Compared to two years ago, Nowitzki's English has made significant progress. At least in terms of communication with He Xi Meng, it is already very fluent. It seems that over the past two years, Nowitzki has also been actively preparing for entering the league in other aspects, not just in terms of skill, but also language and culture.
In contrast, Da Zhi's skills have improved a lot, but his English proficiency has remained slow. This is the biggest reason why Da Zhi dares not participate in this year's draft…
The three returned to their respective teams, and the game officially began.
Nowitzki plays the power forward position for the current German team.
The Mavericks' center, "Big Bamboo Pole" Bradley, plays the center position for the German team.
Bradley is 2.29 meters tall, more than ten centimeters taller than Da Zhi and Batuer.
In the previous games, the German team completely dominated the paint against the Italian team with their twin towers, Bradley + Nowitzki combination.
If it weren't for Italy's three-point shooting on the perimeter, they would have surely flipped the table in the first group stage match.
In this year's World Championship, several teams adopted the twin towers tactic! The German team did, the Greek team did, and so did Lithuania.
Zhang Bing suddenly realized that He Xi Meng's strong recommendation for Yao Ming to join was a stroke of genius!
Without Yao Ming, the Chinese team would be forced to use the Da Zhi + Da Ba twin center tactic. Not only would the height be insufficient, but there wouldn't even be a substitute to rotate. In the crucial moments of the second half, they would surely suffer. With Yao Ming's addition, it's different.
Zhang Bing can rotate three players, ensuring that the Chinese team's interior height is not disadvantaged and can even gain an advantage.
In other words, the Chinese team can also deploy its own twin towers tactic when needed!
In this match against the German team, Zhang Bing accepted He Xi Meng's suggestion and put Yao Ming in the starting lineup to partner with Da Zhi. Da Zhi stepped back to power forward, matching up against Nowitzki.
The three players on the wing and guard positions remained unchanged: Liu Yudong, Hu Weidong, and He Xi Meng.
This was Yao Ming's first start for the national team, and he was a bit nervous. He missed the tip-off, and the German team got the first possession.
The German team's playing style was relatively simple: find ways to get the ball to their twin towers in the paint and use their height advantage to score.
On the first possession of the game, the guard passed the ball to center Bradley. Bradley, relying on his veteran experience, wanted to teach rookie Yao Ming a lesson. As a result, Yao Ming didn't back down and sent Bradley a big rejection!
After successfully blocking the shot, Yao Ming grabbed the ball and handed it to He Xi Meng for the push.
He Xi Meng received the ball and immediately pushed for a fast break, not wanting to give the German twin towers time and opportunity to set up.
Liu Yudong and Hu Weidong followed closely, one on each side.
After shaking off his defender, He Xi Meng passed the ball to Hu Weidong, who was following on the left. Hu Weidong originally wanted to attack the basket directly, but Germany's defense was very active and immediately moved to block him. Hu Weidong did not choose to force a shot himself, but instead passed the ball back to He Xi Meng, who was following in the middle.
He Xi Meng was forced to act, caught the ball, and took off, intending to complete a one-handed dunk.
Nowitzki's pursuit speed was very fast, flying from behind He Xi Meng, trying to block his one-handed dunk.
However, He Xi Meng noticed Nowitzki out of the corner of his eye. At the last moment, he pulled back the ball and used a layup on the left to score the first points for China.
Although this basket was not as explosive as a one-handed dunk, its difficulty was no less.
The spectators erupted in a round of enthusiastic cheers.
In China's previous match against Australia, the total number of Chinese and Greek fans was less than three thousand.
But in this match, the spectator count had at least doubled.
Chinese fans working and studying in Athens who could come, basically all bought tickets to cheer for the Chinese team.
The Greek fans, having heard that the Chinese team had thrashed Australia in the previous match, became very interested in this Chinese team and wanted to see if they would become a stumbling block on Greece's path forward.
Nowitzki, who failed to block the shot, waved his fist in frustration and said to He Xi Meng, "It was so close! I almost blocked you!"
He Xi Meng imitated Jordan's iconic gesture, shrugging his shoulders and spreading his hands, "Oh really? Then you should try a little harder…"
The game continued. Germany's second possession again went to Bradley, but this time, Bradley no longer dared to underestimate Yao Ming. Instead, he used a post-up to draw Da Zhi's help defense, then passed the ball to Nowitzki at the high post!
Da Zhi quickly retreated to defend but was a step too late. Nowitzki caught the ball and made a mid-range jump shot, scoring the first points for Germany.
On China's second possession, He Xi Meng called for Da Zhi's high post screen, drawing Nowitzki out of the paint. Then, using consecutive changes of direction, he drove strongly against the German machine, penetrating the paint. Facing Bradley's help defense, He Xi Meng used an extremely high-arcing lob pass to connect directly with Yao Ming, who was behind Bradley!
Yao Ming understood immediately, jumped to catch the ball, and completed a two-handed alley-oop dunk!
Yao Ming's thin physique was his weakness at this time, but thinness meant lightness, and lightness meant agility and bounce.
Therefore, at this stage, Yao Ming's alley-oop dunks were as easy as drinking water. With a good point guard, Yao Ming could display terrifying scoring talent in the paint!
Da Zhi and Da Ba might have achieved similar results in domestic competitions, but on the international stage, neither could reach Yao Ming's height.
This was the real reason why He Xi Meng strongly urged Zhang Bing to bring Yao Ming along.
Yao Ming was the commanding height for the Chinese team! The only commanding height.
Turning around, Germany continued to focus on their strong points, Bradley and Nowitzki.
On this possession, Nowitzki controlled the ball at the edge of the paint. Holding the ball with his back to the basket, he observed his teammates' movements. He dribbled, drawing Yao Ming's attention, feinted to get past Da Zhi, and drove straight to the basket. He pretended to attack the basket but instead made an inside pass to Bradley behind Yao Ming. Bradley caught the ball and responded with a two-handed dunk for China!
After all, Bradley was a quasi-veteran player who had played five seasons in the NBA. While he might not have been dominant in the NBA, his interior dominance in international competitions was still quite good. After being rejected by Yao Ming at the start, Bradley put away his underestimation and began to play a steady, methodical game. Germany's score was also steadily increasing…