No team in the world is willing to face the United States in the first round of the knockout round. Even a weak team like Angola will be eliminated by anyone they meet, but they are still unwilling to face the United States directly.
In the Olympic Games, the Chinese team once defeated Angola, but that was at home. There are still some examples of Angola being the strongest team in Africa. At least in the latest world rankings, Angola is ranked 12th, higher than Brazil, Croatia, Turkey, and Russia.
Of course, this world ranking combines the results of many continents and competitions. Angola has no opponents in Africa, so its ranking will naturally be higher. For example, the Chinese team, due to its excellent performance in Asian competitions, can enter the tenth place in the world rankings. . Therefore, this ranking obviously cannot intuitively reflect the strength of the team.
Angola reversed the German team and locked the right to qualify for the group, with high morale. The physical talent of black people in basketball also made Angola very active at the beginning of the game. Lutonda and Gomez hit three-pointers respectively, and Angola started the game with a 6-2 lead. Next, the Angola team's three-pointers were also very accurate, especially their top star Gomez, who hit four three-pointers in the first quarter and felt hot.
The Angola team has no advantage in height, and mainly relies on the shooting of a small lineup and small-ball tactics. For Dayao, who has not yet recovered from his injury, it is difficult to keep up with the rhythm. The turnaround caused by the rapid transition between offense and defense is difficult for Dayao's body. This caused a great burden, so Deng Huade quickly replaced Dayao and replaced him with Zhang Zhaoxu, who was younger and faster.
After the first quarter, the Angola team, which was feeling hot, led the Chinese team 23 to 20. After the start of the second quarter, Angola continued to feel hot. Lutanda scored six points in a row, once widening the score gap to 10 points. By the time Zhang After Guan came on the court, he used several breakthroughs to draw fouls, disrupting the Angola team's rhythm and containing the Angola team's offensive.
At the end of the first half, the Chinese team was close to the score. At the last moment, Zhang Guan's breakthrough allowed the Chinese team to enter the second half with a 1-point lead, 45-44.
Deng Huade was a little dissatisfied with the team's defense. He began to "beat the young players hard" during the halftime break. It must be said that this move was very effective. With Deng Huade's encouragement, the Chinese team's defense changed in the second half. Much more positive.
As for the Angola team, their shooting percentage began to decline. The Angola team does not have an advantage in height. Once they fail to score, they have no advantage in rebounding. Therefore, as long as the Angola team does not score, it will be difficult for them to have a second offensive opportunity.
After three consecutive rounds without scoring and two mistakes, the Chinese team went on a 12-0 spurt, extending their advantage to more than ten points in one fell swoop.
At this time, the Angola team was in a dream direction and began to chase points, but the impetuous shooting could not guarantee the hit rate. The Chinese team had entered the last quarter with a score of 66-50.
In the fourth quarter of the game, the Angola team prepared to fight to the death, but Zhang Guan's fast break after two steals quickly extended the score to 20 points. The 20-point difference was considered a relatively safe number in the fourth quarter. The game lost its suspense at this moment. In the following game, the two sides exchanged offense and defense, and the score increased alternately. In the end, the Chinese team won 83 to 70. Won the game.
The Chinese team has a record of 3 wins and 2 losses, ranking third in the group. In the next knockout round, the Chinese team will face the second team in Group B.
The first place in Group A goes to Serbia, and the second place goes to Argentina. Both of them have 4 wins and 1 loss. Serbia has the winning relationship. The fourth place in Group A is Angola with 2 wins and 3 losses, while Germany and Jordan were eliminated.
…
In Group B, Iran and Tunisia were obviously here to accompany the prince to study, while the powerful American team had an easy win except for a narrow victory against the Brazilian team. The five-game winning streak has allowed the US team to easily top Group B, and Angola, which they are about to encounter in the knockout round, is the weakest persimmon in the knockout stage.
Slovenia unexpectedly finished second in Group B. Their top scorer Posjan Nakba used a three-pointer to push Brazil into third place. The Slovenian team also became the Chinese team's first opponent in the knockout round.
