Chapter 752 752. The first center!

The Italian team started a fierce hand-to-hand battle at the beginning. Luca Gary and Angelo Gigli, the twin towers of Italy, dragged the game into a quagmire of iron-blooded tactics from the beginning.

Liu Xiu decisively adjusted his style of play, launched an attack around Yao Ming, helped Yao Ming feed the ball, and defended with all his strength.

Knowing that he would meet the Italian team in the group stage, Liu Xiu was already prepared to defend like this during the preparations.

In the first two games, he worked hard defensively. He played the Japanese team out of instinct, and the Angola team was preparing to play the Italian team. Without the preparation for those two games, it would have been difficult to enter this kind of hand-to-hand combat all at once. FIBA

The defensive penalties are much looser than those in the NBA.

In previous years, the Chinese men's basketball team would have been somewhat fearful when encountering a fierce opponent like the Italian team. This was the case when they played against the Lithuanian team in the Athens Olympics.

That was when Liu Xiu first joined the national team. He didn't understand some things and his ability was not as strong as it is now.

At this time, he took the initiative to defend the opponent's 203 cm 104 kg striker Adrian Micheloli. He fought fiercely time and time again, and his posture was more fierce than the opponent, which inspired the blood of his teammates... Under Liu Xiu's

Under the leadership of the team, the whole team worked hard to help Yao Ming reduce the pressure of protecting the rim, allowing Yao Ming to devote more energy to the offensive end.

Yao Ming is not used as the main C in his usual games. For example, in the last game against Angola, although Yao Ming scored the highest score in the game, he mostly scored by catching the ball or turning around and shooting, which did not consume much energy... He was in great physical condition tonight!

In the second quarter, Yao Ming once again led his team to deal with the Italian team in regular time on his own. With 7.9 seconds left in the second quarter, Yao Ming grabbed a defensive rebound, landed and passed the ball behind his head like a marble.

Liu Xiu was at the free throw line. Liu Xiu caught the ball and turned around to counterattack. Marco Belinelli retreated and defended in place. After Liu Xiu entered the inside, he took the initiative to press forward to fight...Liu Xiu knocked away Belinelli and smashed the ball in with one hand.

The basket also caused the opponent's thug to foul!

The referee confirmed that the goal was valid and Liu Xiu received an additional penalty!

Liu Xiu also scored an extra penalty. In the second quarter, the Chinese team returned the favor of the Italian team with an 18-14 quarter, leading the Italian team by two points 32-30!

After returning from the halftime break and the start of the third quarter, the Italian team had a problem...the scoring performance was very unstable!

In the opening stage, the Italian team continued to play hard, and Belinelli was taken care of by Wang Shipeng, Sun Yue, and Liu Wei in turns. This quarter played very badly.

Bargnani did not participate in this world championship, and the biggest problem of the Italian team was still exposed.

In the third quarter, Yao Ming tried his best to defend the rim, and Angelo Guiri, Luca Gary, and Richard Lorca, three interior players with strong impact and rushing ability, saw their scores plummet.

The reason why Yao Ming can defend with all his strength without worrying about offensive problems is because Liu Xiu seized the opportunity of the opponent's continuous attack from the outside and launched a series of counterattacks at the beginning to establish the lead!

After Belinelli started the game, Liu Xiu, who grabbed the rebound, decisively issued the command of "Kobe time" and gave it a try... He was very lucky. After the successful counterattack, the Italian team won the next two consecutive rounds.

Now, Liu Xiu grabbed rebounds by himself, or relied on Yao Ming and Wang Zhizhi to grab rebounds, catch the ball, counterattack, and score consecutively, triggering the "Kobe Time".

After scoring 3 goals in a row, and then two more goals in a row, a three-pointer and a short-range emergency stop shot, Liu Xiu hit an 11-2 climax alone, making the score 43-32, expanding his lead.

To 11 minutes!

Although the Chinese team only scored 7 points in the rest of the third quarter, 1 point less than the 8 points of the Italian team, they still led the Italian team 50 to 40 after the third quarter, establishing a 10-point lead.

In the final quarter, the Chinese team and the Italian team played a very low-scoring quarter. The Chinese team only scored 9 points and the Italian team scored 12 points.

In the end, with Yao Ming's 22 points, 8 rebounds, 3 assists and 3 blocks, and Liu Xiu's 18 points, 9 rebounds, 4 assists and 4 steals, the Chinese team narrowly defeated the Italian team 59-52, winning the third game of the group stage and locking in the top 16 in advance.

Seats!

…

After the final whistle sounded, the Chinese team players hugged and celebrated as excitedly as if they had won the world championship.

After losing to Lithuania's iron-blooded team in the semi-finals two years ago, the Chinese players were full of unwillingness, which also became a psychological shadow for this group of people in international competitions.

After this tough battle, Liu Xiu said, hum, the little Lithuanian team... let the American team deal with it.

Thinking of the fact that after the American team crashed into the mountain in Puerto Rico, it would have to face the Lithuanian team and the Greek team, and then look back on the match with the Italian team that almost tortured him crazy... Liu Xiu began to gloat.

For the match between the Chinese team and the Italian team, although more than 8,000 seats were occupied, the live broadcast ratings were not good.

It was early morning in the United States, and not many people were watching the game. The Japanese hated the Chinese team after the opening game, and their enthusiasm for watching the game dropped sharply.

Even in China, on this afternoon, the Chinese team played against the Italian team, which was rated as the team with the ugliest style of play in this World Championship, and the ratings were not ideal.

But it doesn’t mean that people don’t pay attention to this game, but they pay very much attention to it!

The only teams in Group D that have a chance to defeat the Chinese team are the Italian team and the Slovenian team.

The ratings of this game were not high, but the popularity after the game made people think that this was a popular event with extremely high ratings.

Regarding the Italian team's loss to the Chinese team, people's evaluation is that the Italian team defended very well, but lacked a stable world-class scorer.

But if the 'stable world-class scorer' Bargnani is selected as the main attack point of the Italian team, Bargnani's defense, which has been criticized by locals in the youth team, will destroy the Italian team's defense.

Belt collapse.

The Italian team's iron-blooded tactics are driven by their twin towers. No matter where Bargnani plays in the frontcourt, he is a disaster for the Italian team's defense.

Some media commented that the Italian team is like the Spurs. Their strength is there. There is not much room for upside, but it is difficult to chew.

When the Italian team plays against teams that are weaker than them and do not have superstars, they are very stable. But if the opponent has superstars, they have to be careful. They can only hope that the opponent will not explode. Once the opponent explodes, they can only strengthen.

Defense.

When Liu Xiu started the third quarter with West Coast's success, the Italian team felt strong and powerless, which proved this point well.

After defeating the Italian team, the Chinese men's basketball team has 3 wins and 0 losses in the group stage, which is the best record since the World Championships expanded to 24 teams. The previous best record was 2 wins and 1 loss in the group stage in 1994.

Excluding Brazil and Argentina, in terms of the number of wins, the Chinese men's basketball team has set a new record in the history of the national team this year, but the winning rate is still higher in the 1994 World Championships.

However, the winning percentage record was quickly broken.

On August 22, under the leadership of Yao Ming with 29 points, 7 rebounds, 2 assists and 2 blocks, the Chinese team defeated the Senegal team 102-77 at the Sapporo National Stadium, and the group stage record reached 4 wins and 0 losses!

After this game, the Chinese men's basketball team secured first place in the group one game ahead of schedule, with a winning rate of at least 80%, which also exceeded the winning rate of the Chinese men's basketball team in the 1994 World Championships, setting a new record in team history!
Chapter completed!