm, Sun Yue’s large stature completely overwheld the 188 cm tall Mills, who hesitated for a mont before going for the ball again, but by then Zhang Yang had already stolen it like an arrow.
Mills hurried to catch up, Zhang Yang stopped just a step outside the three-point line, with Mills and the trailing Ingles both pouncing on Zhang Yang, Zhang Yang hastened his shooting motion and attempted a three-pointer…but missed.
However, Yi Jianlian followed up directly into the lane, leaped high in the air to grab the ball, and dunked it for two points!
Pressing Defense steal, trailing three-pointer, second-chance dunk… Mills was bewildered, thinking, is the Chinese Team so wild at this year’s Olympic Gas! No wonder they managed to defeat the USA and Spain!
The Australian Team continued to attack, Mills cautiously advanced to the frontcourt, facing that absurdly big Point Guard’s close defense again.
This ti he protected the ball well, without making any errors.
Ingles moved out to receive Mills’ pass, and just as he received the ball, Zhang Yang pressed close, causing Ingles to lose his footing while turning to protect the ball, he quickly dribbled, but was still called for traveling!
He’s still alright; despite already being the Australian n’s Basketball Team’s ace on the periter, he’s actually just finished his freshman season in the NCAA, just turned 20, and is facing the Chinese n’s Basketball Team for the first ti, realizing that the Chinese Team is the only team at these Olympics to have beaten the Dream Eight team, he thinks it’s normal to have such defensive intensity.
But other Australian players particularly struggled, finding the Chinese Team’s defense extraordinarily rough tonight for the first ti in their nurous encounters.
Not only were most Australian players baffled by defense in those two rounds, but the fans on-site were also surprised.
It’s not like the Chinese Team hasn’t played this aggressively before; in the match against the Greek Team, there were similarly rough confrontations, but that was after a quarter had passed; tonight the Chinese Team started out fiercely right from the get-go!
Of course, the reaction was entirely different; the fans were all cheering wildly!
In fact, this level of intensity has always existed among this generation of Chinese n’s Basketball players, but previously it was more evident in ‘physical play’.
In terms of basketball itself… After 2004, the Chinese n’s Basketball Team’s inside group reached the historical peak of the team, surpassing the inside group of the Zhang Weiping era in the 80s, as Yao Ming entered his peak period and Yi Jianlian erged, while the old three-decade veteran Wang Zhizhi remained strong, and they were not intimidated by the Spanish Team’s inside group.
But from 2005 to before this year’s Olympics, the periter was holding them back; afraid to give too much confrontation in defense, fearing it would affect their shooting touch, unable to perform well against opponents’ rough defense, they couldn’t take care of both ends.
Now it’s different; after the match with the Greek Team, the Chinese n’s Basketball Team’s periter players completely understood; it didn’t matter if they couldn’t score, because Zhang Yang was there!
In that match, Zhang Yang scored 25 points from 26 attempts; it seed lackluster, but if others tried, scoring 20 points from 26 attempts might still be a question.
On the first rest day, the coaching staff discussed all day about how to play against the Australian Team. Seeing that the Australian team’s periter consisted of either 20-year-old newcors or slender shooters, Yonas decided to opt for a scrappy, physical battle.
With a first-place group qualification, Yonas naturally wasn’t just focused on the quarter-finals, this was also preparation for the semi-finals; although at that ti the opponent in the semi-finals was unknown, the Greek Team and the Lithuania team had similar playing styles.
During the last two days of practice preparation, Zhang Yang found Yonas’s expression peculiar, feeling that this coach suddenly turned sowhat cunning; the content of practice preparation always seed to indicate—they were already considering the next round’s opponents.
Opening with effective defense, the Chinese Team solidified their strategy.
At the end of the last century, the Australian n’s Basketball Team was the strongest team in the Asia-Oceania region, reaching the semi-finals in the 96 and 2000 Olympics, but like the German Team, they experienced a gap; however, the Australian Blue Association foresaw this, and since 2002 started to massively send youth team players under 18 to the NCAA for deep training.
The NCAA prohibits players who have played in professional gas from participating, but specifically granted exemptions to Australian youth, as Bogut and Mills had low-tier dostic league experiences.
Of course, the Australian Blue Association’s reform was not a smooth endeavor, after five or six years, only Bogut and Mills erged successfully, as most youth players who seed exceptionally talented faced difficulty acclimating within the Arican basketball system, encountering setbacks, prompting the Australian Blue Association to persevere, learn lessons, and accumulate experiences, then choosing similar style young talents to send to the USA, whereas those more suited for international arenas, like David Anderson, were sent to Europe… The prospects seed bright.
However, now, matching up star players between the Australian Team and the Chinese Team is simply not possible!
Yao Ming occasionally plays a bit, primarily focusing on protecting the rim; Zhang Yang is responsible for zoning in on defense targeting opponents breaking through, while attacking with full force; everyone else purely defends, and when the ball cos, they just throw it, making or missing doesn’t matter, shooting with effort is all that’s required, preventing the ball from stagnating.
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