…
Deng Huade held the tactical board with a very serious expression.
"Slovenia is very strong inside. Their starting center Blazek is a player with ten years of NBA experience. His height of 2.16 meters also gives him an advantage in the center position. Their starting power forward Rakovi Qi is 2.08 meters tall and is a powerful forward who was selected by the NBA with the 60th overall pick in 2007."
When Deng Huade said this, he couldn't help but glance at Ah Lian. Arab League was selected with the No. 6 overall pick in 2007. He is at the same level as Rakovich, and both of them are at power forward. Obviously, the heavy responsibility of dealing with Rakovich will be handed over to Arab League.
Ah Lian silently clenched his fists. He was the No. 6 rookie. If he couldn't beat the No. 60 rookie at the same time, it would be really embarrassing. Coupled with the previous "beating chicken blood" effect, Ah Lian had already felt Holding back enough energy.
Deng Huade continued: "Slovenia's starting player at the small forward position is Miha Zupan. You should have heard of him. Yes, he is the deaf one. He is very strong and can play as a small forward or a small forward. A big forward who can even compete with centers, has a strong rebounding ability, and has a good three-point shot."
Miha Zupan is a deaf player. His most obvious feature is that he wears a hood on his head, and a hearing aid is sandwiched inside the hood, allowing him to play like a normal player. Without hearing aids, Zupan can't hear his teammates and coaches. God closed the window of hearing for Zupan, but opened the window of basketball for him. Zupan's body is very strong, his skills are also very good, and his golf IQ is very high. Perhaps because he is deaf, Zupan is also very focused on playing. Whether on the offensive or defensive end, he is more focused than normal players. Difficult to deal with. And he became an official basketball player as a disabled person, which is also a great inspirational story in the basketball world.
“Posjan Nakba, the Slovenian team’s top scorer, appears in the second position this time. His height also has an advantage in the third position, and the advantage in the second position is even greater. To be honest, our No. 2 player is no match for Nakba." Coach Deng Huade said this, looked at Yao, and then said: "Yao, your old friend is very difficult to deal with!"
Dayao chuckled and didn't say a word more.
Nakba was selected by the Houston Rockets with the 15th overall pick at the end of 2002. It was also that year that the Houston Rockets selected Dayao with the No. 1 pick, so Nakba and Dayao were comrades who entered the same NBA team in the same year. At that time, Yao had just entered the NBA. Although he was the number one pick, he still had to overcome cultural and language differences. Nakba, who was also a rookie and an international player, became Yao's close friend for a long time. During that time, Nakba was Dayao's only playmate, so the relationship between the two was very close.
Nakba's statistics in the NBA are not good. Even at his peak, he could only be regarded as a qualified rotation player. However, the value of international players cannot be calculated based on NBA data. Too many international players will be acclimated to the NBA and their data are relatively average. However, when they return to the international arena, they become more energetic. A familiar example is the so-called "European" "Kobe" Spanoulis was a rookie in the NBA, unable to do anything offensively and defensively, but in the European leagues he became the king, with all kinds of MVPs in his pocket.
Therefore, Nakba, a player who cannot average 10 points per game in the NBA, is the leading scorer and tactical core under the Slovenian team's system.
"The No. 1 position is the only position we occupy." Deng Huade looked at Zhang Guan and continued: "Slovenia's starting point guard Dragic does not move fast and the frequency of movements is very slow. His body is not strong enough and he lacks confrontation. He has average passing awareness and is useless except for shooting. This guy is more like a shooter."
"Is it really Dragic that Deng Huade is talking about?" Zhang Guan felt speechless in his heart. In his impression, Dragic is also considered a top defender in the NBA and a "Mr. Billion Dollars". He is active in defense. The offense is aggressive and the speed is not slow. He is especially proficient in the pick-and-roll, and was even called the "King of the Pick-and-Roll."
However, in 2010, Dragic could only be regarded as a qualified rotation player and had just established himself as the Suns' backup guard.
