Chapter 983: Chapter 409: Center of Attention (Part 5)
From a strength perspective, this Dream Eight is stronger than the original Dream Eight, mainly in terms of mindset.
After the opening loss, being thrashed by the Spain team with a 13-point gap in the first quarter, and tortured by the Greece team... they developed a caution that the original Dream Eight didn’t have. Starting from the second quarter against the Spain team, they eliminated many flaws. When playing against the Greece team, they significantly displayed the demeanor of a strong team. No one exploded, and even under the Greece team’s complete control of the tempo, they defeated them with sheer strength.
But not taking first place in the group stage was too embarrassing for them... They initially aimed to compete with the Dream Team One!
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With the group stage over, the 8 teams advancing have three days of rest.
Group A teams ranked in advance: Lithuania team, Argentina Team, Croatia Team, Australia Team; Group B advancing teams ranked: Chinese Team, USA Team, Spain Team, Greece Team, A1 vs. B4, A2 vs. B3, A3 vs. B2, A4 vs. B1 will compete in the quarter-finals on the 20th.
The 4 teams eliminated will decide the final rankings on the 18th and 19th, with a crossover match between the fifth and sixth of each group.
On the 17th, the first rest day, the Chinese Team didn’t schedule any training, needing to take a good break after a tough battle with the Greece team.
Advancing undefeated to the quarter-finals, achieving an unprecedented result in team history, deserved a simple celebration.
Lunch was still according to the regulations of the Chinese Olympic Committee at the Olympic Village canteen, but the chefs privately prepared special meals for them, with the coaching staff, a group of former national team members, sneakily bringing some alcohol along. The others turned a blind eye to it since everyone only got a half cup or so. Although they were former players, their more significant identity was current coaches, so they brought just two bottles of wine to satisfy their cravings.
The scene of them raising their glasses to celebrate advancing to the quarter-finals was captured by the accompanying journalists and reported. No negative impact was caused, and the Blue Association and the basketball Olympic Committee didn’t intervene.
However, in the USA, the scene of Zhang Yang and Yi Jianlian drinking sparked hot discussion among fans. Upon investigation, it seemed that China had no drinking age restriction, only limiting those under 18 from purchasing alcohol.
The media who sent these photos back home originally intended to lead fans to bash Zhang Yang online, but contrary to expectations, it resulted in a good reputation for Zhang Yang—strict compliance with local laws.
Though Zhang Yang had an infamous reputation, there was not even a single report of him drinking over all those years in the USA.
After a day of rest, on the 18th, the Chinese Team began preparations for the match against the Australia Team.
Asian basketball and Oceania basketball frequently interact, the two teams have faced each other many times, and are very familiar with each other, leading to clear preparation directions for the Chinese Team.
From the outside perspective, as the Chinese Men’s Basketball Team obtained the first group stage rank for the first time in team history, the basketball fervor continued to rise, and fans eagerly anticipated the elimination matches.
The focus of discussion primarily revolved around two topics—how far can the Chinese Men’s Basketball Team’s dream journey go? Who can take down the Dream Eight team?
The latter topic is the sorest point for the ’West Coast Gang.’ For them, leading the Dream Team to fight in the Olympics, when such topics arise, it signifies failure.
They wanted to be seen as already having won the moment they stepped onto the Olympic court, just like the ’perfect successor of Dream Team One,’ Dream Team Three.
The three days’ rest went by quickly. On August 20th, the quarter-finals game day arrived. The morning began with the ’Spanish League Battle,’ Spain team VS Argentina Team.
This saying is because most players from both teams play in La Liga. Those who have entered the NBA were mostly stars of the Spanish League before. This is not only in basketball; several sports leagues of Argentina have become the ’talent reservoir’ for the Spanish League.
In Europe, they also say that when the Argentina Men’s Basketball Team won the Olympic gold medal in 2004, it was equivalent to the Spanish Men’s Basketball Team winning the gold. When the Spain team won the World Championship in 2006, European reports stated ’Spanish basketball rules the world.’
