Chapter 4 The fourth match sees the Chinese team facing the swift Italian team!
In the first half, China held a nearly 10-minute lead thanks to the inside dominance of Yao Ming and Da Zhi.
However, at the start of the second half, Italy went all out, raining down three-pointers and going on a 15:4 run, successfully reversing the situation!
If this had happened to the Chinese team of the past, this kind of run would have surely crushed their fighting spirit!
But the current Chinese team is completely different from the one in history!
Both in terms of squad strength and the will of its players, they have improved significantly!
Adding to that, with the experienced powerhouse He Xi Meng holding down the fort, China launched a counterattack in the fourth quarter!
He Xi Meng first focused on the inside, stabilizing the offensive situation and drawing the attention of the Italian defense to China's interior.
Then, seizing an opportunity, he initiated an inside-outside connection with Yao Ming, hitting two consecutive open threes from the wing and helping the team regain a 6-point lead!
Ultimately, with the combined efforts of He Xi Meng and Yao Ming in the fourth quarter, China, with a nail-biting finish, defeated Italy 94:89.
China's final opponent in the group stage is Serbia and Montenegro, formerly Yugoslavia.
However, Yugoslavia is now a thing of the past. While Serbia and Montenegro inherited most of Yugoslavia's strength, their power was greatly diminished. Notably, several top players who played in the NBA, such as Divac and Peja, did not answer the national team's call.
Therefore, in this match, China defeated their opponent without He Xi Meng needing to exert himself, entering the quarterfinals with a perfect group stage record!
Argentina, in the group stage, not only lost to China but also to Spain, ultimately ranking third in their group.
The four teams advancing from Group A were China, Spain, Argentina, and Italy.
The four teams advancing from Group B were Lithuania, Greece, the United States, and Puerto Rico.
While it was understandable for the US Dream Six team to lose to Lithuania in the preliminary rounds, losing to Puerto Rico exposed that this Dream Team was far from as strong as the outside world imagined!
In fact, the original Dream Six team was very strong!
After the embarrassing defeat in the 2002 FIBA World Championship, USA Basketball vowed to assemble the most luxurious lineup in history!
Thus, at the 2003 FIBA Americas Championship, under the leadership of Larry Brown, they gathered a host of in-their-prime stars from the league, including Duncan, Iverson, Carter, McGrady, Kidd, Ray Allen, Jermaine O'Neal, Kenyon Martin, and Brand!
That FIBA Americas Championship, the Dream Team truly lived up to its name! They won their opponents by an average of 47 points, securing a ticket to the Athens Olympics with an overwhelming sweep.
However, just before participating in the Olympics, Athens was hit by terrorist attacks. Ten players from the 12-man FIBA Americas Championship squad withdrew en masse!
In the end, only Duncan and Iverson, after strenuous persuasion from Larry Brown, retracted their withdrawal statements.
The ten players subsequently added to the roster were James, Anthony, Wade, Amar'e Stoudemire, Marion, Odom, Richard Jefferson, Marbury, Okafor, and Boozer!
Looking back from the future, this lineup was indeed star-studded and not lacking in strength!
But the problem was that at the time, James, Anthony, Wade, Okafor, and Boozer were all rookies with no real authority and limited playing time.
The team's de facto leaders were still Duncan and Iverson!
However, Duncan was accustomed to team basketball, while Iverson was accustomed to individual basketball. Their playing styles were diametrically opposed, making it difficult to align them on the same page.
Furthermore, Marbury was notoriously difficult to manage, respecting no one!
He disrespected Duncan, he disrespected Iverson, and he disrespected Larry Brown!
More fatally, due to the last-minute player changes, the effectiveness of the US team's previous training camp was completely nullified!
Larry Brown faced a predicament similar to George Karl two years prior in Indianapolis, having to simultaneously train and integrate the lineup through actual games. Judging by the group stage results, the outcome could only be described as disastrous!
Every star player on the court played their own game, and the US team resembled a scattered mess!
In the quarter-finals, facing a strong Spanish team, the Dream Six team, relying on their formidable individual talent, defeated their opponents.
Then, in the semi-finals, the Dream Six team tried to use the same strategy against Argentina as they had against Spain, but they hit a wall!
The Argentine team, well-prepared, first focused on attacking Duncan, trapping him in foul trouble. He fouled out after playing less than 20 minutes in the entire game!
After Duncan fouled out, Ginobili immediately went into beast mode!
With his sharp drives, he repeatedly pierced through the American defense. And Duncan, the only player on the US team who could contain Ginobili, could only sit on the sidelines in a white towel, watching his Spurs teammate systematically defeat his US teammates...
In this game, Ginobili shot 9 of 13 from the field against the Dream Six team, including 4 of 6 three-pointers, and 7 of 8 from the free-throw line, scoring 29 points and showing the world the strength of a top sixth man in the league!
Ultimately, 89:81, Argentina did not even give the Dream Six team a chance to fight for the final minutes, directly blocking them from reaching the championship game!
On the other side, China easily defeated Puerto Rico to advance to the semifinals!
In the semifinals, China's opponent was the Italian team, whom they had faced in the group stage!
In their quarter-final match, Italy had upset Lithuania, who were considered stronger by many, to meet China in the semifinals!
During the group stage, Italy had managed to reverse the situation in the third quarter and almost defeated China.
Therefore, in this knockout match, Italy decided to gamble on outside three-pointers from the start, avoiding interior confrontation with China and attempting to defeat China with shooting!
However, He Xi Meng saw through Italy's plan at a glance and naturally prevented them from succeeding!
With a wave of his hand, He Xi Meng moved all Chinese players except Yao Ming to the vicinity of the three-point line.
Only Yao Ming was left to guard the basket, freeing up a large amount of space!
The question was: would they drive to the basket or not?
Initially, Italy refused to drive and tried to find their shooting rhythm against China's defense, but the result was predictably a barrage of misses!
On China's side, He Xi Meng resolutely drove to the basket, aiming to directly break down Italy's already weak interior on the offensive end!
The score quickly approached double digits.
Italy's head coach couldn't take it anymore!
He changed their strategy, instructing the Italian team to attack China's basket!
On China's side, He Xi Meng remained unfazed, allowing Italy to drive!
"Big Yao, this is the moment to test your rim protection skills!"
Yao Ming heard this and nodded heavily in response. He then transformed into a wall of iron and steel in this game, unleashing 10 blocks and recording a triple-double of 18 points, 13 rebounds, and 10 blocks!
Italy resisted valiantly for three quarters, but collapsed in the final quarter...
He Xi Meng successfully led China to the finals, striving to achieve the team's first-ever Olympic gold medal in men's basketball!