"Listening to what Deng Huade said, Dragic seems to be very good now! I wonder if he will frequently use pick-and-roll tactics during the game?" Zhang Guan thought silently.
…
Slovenia's head coach Zhidovic is also arranging tactics.
"In the World Championships four years ago, we lost to the Chinese team and were defeated at the last moment! But this time, we must not lose." Zhidovic continued: "That time four years ago was still in the group stage. , even if we lost, we still qualified; but this time it is the knockout round, and we have no way out, so we must win!"
"We are stronger than four years ago, but the Chinese team is also stronger than four years ago. They even defeated the American team in the Olympics! The good news is that through observations in the past few days, I found that the Chinese team Center Yao obviously did not fully recover from the operation, and his total playing time in the group stage was only ten minutes." Zhidovic found Zhang Guan's name on the tactical board behind him, drew a circle on it, and then Said: "So what we need to do most is to curb Zhang Guan's performance!"
Zhidovic said and looked at Dragic. At this time, Dragic looked a little nervous and uneasy, obviously feeling that he was unlikely to be able to restrain Zhang Guan.
Zhidovic continued: "Zhang Guan's sharpest offensive method is his breakthrough. Even the Dream Eight Team can't stop his breakthrough, and we may not be able to stop Zhang Guan's breakthrough, and we will even do it for this." There is a risk of fouling, so we have to prepare a plan B!"
"Plan B?" Everyone's attention was focused.
Just listen to Zhidovic say: "We must limit Zhang Guan's scoring as much as possible, but more importantly, we must score ourselves! The Chinese team is not as strong as us at the second and third positions, so we must use our The advantage is to use Nakba and Zupan as our main attack points.”
Zhidovic turned to look at Dragic, and then said: "Golan, it's up to you to pass the ball to Nakba and Zupan. If it's not easy to pass the ball directly, you can try to use the pick-and-roll. To disrupt the Chinese team’s defensive rhythm and create opportunities for us.”
…
On the first day of the knockout rounds, in the first two group matches, Serbia defeated Croatia with a slight advantage of 73 to 72. Another focus battle was also held between European teams. Spain, led by Gasol, won 80 Defeated the Greek team with a score of -72. Serbia and Spain will compete for a spot in the semi-finals.
On the second day of the knockout rounds, four teams also appeared, including China against Slovenia, and France against the host Turkey.
At the beginning of the game, both the Chinese and Slovenian teams sent their main players on the field. As expected, Slovenia's five starting players were Blazek, Rakovich, Zupan, Nakba and Dragic. .
Brezek and Arab League were responsible for the jump ball of both sides. Brezek had better timing, and Slovenia also got the opportunity to take the lead in possession of the ball.
As a former member of Yugoslavia, Slovenia also inherited the Yugoslav basketball style. The team is good at tactical coordination and positional warfare. In a positional battle, the role of the center is irreplaceable. Both sides are teams with big centers, so as soon as the game started, Dayao and Blazek were entangled with Maimang.
Brezek's strength is naturally not as good as Dayao's, and Dayao also likes to deal with this kind of traditional center. In NBA games, Brezek was almost completely defeated when he met Dayao. However, Dayao's injury has not yet recovered, especially in terms of physical confrontation, which is far from his peak. Therefore, although he did not suffer a disadvantage when facing Blazek, he did not take advantage either.
The big centers on both sides are locked inside each other. At this time, the tactics surrounding the big center have been abolished. Now players in other positions need to step forward.
As the Slovenian team's top scorer, Nakba stood up decisively at this time. He ran out of space and signaled Dragic to pass the ball to him.
Nakba ran out of a good position, but there was a problem with Dragic's pass. His ball was just thrown, but it was stopped by a hand coming from the side.
"Zhang Guan, steal!" The commentator had just finished saying this, but Zhang Guan had already rushed to the Slovenian team's half with the ball.
"Zhang Guan is on a fast break!" The Slovenian team players realized this, but they could no longer stop Zhang Guan from rushing to their basket and scoring a layup.
(End of chapter)