The Asian Cup of Men s Basketball Team begins today! China s first appearance against the host, Japan and Australia s opponents are released

On August 5, the 2025 Men's Basketball Team Asian Cup kicked off. Today is the first game day. Many teams have also made their debut. The Chinese Men's Basketball Team announced the 12 rosters yesterday, and the back line is led by captain Zhao Rui.

And only 3 people have participated in the Asian Cup. Zhao Rui, Hu Mingxuan, Hu Jinqiu, and the other 9 players have participated in the Asian Cup for the first time. In addition, many main players are absent due to injuries, including Zhou Qi, Zhang Zhenlin, Yang Hansen, etc.

Guo Shiqiang insists on "defense first" and abandons players with strong offense but weak defense. According to the rules of the schedule, the first in the group stage can directly advance to the quarterfinals, and the second and third in the group stage need to play the playoffs. The Chinese team's goal is medals, so the group stage must be played well, and three consecutive victories need to advance, and it can avoid the defending champion Australia.

The Chinese men's basketball team hit the podium with the "defense + youthful" lineup, and the first match between Saudi Arabia became a touchstone. If the group wins completely and Hu Jinqiu and Zhao Rui withstand the core pressure, they may be expected to break through the quarterfinals. However, the insider's shortcomings, Li Xiangbo's controversy and Australia/Japan's suppression have made the goal of "standing on the podium" full of challenges.

The Chinese team was assigned to Group C, and their opponents in the same group included Saudi Arabia, India and Jordan. They made their debut at 11 pm to play against the host Saudi men's basketball team.

As the host, the Saudi men's basketball team has a home advantage. Its core players include naturalized defender Mohamed Ali Abdul Rahman, who has played in the NCAA and NBA Development Leagues and has strong scoring ability; center Mohamed Alsuvalem averages nearly double-double in the World Cup qualifiers; in addition, experienced forward Mohamed Almavani also has the ability to shoot from the outside.

The last time the Chinese team played against Saudi Arabia in the FIBA official event was in the 2005 Asian Championships, which defeated its opponent 98-10, but this game was a record 20 years ago. The overall strength of the Saudi team cannot be underestimated.

Although the Chinese men's basketball team faces challenges such as inconsolidated lineup and lack of experience, improving outside shooting and online status of core players are still the key to winning. The first game needs to focus on limiting Saudi naturalized player Rahkaman, reducing turnovers and giving full play to the rebounding advantage.

In this Asian Cup, the strongest opponents of the Chinese men's basketball team are Australia and Japan. They will all play tomorrow. Australia will play against South Korea. In a focus battle, Japanese opponent Syria has obvious advantages in strength.