Yang Yi: The first Asian Cup match, the opening is so dark that it starts well

In the 2005 Asian Cup, the Chinese team defeated Saudi Arabia 98-10, winning 88 points; in the 2025 Asian Cup, the Chinese team finally defeated Saudi Arabia, but gave the opponent 88 points.

The game 20 years ago still makes many fans talk about it. Yao Ming is on the verge, and the Chinese team still destroys Saudi Arabia, which looks like he can't play at all with crushing momentum. As Zhu Zhu said on the show two days ago: If we score 2 more points, they will score 2 less points. Wouldn't this game become a triple digit versus one digit?

20 years of change, the Chinese men's basketball team has almost played with Saudi Arabia in the last round. If it weren't for Saudi Arabia's killing itself with one offense and one defense, there would be even suspense at the last moment of the game.

And when such a game is finally over, we even have to comfort ourselves: Just win, just win, it’s better to win than lose.

In a game where 80 points were scored in the first three quarters, it was not too difficult to find some highlights for the Chinese team.

Zhao Rui and Hu Jinqiu prove that they can be like stars in Asian-level games. Although Hu Jinqiu had an accident at the free throw line, he made 9 of 10 shots in the sports game. He had unparalleled finishing ability after pick-and-roll, and scored 20 points in his debut in the Asian Cup; Zhao Rui still has the unique physical condition of the Chinese team's outside line, scoring 19 points in the game, second only to Hu Jinqiu, and 6 assists were the only one in the team.

There is also a newcomer Wang Junjie who is 20 years old. He played for the national team for the first time for the first time. He scored in double digits in the first half. Not only did he score points at the basket, mid-range and three-pointers, but he also had clear ideas and great power at the free throw line when breaking the joint defense, and he did not look like stage fright. As the youngest player in this team, he has quickly won the love of fans.

In addition, Cheng Shuipeng's three-pointer, Gao Shiyan's enthusiasm, Yu Jiahao's height role, Zhu Junlong's tool-human attributes, etc., all contributed to this victory. The 45-15 substitute score in the whole game also proves that even though the Chinese team, as head coach Guo Shiqiang said, "there are missing 7 major players", is still far ahead of the team at the Saudi level in terms of lineup depth.

But in a game that only won 5 points from Saudi Arabia, it will not be too difficult to find the problems of the Chinese team.

Some problems should be easily solved, such as Hu Jinqiu's free throw. He made 2 of 9 free throws in this game. To be honest, as a player whose free throw percentage is close to 80% in the CBA league and shooting at mid-range is as easy as drinking water, I have never seen Daqiu concede 7 free throws in a game. After the game, he took responsibility and said, "If I had a better free throw, everyone would not have played so hard in the end." If there is really a Chinese team's next opponent planning to "cut Hu Jinqiu" in the game, then we obviously welcome this.

Some problems may be solved, such as Hu Mingxuan's status. As one of the most important players in the national team's backcourt in the past five years, Hu Mingxuan has many masterpieces wearing this jersey. He scored 40 points in two games against strong rivals Canada and Greece in the 2021 Olympic qualifiers, scored in double digits in three consecutive games in the 2023 World Cup, and 20 points in a single game against Japan in 2024, etc. Even former men's basketball coach Joel Jevic once praised Hu Mingxuan as the most explosive player in this national team and the most capable of changing the opponent's defense. However, when Hu Mingxuan made his debut in the Asian Cup, he looked in no state and was slow to do so. He was all disconnected in terms of shooting, ball rights grabbing, foul control, etc., but will Hu Mingxuan, who is better during the Asian Cup, appear? The possibility obviously exists.

But the Chinese team still has some problems that are close to chronic diseases and seem to be difficult to cure. At least this Asian Cup will be very difficult.

For example, the staffing status of the Chinese team. Li Xiangbo, who was still in the NBL a year ago, completed the triple jump and entered the last 12-man roster in the Asian Cup, which made many fans puzzled, but after watching the first game, he might be able to understand better that this is the helpless move of the national team this time.

Li Xiangbo is not only the third center of the Chinese team this game, but also the only third true inside player. The two important centers Zhou Qi and Yang Hansen, who were originally on the training list, eventually missed the game, and the No. 4 position also lacked height tonnage, which made Li Xiangbo go from the fifth-ranked sparring center to the third inside line that the team had to use in this training list. After the first game, just imagine if Yu Jiahao was the only substitute behind Hu Jinqiu, would it look too thin?

Even the main center Hu Jinqiu, while ending the offensive end, always had the problem of insufficient inside defense. When the team's starting No. 4 position is Zhao Jiayi, who is averaging 2.5 rebounds per game in the CBA League, such a problem was further magnified. In fact, facing Saudi Arabia, the opponent's 2.08-meter-high center Al Suvalem has already shown good influence in the game. In the 20 minutes of the game, he made 6 of 6 shots and scored 15 points and 7 rebounds, and had a plus or negative value of +7. Although the Chinese team is in Group C of the Asian Cup, there are almost no high-quality inside players, but what about the knockout stage?

And when the game comes to the end, I believe many fans will have the same memories: Why does the Chinese team have extremely difficult scores every time the game ends?

Objectively speaking, although this game is facing the host Saudi Arabia, the game environment given to the Chinese team is already friendly enough. The number of Chinese fans at the scene was almost no less than that of the home team Saudi Arabia, and the two East Asian referees were assigned to this game, which made the Chinese team not suffer any losses in terms of punishment. The Alsuvalam mentioned above was effective in the game, why did it only play for 20 minutes? Because he was blew up five fouls in just 20 minutes, Yu Jiahao asked for the ball at a low post with a not-so-powerful low post, which made this crucial center forward full graduation.

But in such a "fair" environment, the Chinese team failed to score in the fourth quarter and fell into a scoring drought again. In contrast, New Zealand, which is listed as a first-tier team in this Asian Cup, has also been tangled with Iraq in the first three quarters of its debut. The two sides were only 2 points apart when they entered the fourth quarter, but the final score of the game was 100-78.

It can be said that this is a common pattern for international strong and weak teams. There have been long-standing statements from Jianghu: there are many teams who can stand stalemate with the US team at halftime, and few teams who can stand the whole game. Although the teams challenging the US team with the progress of the times have emerged one after another, the truth behind this is very clear: Compared with the weak team, the advantages lies in the excellent lineup depth, superior physical fitness and better control of the game, which often allows the strong team to get rid of their opponents in the sprint stage - but in the games where the Chinese team has the advantage of strength in recent years, these characteristics seem to be difficult to reflect...

As for the naturalized player Rahman in the Saudi team, the only scored 32 points in the whole game, where the Chinese men's basketball team should go without naturalization, this question has obviously exceeded the scope of basketball. Although the Chinese Basketball Association hopes that CBA teams will promote the naturalization matters, the matter has not been moved yet, which is enough to prove that the operation difficulty of this matter is far beyond expectations.

From reality, the Chinese team should comfort itself, and strong teams like Australia and New Zealand have not been naturalized. The Saudi team in 2025 has taught us that the Chinese men's basketball team now needs to look at the Asian basketball world at the same time. The era of looking down on all living beings has long passed; but at the same time, we should also look at ourselves at the same time. Without naturalization, without Zhou Qi and Yang Hansen, without Zeng Fanbo Cui Yongxi, without Zhao Jiwei and Zhang Zhenlin, we should still not belittle ourselves. Getting the top spot in the group is still a goal that the Chinese team must achieve.

Even, we should have the same expectation as Zhao Rui, "With the card and the podium, there is no other goal. The goal of the whole team is to stand on the podium, which is what our Chinese men's basketball team needs most now.