The remaining matches in the quarterfinals: United States vs Australia, Spain vs Argentina, Greece vs Lithuania.

The men's basketball quarter-finals of this Olympic Games are hailed as the most intense quarter-finals ever, especially the competition between Spain and Argentina, Greece and Lithuania, which were only matched in semi-finals or even finals in previous years.

However, due to the outstanding performance of the Chinese team, the battle between these strong European and American teams has been staged in advance.

The Chinese team's opponent Croatia is considered to be the weakest team in Group B.

The last time the Croatian men's basketball team entered the Olympics was dated back to the 1996 Atlanta Olympics, when they finished seventh.

The most famous player in their roster at the time was Tony Kukoc, the main center of the Bulls dynasty, who won three nBa championships with the god of basketball Michael Jordan.

With Kukoci's retirement, Croatian basketball has also experienced a trough in the past decade.

In the 2017 European Basketball Championship, Croatia won the sixth place and was qualified to participate in the undraft.

Croatia stood out again in the undraft in Athens this year, and was able to participate in the Beijing Olympics. Their performance in international competitions in the past year is also considered a dark horse.

The reason why Croatia can stand out in the international arena is that it is to focus on fast attacks on both offense and defense, and play hard in defense.

Although it is completely different from the style of the Croatian team led by Pedovic and Kukoc in the past, such tactics have improved quickly.

There are no players in Croatia who have excellent personal abilities, and what they rely on is the integrity of their playing style.

They don't even have a big man with singles ability in the inside, but they can always ensure that the inside players will not score too few points.

Several defenders in the team, even small forward Mark Thomas, can be used as a playback, can break through and pass the ball, and can pass the ball after pick-and-roll. What the big man has to do is simpler.

The Croatian team is a team that pursues degree but also pays attention to the overall situation.

The most famous one in their team is probably the Nets' defender Praninic, who was once a player. He was selected by the Nets in the 22nd pick in the first round in 2013.

He has played in nBa for three seasons in his career, and he scored only 5 points per game in the year with the highest score. He is the kind of player who guards the water dispenser level.

The current style of the Chinese team is completely superstar basketball. Li Rong and Yao Ming are both nBa All-Star players. Except for Dream Team, the Chinese team is the team with the strongest star flavor among all teams.

Li Rong's addition greatly enriched Yunas' tactical choices on both offense and defense, and made up for the Chinese team's previous lack of strong points on the outside offense and could only kill Yao's monotonous play at critical moments.

After strategically giving up the previous match against Greece, all the players' physical strength returned to their best form since the start of the Olympics.

At the beginning of the game, Li Rong began to rage Croatia's defense violently at a high position.

In order to defend Li Rong, Croatia sent four players to take turns to defend him within 3 minutes.

But it still couldn't stop Li Rong from being powerful on the outside. Half a quarter has passed, and Li Rong has scored 10 points personally.

Croatian coach Repesa is a very outstanding head coach, and he led this "civilian team" to the top 8 of the Olympics.

However, facing the players' personal strength gap, Repesa frowned from the beginning.

He has been studying the video of the Chinese team's game these days, and the more he watches, the colder he feels.

Li Rong's comprehensiveness is the most troublesome thing. His offensive ability determines that it is impossible for anyone in Croatia to limit his personal offense alone.

But if someone is sent to double-team, his pass will activate everyone else, and the group match against Spain is the best example.

The end of the basketball game is ultimately a competition of the players on the court.

Li Rong and Yao Ming are more than one level higher than all the players in Croatia, and there are also players like Sun Yue and Yi Jianlian who have nBa skills in the lineup.

The Chinese team's first half lead was not very big, with only 12 points.

However, everyone can see that the rhythm is in the hands of the Chinese team.

In the third section, Li Rong and Yao Ming dominated the inner and outer lines of Croatia respectively.

Yao Ming scored 9 points in this quarter, and Li Rong also scored 7 points, and the score was quickly expanded to more than 20 points.

In the fourth quarter, Yunas chose to let Yao Ming rest on the court, but under the leadership of Li Rong, the Chinese team finally defeated their opponents 87-71, and was the first to advance to the semi-finals of the men's basketball team in this Olympics.

This is the first time in the history of the Chinese team, the men's basketball team can win an Olympic medal as long as they win another game in the next game, which seems to be within reach for the current men's basketball team.

In the other quarterfinals, the US team easily defeated Australia by 30 points without any surprise.

The match between Spain and Argentina experienced a fierce overtime contest before it was decided at the last moment.

Spain narrowly defeated its opponent with two points in the end, and entered the semi-finals with a narrow margin.

The match between Greece and Lithuania was also very fierce. Greece finally defeated its opponent with a slight advantage in scoring to advance to the semi-finals with a slight advantage.

The final semi-finals of the Olympics were actually four teams in Group B, which was the first time in Olympic history.

Many people questioned why the FIBA's pre-match grouping was assigned to the same group by four such strong teams.

Regarding this kind of doubt, the FIBA ​​officials could only smile bitterly. Who would have thought that after Li Rong joined the Chinese team, he would immediately upgrade such a team that was originally ranked around 2O to the top level.

Of course, the FIBA ​​refused to take the blame and made a statement on the outside world's doubts.

"It's just a coincidence, but this is the charm of basketball games, and nothing is possible."

The FIBA ​​then stated that it would consider postponing the lottery ceremony for the future Olympics and try to choose after each team determines the list of personnel before proceeding.

In any case, the final four games of the Olympics became a civil war between the semi-finals of Group B.

The United States will face Spain in the semi-finals, and the Chinese team will face Greece again after a game.

At this time the Olympics were held, the call for a decisive battle in China had become very high.

Although the Chinese team lost to Greece in the last game of the group stage, anyone with a discerning eye can see that the Chinese team did not use all their strength to fight in that game, and the playing time of all the main players was the lowest since the opening of the Olympics.
Chapter completed!