Secondly, the root cause of the warm up loss to Spain was that the other team was systematic and we still relied on our star players.
From men's and women's soccer to men's and women's basketball, the success of Spain's two major balls has made the world look at them.
On the one hand, the standard model for success in Spain's two major sports is based on youth training, and on the other hand, women's soccer and basketball have borrowed from the success of men's soccer and basketball.
Yesterday, the Spanish men's basketball team lost to Australia. The reason for Spain's loss was the break down of talent within the team after the Gasol brothers, but the team's tight defense and quick transitions remained.
The Spanish women's basketball team played the same way as the men's team and won the warm-up game in China, without a big center and with four cores absent, Spain used the pressure and quick shifts throughout the game to make it completely impossible for the Chinese women's basketball team to adapt.
To put it bluntly, the success of Spanish soccer and basketball is the success of the system, while China's two major balls depend on immortal sages and blessings.
Third, despite the overwhelming dominance inside, the Chinese women's basketball team's 14 turnovers in the half were still breathless.
Today China's starting lineup is Li Meng, Li Yueru, Sun Mengran, Yang Liwei and Wang Siyu, and the first feeling of this lineup is acceleration.
Even more notable is the return of Yang Liwei, whose level of recovery has a bearing on the play of China's backline and even the game's winners and losers.
In the opening seven minutes, the offense and defense were out of control inside, bringing Spain to a halt.
China led 22:13 after the first quarter, with Li Yueru's dominant 8 points and 3 rebounds being the more important reason for activating China's perimeter.
In the second quarter, Spain accelerated, China's errors increased significantly, and after a wave of 6:0, Zheng Wei called a halt.
After halftime, as many as 14 turnovers put a question mark on China's lead, even though they still led 37:33. Wang Siyu's five turnovers showed that the No. 5 of the women's basketball team two years ago has become a memory.
Fourth, China lost because the backline is not as good as it used to be.
In the second half, China's inside advantage remained. Han Xu took over for Li Yueru and also played hard under the basket. The Spanish coaches off the court were the first two, and the injury to the starting center really left the best women's basketball coach in Europe without rice.
But in the fourth quarter, China's stubbornness to play hard inside and gamble on three-pointers allowed Spain to complete the equalization.
In the last five minutes, Spain started to tighten up and the two sides began to see-saw.
Yang Liwei's 3+ fouls almost got China killed.
Spain's pressure remained in overtime, and the only effective way for China to score was on free throws.
Spain continued their scoring momentum from the fourth quarter and were firmly in control. Gustafsson played with increasing excitement, playing at a true center level on both offense and defense.
China's women's basketball team lost because of its backline, which completely flunked out from turnovers to blocking defense.
Li Yueru was alone with 31 points and 15 rebounds.
Han Xu scored 8 points and played hard in the second half.
Sijing Huang scored 9 points and was a cold-shooting 3 of 5 from three-point range.
Li Meng scored 13 points and had 11 assists to personify the point guard.
After losing a good game, the Chinese women's basketball team is unlikely to advance to the last eight, meaning they are likely to meet top teams like the United States, France and Australia in the first round of the knockout stage.
The Chinese women's basketball team's dream of a top-four finish has basically become impossible to realize in advance.
The rebuilding of the Chinese women's basketball team has become inevitable, even imminent.
