The second opponent of the Chinese men's basketball team is the Croatian team, which is recognized as a European powerhouse.
At the 1992 Olympic Games, the Croatian team won a silver medal, the team's best record in history. At the 1994 World Championships, they also finished third.
However, the Croatian team's lineup this time has begun to age, and lacks an outside core, and its strength has significantly declined.
Croatia's lineup is still dominated by the 1992 runner-up lineup, and the players are four years older.
Their advantage lies in their rich experience and tacit cooperation. They dominated the Chinese team in the first half and led by 16 points at most.
In the second half, Yang Jian began to explode, throwing wildly from mid- to long-range, destroying the Croatian team's perimeter. The two shooting guards could not guard him in a round-robin battle, and the inside players were not fast enough to help defend. He could always create mobile opportunities.
At this time, all Croatians missed their deceased hero. If the strongest defender was still there, Yang Jian would not be so arrogant.
The most famous player in the history of the Croatian men's basketball team is not Toni Kukoc, but Drazen Petrovic. He was born in October 1964. He is a 196cm tall shooting guard with very comprehensive skills.
Petrovich, nicknamed "Mozart on the Basketball Court," was one of the first European basketball players to play in the NBA.
In his peak season of 1992-93, he played for the Nets, averaging 22.3 points, 2.7 rebounds and 3.5 assists per game, shooting 51.8% from the field and 44.9% from three-point range. That season, he was selected to the NBA All-NBA Third Team.
After the season, Petrovic was considered the best European player in history. Unfortunately, on June 7, 1993, he was killed in a car accident on a road in Germany. That is why he was not able to participate in this tournament.
In the Olympics, he was a star who suddenly fell at the peak of his career.
Yang Jian used three moves to beat Croatia's outside line, cross step, step back, and European step. If he didn't double-team, he would just throw him up. In the second half, the Croatian team players saw Yang Jian's explosion and could only double-team, and then Li Xiaoyong, Hu Weidong, and Liu Yudong three
People also threw themselves away outside.
Yang Jian's performance on the defensive end was also jaw-dropping.
He asked to guard Croatia's top scorer Kukoc in the second half, but he ended up guarding Kukoc, who made 1 of 6 shots and 1 of 2 free throws. He only scored 3 points in the second half.
As soon as Kukoc caught the ball, Yang Jian immediately got close to him, maintaining physical contact and pushing him away from the basket. Kukoc is 211cm tall and weighs only 107kg. Confrontation is not his strong point. He is like a big small forward, playing big
The style of play is soft when playing forward.
In the finals, Yang Jian defended Kukoc in pick-and-roll situations and was familiar with his playing style. It's not that a player with a height advantage can single out shorter players. Yang Jian can jump high and has a quick bounce to close his eyes for defense.
The audience was dumbfounded. Some Chinese fans actually knelt down to watch the live broadcast at home. They couldn't understand how the 193cm Yang Jian could guard the 211cm Kukoc.
Yang Jian was very targeted and used the method that Tony Allen would use to defend Kevin Durant in the future.
Tony Allen is an outside blue-collar guy with super physical fitness, a shooting guard with no shooting ability. He can hardly score outside the penalty area. But he is a regular on the best defensive team and is Durant's best defensive expert.
.
Tony Allen's "nougat" defense makes it difficult for Durant from catching the ball to shooting. He will always confront Durant, and his strength in the lower plate will not be squeezed away, and then he will spot the opportunity to interfere with the shot.
Kukoc's personal ability is far inferior to Durant, and he can't get rid of Yang Jian. Moreover, eye-sealing defense has a clear effect on Kukoc. He is better in all aspects, and his mid-range shooting percentage in the NBA is less than 40
%.
At the end of the game, 103 to 99, the Chinese team came back to defeat Croatia and achieved two consecutive victories.
Yang Jian played the entire game, making 18 of 31 shots, 7 of 14 three-pointers, 7 of 8 free throws, scoring 50 points, 7 rebounds, 6 assists and 2 steals.
Kukoc made 8 of 19 shots, 2 of 8 three-pointers, 6 of 6 free throws, and scored 24 points, 7 rebounds and 5 assists. His shooting percentage was only 42.1%. When the team needed him to stand up most in the second half, he was completely lost.
Already.
Sun Zhengping said excitedly: "The Chinese team won two consecutive games in the beginning and, under the leadership of Yang Jian, defeated Croatia, the runner-up in the last Olympic Games."
