China demolish the hosts 98–63 to set up a cross-straight battle with Chinese Taipei.

ChairmanBall
Aug 31, 2018 · 4 min read
Thanks to O-sports. Wang in motion.

Size was ultimately the winner as China absolutely manhandled their opponents Indonesia. China used their size excellently to establish some great positions allowing them to shoot an incredible 41% from the 3-point line. To the hosts credit, their were a few sequences where they got some nice plays in but a lack of fitness and size meant that they were only ever competitive in spurts.

I was ecstatic that China finally went away from their obsessive twin-tower selection and opted to start Abdushalamu. Getting the nod ahead of Wang Zheling wasn’t too surpassingly considering his poor outings against the Philippines and Kazakhstan, but it would have been nice to see Wang to start at the five and see how he plays.

Thanks to O-sports. Qi struggled in this game.

Pretty rough start for Qi in the game, trying to assert himself but being stopped by a resilient Indonesian team. Unable to get good position inside, he splashed an NBA three pointer to get China started. Interesting to see China play man-on-man defence this game, instead of their usual zone. A bit frantic for China, who were shooting the 3 well, but the home crowd is really spurring their team on. Abu was just feasting inside and drawing fouls, he’s really much better suited for the four position. Credit to Wang and Rui when they both came on to continue China's intensity.

2nd quarter was all China as they completely dominated from the 3 point line. Zhao Tailong making use of his time by hitting two triples and getting a nice steal in particular. Wang asserted himself more and showed impressive passing ability. Wang actually had quite a good game for his limited amount of time, I don’t know why he was taken off since he had zero fouls, would have been great for his confidence. The 3rd begun pretty much like the second, China’s high press particular effective in forcing turnovers. For the last quarter it was pretty much a time to get fringe players game time.

This game wont have really surprised anyone, Fangshuo is still struggling to his open threes. None of the Chinese guards except Zhao Rui is capable of really taking over the game and they have big reliance on Zhou Qi. Looking forward to the match up with Chinese Taipei, I’m going to be torn because Taiwan is my country of birth although my parents are from Shandong. I haven’t been following Taiwan much but from the snippets I’ve seen theirs a lot of trust in the players, they play for each other and as a result have been able to compete teams that have had significant size advantages. Chinese Taipei seem to have the opposite problem to China, they have really great guards who can create their own shot and actually shoot, but they have limited big men.

Yu Changdong was absolutely trash this game, he’s got at least 5 inches above the next tallest Indonesian player but wasn’t able to assert himself on both ends of the court. For a big guy, he’s showed too much limitations. 5 fouls and 2 turnovers, I cant really see him getting much game time going forward.

Player of the game:

Thanks to O-Sports. Abdu POTG

Easily the player of the game, Abdushalamu was an absolute beast this game. 100% on his 3 pointers, 10 boards, 7/8 from the line, 4/5 from inside the arc and more crucial 0 fouls and turnovers, Abdu was clearly heads up better than anyone else on the court. What’s really surprised me was his calmness and demeanor this entire game, he was focused and an absolute killer this game. NBA scouts should be licking their lips over this man as he is clearly the second-best player in this China squad. He isn’t as tall or wide as the other Chinese big men, but he has great basketball instincts and strength. Aside from Qi, he is probably China's best rebounder as well.

ChairmanBall

Guangdong Southern Tigers (广东宏远华南虎) & CBA Writer and Analysts from the land of the long white cloud.

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