However, the relations between the players of the two teams are not good. Argentina players extremely detest this saying but cannot refute it, only able to speak through games.
After the match started, the attitudes of both teams during play proved their relationship. They fought fiercely as if their lives depended on it. The Spain team wanted to ’prove the status of the suzerain state,’ while the Argentina team wanted to draw a clear line.
History is always shockingly similar. Two years ago in the World Championship, the two teams fought one match, and the Spain team narrowly won by 1 point.
This time, the circumstances were not much different; the ’Manu Ginobili’ exploded and dominated over the ’dynamite’ Navarro and ’golden boy’ Rubio, but the Gasol brothers dominated the paint.
Ginobili scored a game-high 21 points but could not compensate for Scola, who only scored 8 points and grabbed 8 rebounds, dragging them down.
Both Gasol brothers scored 19 points, leading the Spain team to a narrow 82-77 victory over the Argentina team and advancing to the semi-finals first!
The Chinese Men’s Basketball Team took first place in the group stage unexpectedly, while the Argentina Team became the unluckiest one, with the best they can aim for being seventh place.
The USA Team and Croatia Team’s game, which started at 11 AM, wasn’t that exciting, 101-72, complete domination, as the USA Team players didn’t want to give any team the opportunity to upset them again.
These two matches, Zhang Yang learned about the results but didn’t pay much attention as they didn’t have much to do with his situation; he was concerned about the 3 PM match between the Lithuania team and the Greece team.
Even though the group stage record disparity was large, with the largest ranking gap, first versus fourth, the general opinion was that, in this Olympics, the four teams from Group B advancing to the quarter-finals were very likely to win and enter the top four unbeaten.
Before the Olympics, when the media analyzed the two groupings, they said that the USA Team, Spain Team, and Greece Team from Group B could take first place if placed in Group A; two years ago at the World Championship, the Greece Team beat the Lithuania team.
In the afternoon, the Chinese Team didn’t schedule practice. Although Zhang Yang and others didn’t go watch the match live and stayed at their training venue to rest, they gathered in front of the TV to watch the Greece team and Lithuania team’s game. At that moment, they collectively turned into Greece team supporters... and then, the two teams tied at 67 at regular time, pushing it to overtime!
In the first overtime, both teams performed a spectacular scenario for Zhang Yang and others... scoring 0 to 0 over 5 minutes!
In the second overtime, the two team’s defenses collapsed, and people finally started scoring. The European Kobe Spanoulis exploded, rotation played for 3 and a half minutes, scoring 6 points on his own, leading Lithuania 6 to 3!
Finally, in the second overtime, the Greece team scored 9 to 7, narrowly winning 76 to 74 and advancing from below to enter the final four!
Jasikevicius’s last three-pointer air-balled when it flew out the baseline, cheers resounded from the Chinese Men’s Basketball team’s training ground. This scene was once again captured and released by the accompanying journalists...
However, this scene did not make the domestic fans feel anything negative; instead, it made the fans feel empathetic with the basketball athletes.
They were just as happy and excited when seeing the Greece team narrowly defeating the Lithuania team.
It wasn’t that they thought playing the Greece team was easier than playing the Lithuania team. The two teams had similar strengths and consistently matched up in past world competitions; mainly, they had just defeated the Greece team, gaining victory experience!
As for whether this would make Greece team players feel underestimated and angrier, it didn’t matter; the Chinese Team had already defeated them. Their anger levels were already maxed out, and this didn’t add much.
Moreover, the Chinese Team’s players and domestic fans could not care less about how the Greece team players would feel about seeing this scene; they hadn’t reached the final four yet!
The Australia Team couldn’t be considered weak, just recently declined, but signs of resurgence to dominate the Asia-Pacific region were showing.
After watching the live broadcast, Yonas and the coaching group led the players to dinner and then headed to the Olympic Sports Center to prepare for the match.
The Chinese Men’s Basketball Team reached the quarter-finals, and the scheduled match time for the quarter-finals was a prime slot—8 PM, domestic time.
Almost all popular TV stations were set to broadcast the signal from Court TV, live streaming the match, creating a true national spotlight!