Zhang Liji said with a smile: "Kukoc must be in a state of collapse now. Dealing with Yang Jian is Jordan's job. No one in Croatia can defend him. If he doesn't double-team, he can really fight however he wants."
Sun Zhengping said: "He made 7 three-pointers in different ways, each one more difficult than the last. Almost all of his shots were one meter from the three-point line. The players guarding him may have never seen anything like this."
Zhang Lili said: "His breakthrough is also super strong. If he doesn't defend for three seconds, his opponent can't defend him. He's too fast and too strong."
After the game, Yang Jian received numerous praises, and the American media said, "He turned the Olympics into a personal scoring show!"
Yang Jian created a historical record for the Chinese men's basketball team, a personal scoring record in a single game. No one had ever scored 50 before. What he broke was the record set by the commentator Zhang Lili.
When the Chinese media reported the game, they also praised several role players for their accurate catching and shooting, which gave Yang Jian some help.
Hu Weidong and Wang Zhizhi performed very well, and they felt like the second and third leaders of the team. Wang Zhizhi had replaced Battelle as the starting center in the second game. He is the fastest and is suitable for playing pick-and-roll cooperation with Yang Jian.
Shan Tao, the slowest player, was abandoned. He couldn't keep up with the rhythm and didn't play for a minute. We couldn't let Yang Jian wait for him to get into position and pass the ball to him inside.
Li Xiaoyong is the team's fourth scoring point and has performed well in two consecutive games.
He scored 11 points in the first game and 10 points in the second game, but had a total of 4 assists. His biggest specialty is shooting three-pointers. The team does not need him to organize. He can pass the ball after passing the half and wait for opportunities.
.
After being brutally tortured by Yang Jian during team training, Li Xiaoyong no longer felt flustered by the pressing pressure of point guards from other countries. Before the start of the Olympics, he was a little worried that he would not be able to assume the starting role and suspected that he was a waste.
Now he understands that Yang Jian tortured him for his own good, and not everyone's defense is as good as Yang Jian. In the team competition with Adijiang, who is 180cm tall and weighs 80kg, he completely has the upper hand.
Adijiang changed from a starter to a marginal player because of his style of play. He is a player who is only good at controlling the ball and doesn't have many assists. His shooting is too poor and he is easily beaten by tall defenders on the defensive end.
Gong Luming was a little embarrassed again. After this game, his prestige in the team had been surpassed by Yang Jian.
Before the start of the game, he held a meeting and implicitly said that if he was far behind Croatia, he could choose to give up and use the "tactic" of conserving energy for the next game.
The schedule of the Olympic Games is indeed very intensive, and the CBA players are a bit overwhelmed. Yang Jian is no problem.
The team will not reveal this kind of thing to the media, but people within the men's basketball team know it. If many players really gave up in the second half, there would not be such a spectacular thing as reversing the last Olympic runner-up's win.
The players were very happy to win, and now they are more willing to believe in Yang Jian. Yang Jian's argument is very simple. He doesn't even analyze the bullshit schedule and who his opponents are. He just fights with them on the field and strives to win every game.
Yang Jian had this mentality when he was in the NBA. No matter what the schedule or who the opponent is? Let others figure it out. He will not be afraid no matter who he meets, he just does it!
He told his teammates that this was the secret to his victory over Jordan. "Don't give up, don't give up. Don't give up confidence, don't give up hope."
A team that gives up will never reach the top. There are countless examples where calculations are useless. The men's basketball team performed well. The national football team calculated it and in the end it was definitely 3 minutes of black and 1 minute of black.
The heat of the second game has not passed yet. The Chinese men's basketball team defeated Argentina 95-79, winning three consecutive games in the Olympics!
Yang Jian scored another triple-double, with 28 points, 11 rebounds, 12 assists, 3 steals and 3 blocks.
He performed horribly on both offense and defense. In the first half, he broke through the middle and drove straight into the space to dunk the Argentine center. In the second half, he defended to the basket and directly blocked the Argentine center's one-handed dunk.
He can still perform even if he doesn't have good touch from outside the three-point line. He can score with big mid-range shots and breakthroughs. He can also attract double-teams, cover defenses, and assist teammates on the outside.
Led by Yang Jian, the Chinese men's basketball team's shooters showed off their power.
After three games, Yang Jian became the most dazzling star in the Olympics, with unrivaled popularity!